They didn't sell tickets to enter Cinergy Field Thursday because nothing was scheduled.

They should have, because something was going on, even though the Cincinnati Reds didn't play and there was no practice session. Those who believe Deion Sanders is playing baseball for his personal aggrandizement and amusement should have paid a few bucks to watch Sanders work out Thursday for two hours, the only player in the park.

Going into Friday's game, Sanders was hitting .222. Since his 3-for-3 celebratory return to Cincinnati, he is 3 for 24 (.125), and Wednesday night in Phoenix, he misjudged a line drive that whizzed over his head for a double that aided and abetted Arizona's three-run game-winning rally.

Instead of staying home to lick his wounds, feel sorry for himself or watch a tape of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, Sanders headed by himself to the stadium. If nothing else, he could hit balls off a tee.

When he got there, he was by himself. Soon, though, coach Tim Foli was there with his three sons.

For the first hour, Foli pitched, Sanders hit and Timmy, Danny and Johnny Foli chased baseballs.

For the second hour, Foli hit Sanders fly balls.

There will be no additional stipend in Sanders' next paycheck, nor will there be in Foli's. What it shows, though, is that Deion Sanders isn't content to just be in the lineup.

"When Tim Foli walked in I said, 'Thank you, Lord, this is wonderful, thank you, Lord, very much,'" Sanders said. "It was a blessing he showed up, and I thank the Lord for it."

When Sanders played for a month at Class AAA Louisville, he played every day, and by the last 12 games he was getting two and three hits a day. With the Reds, he doesn't play every day and baseball isn't a game you can play part-time, not the way Sanders wants to play it.

"Playing in the bushes (minors), I knew I was going to be in the lineup every day," Sanders said. "If the field blows up, I'm still in there. Up here, with all the outfielders doing so good it puts (manager Bob Boone) in an awkward situation. That's why I want to dominate. I don't want to just be productive, I want to dominate."

By doing that, Sanders knows if he goes 0 for 4 one night, he won't have to check the lineup board hanging in the clubhouse to see if he is playing. He knows he will be playing.

Asked if it is difficult to play a day, sit a day, play a day and sit another day, Sanders smiled and said, "That's an understatement. You need to relax and play. Boonie has done a great job with me since I got here, pulling me aside and working with me in the cage, trying to get me back to where I was."

Sanders looked up from a book in his hands and said, "I have a feeling everything is going to be all right." After a pause, he added, "That's a gospel hymn." He sang it and then added, "You don't even have to go to church to know that one."

Foli and his family stopped by the park to pick something up and the impromptu workout began.

"He wants to get better and he knows he has to work to do it," Foli said of Sanders. "Yes, he is a special athlete, but there are things even he needs to learn."

Most baseball players showboat — and Sanders has been accused of that in the past — catching fly balls with one hand when every Little League coach you ever heard always said, "Catch the ball with two hands."

Sanders doesn't showboat. He catches the ball with both hands.

"Wrong," Foli said. "One hand. It is easier. That's one thing we worked on Thursday. He wants to catch it with two hands. But to do that you have to wait for the ball to come to you. With one hand, you can chase it down and wait until the last minute to snatch it out of the air with one hand. You use your speed to run to the ball and throw that hand up. That's all he needs to worry about on defense . . . use his speed and use one hand."

Sanders refuses to permit this bump in the batter's box dampen his enthusiasm for becoming as good on the baseball damond as he always has been on the football field.

"No way," he said. "I play by the month. I check what I do at the end of the month and that's not until May 31. I've come too far to be going backward. I will continue forward."