Bonds Talks Again About Steroid Stance

Barry Bonds still believes baseball has far more important issues to discuss than steroid use, though the San Francisco Giant slugger is saddened by stories of children using performance-enhancing substances.

In an informal conversation with reporters from the Oakland Tribune and ESPN in the Giants’ spring training locker room Thursday in Scottsdale, Ariz., Bonds restated many of the same positions on steroids, records and the media that he voiced in a news conference last week.

He also repeated his position on performance-enhancing substances: They are not a big deal.

“You’re talking about something that wasn’t even illegal at the time,” Bonds said. “All this stuff about supplements, protein shakes, whatever. Man, it’s not like this is the Olympics.... We’re entertainers. If I can’t go out there and somebody pays $60 for a ticket, and I’m not in the lineup, who’s getting cheated? Not me.

“So we all make mistakes. We all do things. We need to turn the page. We need to forget about the past and let us play the game. We’re entertainers. Let us entertain.”

However, Bonds showed concern for children involved in steroids.

“It busts me up when they show some teenager who’s been on steroids and his life is suddenly messed up,” Bonds said. “It’s the parents’ job to be a parent to that kid.... I tell my boy [Nikolai], if I see you doing steroids, I’ll bust you up. And I mean it.”

Bonds, who has 703 career homers, underwent arthroscopic knee surgery Jan. 31, and he isn’t expected to play until later in the Cactus League schedule. The Giants believe he will be back to full strength by opening day, when he will resume his chase of Babe Ruth (714) and Hank Aaron (755) on baseball’s career homers list.

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Jose Canseco is ready to raise his hand and take an oath. Although current players and executives were uncertain whether they would testify before a congressional committee investigating steroids, the MVP-turned-bestselling author had no qualms.

“We’ll be there,” Canseco’s agent, Doug Ames, said Friday.

Jason Giambi, Canseco’s former Oakland teammate, said it was “highly unlikely” he would testify before the House Government Reform Committee, which on Thursday scheduled the hearing for March 17. Boston pitcher Curt Schilling was unsure whether he would appear and whether the hearing would be productive.

“It depends on what it’s for,” Schilling said. “I mean, if this is a McCarthy witch hunt all over again, then no.

“But, again, I don’t know any of the specifics around what it entails and what’s going on.”

Mark McGwire, who teamed with Canseco to form the Bash Brothers on the World Series champion Athletics, also was undecided.

Said McGwire spokesman Marc Altieri, “We’re still evaluating. I can’t say one way or the other.”

Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig and executive vice president Sandy Alderson had not made their decisions, spokesman Rich Levin said, and San Diego General Manager Kevin Towers declined comment.

The players’ association had not decided whether union chief Donald Fehr would testify or what recommendation it would give to the invited players, according to union general counsel Michael Weiner.

Any invited witness who turns down an offer to testify could be subpoenaed by the committee. That could present a sticky situation for Giambi, who was given limited immunity in 2003 when he testified before a federal grand jury investigating illegal steroid distribution.