"Joe Nathan had suits and ties piled on a table Wednesday not far from the main entrance of his suburban home. Boxes were scattered around the bedroom closet. Last-minute wash piled up in the laundry room.

"He's supposed to be packing," his wife, Lisa, said skeptically.

Nathan was filling his truck before it was shipped to Fort Myers, Fla., for spring training, which begins this week. His packing included a large blue equipment bag from his basement. One pocket contained a plastic bag that held two handfuls of dirt.

"Here it is," Nathan said, pulling out what has become a personal symbol of his nearly complete return from Tommy John surgery last March.

Nathan scooped up the dirt from the Metrodome mound following the Twins' Game 3 season-ending loss to the Yankees in the 2009 AL Division Series -- the final Twins game at the indoor stadium. The Dome is where Nathan went from being untested to collecting 246 saves in six seasons and becoming one of the best closers in baseball.

His plan was to sprinkle some of the dirt on the mound at Target Field, bringing a little bit of the Dome magic with him. That's been on hold since his surgery.

As he threw his 20th pitch against the Boston Red Sox during a March 6, 2010, spring game, Nathan felt searing pain in his right arm. He subsequently learned that he had torn the ulnar collateral ligament, the vital part of the elbow that has felled many pitchers and ruined some careers."