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Dozens of parents, a handful of boosters and about six security guards will witness it. But years from now, hundreds will claim to have been there.

The day is at hand. They will go down.

And no, there is no 10-run rule in place ...

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Q: With the game against the hated Lancers of Manatee Community College looming and games with major-league teams following, the excitement must be building to a fever pitch.

Actually, my question deals with the players' attitude towards the exhibitions: Do they look forward to the exhibitions? Do younger and non-roster players get more excited about the games, since they're trying to impress? Do players like Jason Bay and Jack Wilson approach these games differently than Ronny Paulino or Ryan Doumit, considering their circumstances?

Bruce Dolmovich of Jacksonville, Fla.

KOVACEVIC: The overwhelming feeling among all involved is that games are good, no matter the motivation. Game just are good.

You have to remember that, even among the youngest prospects here, they have invested the better part of their lives doing baseball drills. No new teaching, no new enthusiasm alters that fact. They exist to play games.

How do they approach them? Now, that differs.

In the cases of Bay, Wilson and others, they need to get ready individually -- and, to some extent, gradually -- for the real games. The veterans competing for spots need to go full-throttle from the outset, even the pitchers, because they can get cut as early as a week into the exhibition schedule. No time to build up. And the prospects ... their tack is a little different: They know -- well, they might know -- that they have no chance at the big roster. But they still are going full-tilt because they feel it is their one chance to impress upper management, including the major-league coaching staff.

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Q: Hi, Dejan. I was wondering if there is much hoopla in the Korean media surrounding Byung-Hyun Kim. He's been around the league for a while now, so there is no novelty there, but I was thinking about the dedication of the Japanese media and wondered how the Korean media pool compares.

It sure seemed like a good thing for the Buccos' reputation worldwide, both in terms of merchandising and scouting, to see that Japanese advertisement scroll behind home plate at PNC Park last year and would like to see some of that interest pop up in Korea and elsewhere internationally.

Missy Wells of Austin, Texas

KOVACEVIC: Actually, there were only two Korean reporters in the fold yesterday. And that probably will be the extent of it, from what I understand. Maybe just one.

I met Hyung-Tae Kim of the Osen News Agency, and he said he will be around Kim for some of spring training, but he also is responsible for covering three other Korean players currently in Florida camps, including Chan Ho Park with the Dodgers all the way over in Vero Beach. Not an easy assignment.

The Japanese media really is different. I have heard that there are as many as 150 sports dailies -- yes, really -- in that country. By comparison, the number of sports dailies in the U.S. right now is exactly zero. Almost all of our focus is local.

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Q: I've been reading where, if Nate McLouth gets the starting job in center field, Nyjer Morgan most likely will be sent to Class AAA Indianapolis and start there. What, then, becomes of Chris Duffy? I was under the impression he was going to start in Indianapolis to give him an opportunity to get back to playing form.

Is Duffy being considered for a bench spot at this point?

Deanna McKissack of Bellevue

KOVACEVIC: All kinds of issues in there, Deanna, including one you did not raise.

One at a time ...

Duffy is expected to be game-ready for the start of the season, but the Pirates sound fairly certain that, even if he is, he needs some time in the minors to get all of his bearings back. It has been a long while since he has played competitive baseball, going back to missing the second half of last season. Once healthy, the Pirates plan to give him a chance to compete for major-league duty.

You are right about the McLouth/Morgan loser scenario. McLouth will stay on the roster. Morgan probably will not because he needs to keep getting at-bats. He is old for a prospect, at 27, but he still is young in terms of experience, if you happen to believe in that concept.

And one player you did not mention is Andrew McCutchen, maybe the most talented player at any level for the Pirates. Wherever he goes -- and that should be Indianapolis -- he can be expected to play the position that benefits him and the team the most, based on the models of successful franchises.

That would push others to corner spots.

Should be interesting. Good Q.

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Thing No. 72 that makes Pittsburgh great: We have some excellent model train displays, and I cannot help but be reminded of that while my 3-year-old little man is back home thinking I no longer exist.

The man is very much into trains, wooden, plastic, diecast, whatever, so many of our family excursions are aimed at finding something new, and there is no shortage ...

Start with this rather strange place up in Richland. This plain-looking white house sits on the side of a two-lane road in the middle of virtually nowhere, and it is packed with fantastic, hand-made exhibits of roads, buildings, bridges and farms from our Downtown and the entire region. These are simply independent pitching in their pieces, all to a uniform guideline.

Also, from what I remembered, this 14-year-old kid who was wandering around straightening out stalled trains on the bazillion feet of track was somehow a really important cog in this.

Neat place, but especially so if you have a child.

There also is, of course, the grand display on the Carnegie Science Center's second floor, an absolute masterpiece of the craft and one that gets better each year. The new entries over the past few months have included a gigantic steel mill that becomes that much more dramatic when the night simulation kicks in, a whole slew of new farmhouses and carnivals and, yes, the new Forbes Field replica that replaced the generic baseball field in the back corner.

I must say the Forbes Field, nice as it was, left me a little hollow because the artist inexplicably failed to have the proper wall. This makes no sense. The wall is the one piece still standing in real life -- a bit of it, anyway -- and having the wall would conjure images of the greatest moment in any sports franchise's history. To go that far and stop ... whatever.

At any rate, a free annual subscription to the Q&A goes out to the first reader who writes in correctly identifying the single funniest -- and best concealed -- gag on the big table ...

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Until tomorrow, when the readers again take over the Pittsburgh thing. The invitation for more reader input remains in place, by the way. We have to cover all spring, plus the opening weeklong trip ...