GIANTS Bonds says go ahead, test

The Giants slugger has been linked to the Bay Area's steroids scandal.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) -- For years, Barry Bonds has faced accusations of steroid use and the assumptions that it's the reason he keeps hitting home runs even as he pushes 40.
"They can test me every day if they choose to," said Bonds, who showed up at spring training right around his playing weight of 228 pounds.
A winter without his father beside him in the batting cage weighed more heavily on Bonds' mind this off-season than his connection to a lab at the center of an alleged steroid ring.
"It's been difficult," he said Monday, sitting in the dugout at Scottsdale Stadium. "Just hard all the way around. I broke down a couple times in the batting cage just due to the fact he wasn't with me. He's been my coach my whole life."
Bonds was surrounded by reporters on his first day at spring training, and was asked repeatedly about his ties to the supplements lab accused of illegally distributing steroids to dozens of athletes. The six-time National League MVP, who appeared in December before a grand jury probing the lab, has always denied using steroids.
Retirement
After last season, Bonds seriously considered walking away from baseball for good, unable to imagine playing without his dad. Bobby, who had been ill for nearly a year with lung cancer and a brain tumor, died in August at age 57.
But Bonds pushed on, at the urging of his mother, his wife and godfather Willie Mays.
"I couldn't hit. I didn't want to go in the cage. I didn't want to swing the bat," Bonds said. "I really didn't want any part of it for a while."
Now, another important member of Bonds' supporting cast, trainer Greg Anderson, won't be around.
Anderson was among four men charged this month in an alleged steroid-distribution ring that federal prosecutors say supplied professional athletes with banned substances. All the men have pleaded innocent and no athletes have been charged.
Sympathy
"I feel bad for him," said Bonds, who turns 40 this summer. "I feel sad. We grew up together. We're friends. It's unfortunate what he's having to go through."
About BALCO, the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative that's at the center of the federal steroids case, Bonds said: "There's nothing I can do about it right now. I have to go out and play baseball and, hopefully, it will blow over. I believe if I wasn't going for records, it would be a nullified situation. If you want to be at the top, you've got to have broad shoulders."
Bonds spent two stints on the bereavement list in 2003 and, despite all he was dealing with, still batted .341 with 45 home runs and 90 RBIs.
He's two homers shy of tying Mays for third on the career list with 660.
When asked if he can pass Hank Aaron's record of 755 homers, Bonds quickly answered: "I think I can do anything. I'm going for it all."