"Aaron Harang sat on a folding chair under the shade of an open-air dugout between innings of a minor-league appearance, pitching for the Dayton Dragons against a Tampa Bay Class A team.

"Like old times," he said. "Old, old times (when he was in the minors)."

Harang remains amazed that he is wearing a major-league uniform, not because he doesn't deserve it, but because scouts usually scribbled negatives in their notebooks when they watched him pitch at San Diego State, which is why he was a sixth-round draft pick.

"I was never, ever a prospect because I didn't throw hard for a big guy," he said. "I was always a suspect. I guess they finally realized that it is all about getting outs and I can get outs."

So, five days after working under a broiling sun on a back field of City of Sarasota Sports Complex with about 10 fans watching, Harang makes his fourth straight Opening Day start for the Cincinnati Reds Monday in Great American Ball Park.

Harang knows he deserved to start the previous three, but after going 6-17 last season he wouldn't have recoiled if manager Dusty Baker had named 17-game winner Edinson Volquez.

"I wouldn't do that to Harang," said Baker. "That would destroy his confidence. Everybody is entitled to one bad year and Harang has earned it with his consistency."

Said Harang, "I'm ready. I was thinking the other day, 'I've been here two months.'

"But I am proud that this is my fourth straight Opening Day assignment," he said. "I was talking with my wife about it and we thought it was great that Dusty knows, even though I had the year I had last year, that those seasons happen."