By 2005, Tom Verducci had a pretty good understanding of baseball’s highest level. But the longtime Sports Illustrated writer, then 44 years old, wanted to go even deeper, so he approached Toronto Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi with an unusual media request: He wanted to go through a spring training with the Blue Jays as a player. To Verducci’s surprise, Ricciardi’s response was “Yeah, let me know when you want to come in.”

The resulting story— “I Was a Toronto Blue Jay”—put Verducci on the March 14, 2005, SI cover and was perhaps the best example of his ability to provide readers and viewers with a fresh, insider perspective. “If my job is to bring people inside the game as close as possible, there’s nothing better than actually putting on a uniform and playing and seeing the game at ground level,” Verducci says.

On the first day of spring training, Verducci found himself facing Cy Young winner Roy Halladay in batting practice. Just before he stepped in, manager John Gibbons asked Verducci if he had signed a waiver. Verducci said he hadn’t, and Gibbons replied, “You’re going to wind up owning this team, not writing about it.”

While he didn’t have much success against Halladay, Verducci acquitted himself well during his five days in Dunedin, Fla., from getting fit for his uniform to receiving his official release from the club. One of the pitchers who faced him in an intrasquad game said he wasn’t even aware he’d been pitching to a sportswriter until after the at-bat. “My biggest success was not blowing out my hamstring the first day,” he says.