In most years and in most spring training camps, Jeter’s day would have been done. But not this year. Not in this camp.

“Gotta go do my running,” Jeter said as he tossed a half-empty water bottle into his locker before following teammates Melky Cabrera and Robinson Cano to a back field for another conditioning session.

For the first time in 13 years, the Yankees are preparing for a season with someone other than Joe Torre as their manager. And the contrast is stark.

Where Torre, hobbled by a bad knee, spent much of last spring riding around in a golf cart, the tireless Joe Girardi bounces from place to place like a fourth grader.

Where Torre once left the clubhouse to his players, Girardi spends as much time there as anyone on the roster, slapping backs and trading smiles.

And where the Yankees in their last year under Torre were in such poor shape they fired their conditioning coordinator two months into the season, under Girardi they’ve been running as much as some Olympic sprinters.

The Yankees might be outplayed this season. But Girardi is making sure they won’t be outworked.

“He’s a hands-on guy,” said catcher Jorge Posada, who, like Jeter, closer Mariano Rivera and three other Yankees starters, has never played a full major league season with any manager other than Torre. “And he’s a very prepared person. He’s not going to lose any games because he’s not prepared.”

What Girardi says he isn’t prepared to do, however, is replace a legend — especially one such as Torre, who averaged a baseball-best 98 wins a season and captured four World Series titles during his 12 years with the Yankees.

“When you walk into this office, for a while it was kind of a little different because it was Joe’s office,” Girardi said from behind the same desk Torre used here. “It’s been a little bit different when you walk in here.

“But you just try to be your own person. I’ve got to be who I am. And that’s all I can do.”

Not that he needed much of an introduction. Girardi, an All-Star and three-time World Series champion during his 15-year major league career as a catcher, spent seven seasons with Torre in New York — four as a player, two as a broadcaster and one as bench coach. In between he spent one eventful season managing the Florida Marlins, taking a team with 22 rookies and a payroll of less than US$15 million to the verge of a playoff berth and winning the National League’s manager-of-the-year award.

And despite losing his job in a spat with the front office, he earned the respect of his players.

“He was a cool cat. Straightforward,” said Houston Astros outfielder Reggie Abercrombie, who played for Girardi in Florida. “We loved to play for him. We were mad when he left.

“He’s not going to change for the Yankees.”

Marlins catcher Matt Treanor agreed.

“Joe’s philosophies and the way he goes about his business are unwavering,” he said. “Joe is Joe. Take it or leave it. He believes in his philosophy.”

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