Good morning from Steinbrenner Field, where Day 2 of workouts for Yankees pitchers and catchers are about to begin.

We’ll lead off today with Joe Girardi, as the Yankees manager was asked yesterday if he feels like he’s grown in his position since taking over Joe Torre’s chair in 2008. Girardi first jokingly asked if he looked older than then — it’s not for us to say, the reporter responded — and then agreed that he has found a better feel for his day-to-day duties.

“I think I’m much different,” he said. “I think you have a much better understanding of how it works here and the expectations of the job. It’s one thing to say you know what it’s like because you watched someone else do it, but it’s another to actually do it.

“I think the relationships with the players are stronger. I think there’s a better understanding of my players. I think there’s a better understanding of managing an American League game as opposed to a National League game. So I do think I’ve improved.”

Back with more updates in just a bit.

It looks like that 11 a.m. press conference might not begin as planned. Joe Girardi’s 6 a.m. flight is still stuck at the gate in Newark, so the first scheduled event of Yankees Spring Training will obviously be delayed.

Luckily, there’s not too much else on Girardi’s agenda today — he doesn’t have to oversee a workout until tomorrow. The Yankees’ clubhouse at George M. Steinbrenner Field is being filled with pitchers and catchers as we speak. It’ll be open to the media for an hour beginning at 10 a.m.

Unsolicited advice for Girardi while he waits: check out the greasy spoon Garden State Diner near Gate 82. I’ve actually never had a bad breakfast there.

Shortly after the Yankees were on their way to the airport, some of them grumbling about the disputed Billy Butler homer, umpiring supervisor Steve Palermo led the men in blue to the warning track in left field for a closer look at the walls.

There may be some clarification about the rules here at Kauffman Stadium in the days that come, but they probably won’t change the outcome of tonight’s game.

Yankees manager Joe Girardi said that he is second-guessing himself for not having immediately placed the game under protest, having followed crew chief Dana DeMuth’s argument that Butler’s homer didn’t need to clear both fences in left field to count.

“I don’t think I can protest it now. I think you have to do it right then,” Girardi said. “The reason I didn’t is because I believed the umpire that he knew the ground rules. I probably should have.”

That said … the Yankees didn’t lose only based on that homer tonight. They were 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position and left 11 men on base, including Russell Martin leaving the bases loaded in the first and Jorge Posada striking out looking with the bases loaded in the ninth inning. Derek Jeter was also picked off in the first inning preceding Curtis Granderson’s home run, so there was plenty to go around.