Leo Mazzone is looking down at the early spring planting. Onions, tomatoes, strawberries, a couple of blueberry bushes, all sprouting from a corner of his backyard. He put them in last weekend.

How now, Farmer Mazzone?

Frank Niemeir/AJC (ENLARGE)

Rebecca and Leo Mazzone adjust to his being around their new home in Roswell.

Frank Niemeir/AJC (ENLARGE)

Former Braves pitching coach Leo Mazzone has time for a garden after being out of baseball for the first time since 1969.

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"Well, you just dig a hole and put 'em in the ground. Maybe throw some [manure] on top and that's about it," he said. Then after a pause, a laugh: "See, I'm still at the ballpark."

For the first time since 1969, when he was a left-handed pitching prospect in the San Francisco system, spring training is going on without Leo Mazzone, an improbability for the former Braves pitching coach that his wife, Rebecca, tries dutifully to shepherd him through. So he has joined the YMCA. He is renewing a pursuit in golf. He looks pretty good.

"Yeah," he said, "I'm not gaining any weight because I'm stressing over the fact that I ain't on a baseball field."

Sense a pattern?

This is hardly exile. Fired after two seasons with the Baltimore Orioles last October 12 — four days before his 59th birthday — Mazzone still has a season remaining on a $1.5 million contract that had made him, along with St. Louis' Dave Duncan, the highest paid pitching coaches in the game.

He and Rebecca have finished fitting out their new home in west Roswell — the second-floor living area looks like a Braves historical exhibit — and, yes, he has a rocking chair on a side porch, where he can watch TV games and totter the night away.

Spring looks different

But for baseball people removed from the festival for the first time, spring is the hardest time. Mazzone, a Braves pitching coach for 17 years, has gone 39 seasons without witnessing winter's full transformation. Much less planting onions.

Former Braves president Stan Kasten called the other day and asked him, "Why don't you just sit back and enjoy it?"

Mazzone told him he doesn't know how.

"It's awkward," he said. "You go around and people see you and say, 'Well, what are you doing here?' And I tell them, 'You know? I haven't figured that out yet.' So they tell me, 'Just relax, Leo. Your contract runs through next October 31st. Relax, kick back, enjoy yourself.'

"That's not the point. It has nothing to do with my contract continuing on. It has everything to do with not being on a baseball field. Like I know there's a baseball game on ESPN right now between the Twins and the Yankees."

Not only is Mazzone interested in a new coaching job, but he is confident one will be forthcoming. But at the same time, he never was called over the winter.

In all, six pitching coaches' vacancies came open last fall (not counting his old spot in Baltimore). Four teams — Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Boston and the New York Yankees — promoted coaches or coordinators from within their own organizations. One (Florida) invited back an old coach (Mark Wiley), who had been the Marlins' pitching coach before leaving in 2005.

That left Seattle, but the Mariners plucked Mel Stottlemyre, a long-time Washington state resident, out of retirement. In retrospect, the Red Sox job might have been Mazzone's bet, but the club opted to offer the job to John Farrell, their director of player development who had been targeted by the Pirates for their manager's position.

"I thought I would be somewhere, but I didn't know for sure," Mazzone said. "And when you are fortunate enough to have a year left on your contract, you can hope that works for you."

His departure from Baltimore has left a nasty scar. Mazzone said that before the last game he had an encouraging discussion with Orioles president Andy MacPhail regarding the direction of the club.

But when he relayed that news to Rebecca in a hallway outside the clubhouse, she reported hearing a pregame television segment that his status had "yet to be determined."

Under Mazzone, the Orioles recorded the highest back-to-back team ERAs (5.35 in 2006, 5.17 in 2007) in Baltimore history. Those numbers were linked to the disintegration of the staff.

Over a five-week midseason period, starters Erik Bedard and Jeremy Guthrie both went down with strained oblique injuries. Closer Chris Ray blew out his elbow. Another starter, Steve Trachsel, was traded.

In July, the staff posted a 4.13 ERA and allowed a .241 batting average. By September, those numbers had soared to 6.89 and .304.

"There was nobody left," Mazzone said. "When it all went sideways, it exposed the farm system. It was the jayvees against the varsity. The American League? And in that division?"

Announcing the firing nearly two weeks after the season, Orioles manager Dave Trembley, who had replaced Mazzone's boyhood pal Sam Perlozzo at midseason, said, "I felt that we would be better served with someone else working with our young staff." In the aftermath, Mazzone was accused of being too gruff.

Keeping his hand in

Among the items the Orioles sent him when they cleaned out his locker was the faded blue canvas Cosby bag he has used since 1991 to lug balls out to the bullpen.

Said Mazzone, "It ran out of juice."

In the interim, he will try his hand at television. He is providing scouting commentary for Comcast Sports Southeast, and Fox has contracted with him to be an analyst for selected Saturday games. His debut: April 19, Minnesota at Cleveland. And, no, there are no plans for a five-second audio delay.

To help him prepare, Rebecca is introducing him to the Internet.

"That's what I'm trying to do," she said, "slowly but surely."

Just as in Baltimore, he still follows those games started by his old triumvirate of John Smoltz, Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux. He is holding out hope for oft-injured Mike Hampton. That, and waiting for the blueberries to come in.

But he grasps something else this spring, something he could never really understand over the 39 spring trainings that had gone before.

"I know now more than ever," he said.

"No, I don't want to step away."