TAMPA, Fla. (AP) – Jason Giambi took a swing, the ball cleared the right-field wall and the crowd cheered.

He was back to hitting baseballs in public, not dodging questions about steroid use, happy to return to a venue where grand slams are discussed more often than grand juries.

“Today was a big day, today was a fun day, for me to get out there and be part of the mix and get back into playing baseball,” he said Tuesday.

Giambi, Alex Rodriguez, Randy Johnson and the rest of baseball’s first $200 million team took the field together for the first time as the New York Yankees began fullsquad workouts ahead of their March 3 spring training opener.

Fans were lined up an hour before the gates opened, and 2,772 came to Legends Field just to watch batting practice, bullpen work and conditioning drills by this glittering array, which included 18 All-Stars with a combined 77 All-Star appearances. The group has five Cy Young Awards (all by Johnson) and 13 Gold Gloves.

There are three World Series MVPs (Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera and Johnson), two American League MVPs (Giambi and Rodriguez), two AL championship series MVPs (Rivera and Bernie Williams) and one All-Star game MVP (Jeter).

Gary Sheffield, Hideki Matsui and Mike Mussina don’t even merit above-the-title billing. When the Yankees play an intrasquad, it’s an All-Star game by itself.

“It’s good to know they’re on my side,” Johnson said. “Tomorrow I’ll introduce myself to a few of the players.”

He grinned.

“I’m throwing batting practice tomorrow,” he said.

It was the first time all the Yankees were together since October’s historic collapse against Boston in the championship series, when the Red Sox became the first major league team to overcome a 3-0 deficit to win a series.

“I think we developed even more of a thirst after the way we ended last year,” Rodriguez said.

Yankees manager Joe Torre addressed the team for an hour before the workout, but didn’t touch on last year’s low point. Then the players, counted on by owner George Steinbrenner to win the title for the first time since 2000, took the field.

With Torre and hitting coach Don Mattingly looking on, Giambi homered on four of 29 pitches from Yankees minor league manager Joe Breeden, hitting three to right and one to center.

“I didn’t think I was going to hit grounders to second,” Giambi said, laughing.

Giambi tried to use all parts of the field, hitting 17 balls to right, eight to center, three to left and one off the batting cage. Last year, when he tried to play through an intestinal parasite, strained groin, respiratory infection and benign pituitary tumor, he became a pull hitter. By the time his season ended, he didn’t hit much at all.

Mattingly wants him to get back to the Giambi of old, who hit to all fields. Giambi isn’t trying for homers. He’s not approaching batting practice the way he treats the All-Star Home Run Derby and says he won’t this spring.

“Maybe just one round goofing around, to see how many I can hit,” he said.

He’ll be a designated hitter for the first three weeks of exhibition games, so he can get as many at-bats as possible, and Tino Martinez will play first base.

But will Giambi regain the form that earned him the 2000 AL MVP award? Did performance-enhancing drugs cause his body to break down? Can he be a top player without using steroids?

“As far as really trying to learn something, I think it’s too early now,” Torre said. “He takes batting practice for about five days or so, I think you can start getting a feel on how comfortable he is.”

Giambi felt his legs under him while hitting for the first time since the illnesses. He joked with Jeter in the batting cage and acted like just another guy.

But for him to have a renaissance, it will take more than just feeling right.

“It’s a rebuilding of the confidence and the ego and that sort of inner conceit you need to be successful,” Torre said.

Giambi is sure to receive a hostile reception on the road, especially at Fenway Park. A December report in the San Francisco Chronicle said he told a federal grand jury that he used steroids, and fans are sure to needle him about that.

But In New York’s own ballpark, fans have backed him.

“For the fans to give me that kind of support, look at you as a human being, that’s special,” Giambi said.

He took grounders at first base along with Martinez, back with the Yankees for the first time since the seven-game World Series loss to Arizona in 2001.

Giambi, signed to a $120 million, seven-year contract, took over at first from Martinez. Giambi recruited him when Martinez faced the Yankees.

“Every time he got on first base, he’d say, “We have to get you back here,”‘ Martinez said.

Giambi spent the winter working out twice a day. He ran, threw and hit in the morning, then did lifting in the afternoon. His body looked sturdier this week – his uniform pants even seemed a bit tight around the thighs as he pulled them on.

He says he has no doubts he can do it. In many ways, he has to in order to prove himself, if not to everyone else, to Jason Giambi.

“When you’re a player at this level, you expect to be great,” he said. “I’m always going to have that expectation level.”