SARASOTA, Fla. — Collectively, the Reds can survive a slow start. Individually, their younger players would be better off with a swift break from the gate.

        The Reds generally agree early-season success is helpful but not imperative. They finished well above .500 in the past two seasons despite struggling at the outset. Winning early, manager Bob Boone said Saturday, is “no more important than a hard finish and a good middle.”

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        But the contingent lining up along the first base line at Cinergy Field to be introduced before Monday's season opener against the At lanta Braves will include three relatively inexperienced yet essential performers: primary catcher Jason LaRue and starting pitchers Rob Bell and Chris Reitsma. For them, a smooth beginning could hasten a satisfying conclusion.

        “I think it's more important for the younger guys to get off to a good start, simply because they're a little more impressionable — and a little more inclined to panic or change things if they don't,” said shortstop Barry Larkin, Cincinnati's 15-year veteran and team captain.

        Boone agreed: “A slow start by a young player is pretty tough on them. Veteran players who have been through it, they understand. It's my job and the coaches' jobs to help them understand that we're not going to evaluate them on the first week or the first month. They're here. This is the team.”

        This also happens to be the team that finished 96-67 in 1999 after losing four of its first five games, staggering to a 9-14 record through

        May 2 and residing in last place as late as May 15. Last year, the Reds never fell below second place after April 15, but they owned an 8-11 mark April 25. A 10-17 June is what doomed them.

        “I think we've all confirmed that we've tried to start fast the last couple of years,” reliever Scott Sullivan said dryly. “It just hasn't happened.”

        If any factor heightens the importance of a fast start this year, it's the return of the imbalanced schedule. Not only will the Reds face their National League Central rivals more often, but their early schedule is laden with intra-division series against Pittsburgh and Milwaukee. After one game against Atlanta, Cincinnati will confront those two teams in its next nine games and in 11 of its first 15.

        “I'm not saying we have to get off to a 35-5, Detroit Tigers '84-style start,” said left fielder Dmitri Young. “But it would be good to have a winning record, at least, until things come together for us.”

        Hovering above .500 also would minimize aggravation for Boone, the incoming manager who endured two full losing seasons and part of a third from 1995-97 in Kansas City.

        “The manager sleeps better when you get off to a fast start,” Boone said. “But they (the scheduled 162 games) are really all the same.”

        Exhibition-game records are never an indication of regular-season performance. Thus, no special meaning should be attached to the Reds' 14-14 showing in the Grapefruit League, which ended Saturday with an 8-0 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies at Ed Smith Stadium.

        But the Reds did find significance in the preseason effort they sustained. Young and second baseman Pokey Reese dove constantly for batted balls. Donnie Sadler hustled nonstop. The team stole 35 bases in 39 tries. Even Saturday, when every body connected with the Reds was focused on the charter flight to Cincinnati, right fielder Alex Ochoa risked a collision with the wall and nearly caught Marlon Anderson's third-inning double.

        “Everybody here plays hard,” Young said. “We're playing with a great spirit. It seems like there's good karma going around here somewhere.”

        Larkin said he and his teammates were merely carrying out Boone's wishes.

        Said Larkin, “Bob talked about that early in spring training. All he wants is everything. That's what he said.”

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