Show of strength.(Diamondbacks' Steve Finley's training program)(Interview)

Through an unusual conditioning program that stresses balance, the Diamondbacks' Steve Finley has turned back the clock and turned up the power

Hidden amid the hills and valleys of Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., an enclave north of San Diego for the rich and famous, is Steve Finley's fountain of youth. Spend a couple of mornings in the offseason with Finley, and chances are you'll go home convinced he has found the way to cheat Father Time.

Here is a 12-year veteran on the wrong side of 35 who says he never has been in better shape. Finley has made himself arguably baseball's fittest player, and his performance over the past two seasons supports his case:

* He has reached a career high in home runs in each of the past two years for the Diamondbacks, hitting 34 in 1999 and 35 in 2000.

* He was having perhaps his best season last year--.297 with 22 homers and 63 RBIs through June--before colliding with a wall in Houston and aggravating an old injury, which required offseason surgery to repair a bulged nerve in his lower back.

* He needed only three weeks to recover fully. Doctors had figured it would take at least twice that long and told Finley many people would have felt the effects for six months--those of us without any special powers, that is. Those of us who do not believe in Finley's fitness program.

Of course, there really is no magic fountain on Finley's 10-acre ranch. There's a swimming pool, but it's just like any other swimming pool, except for the huge boulder someone dropped in the middle.