SPRING TRAINING ROUNDUP News and notes

Giants: Barry Bonds still believes baseball has far more important issues to discuss than steroid use, though he is saddened by stories of children using performance-enhancing substances. In an informal conversation with reporters from the Oakland Tribune and ESPN Thursday, 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're 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." But 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."
Reds: Barry Larkin visited his former teammates, saying it felt "strange" when he walked into the clubhouse for the first time since his retirement. Larkin, who spent all of his 19 major league seasons with the Reds, retired last month and took a job with the Washington Nationals, assisting general manager Jim Bowden. "It's different not going to work with these guys," Larkin said. The 12-time All-Star shortstop hoped to move into the Reds' front office when he retired, but the club wasn't interested.
Cubs: Sammy Sosa has one more big hit coming for his former team -- a $13.5 million jolt to the bottom line of the corporate owners. Tribune Co., the media conglomerate whose holdings include the Cubs, said in a regulatory filing Friday that last month's trade of Sosa to the Baltimore Orioles will cause it to take a $13.5 million pretax charge in the first quarter. The costly transaction merited only a two-sentence mention in Tribune's 114-page annual report, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company, which typically mentions the baseball team only in passing in its filings and on conference calls with analysts, did not discuss the reason. But Dennis FitzSimons, Tribune's chairman, president and chief executive officer, said at a media-industry investment conference this week that the charge results from a "timing impact." He said the timing of the trade caused Tribune to accelerate the payment of Sosa's salary, reducing the company's first-quarter net income by nearly 3 cents per share.
Red Sox: David Wells' curveball needs work. His mouth is in midseason form. The left-hander who switched sides in baseball's biggest rivalry says that it's good that bars close earlier in Boston than in New York, that witnesses are important when you get in a fight and that he plans to retire after the 2006 season. Wells pitched for the Yankees in 1997, 1998, 2002 and 2003. Boston hasn't been such a hospitable place for visitors, he said. Pitcher Tim Hudson, then with Oakland, was involved in a confrontation in a Boston bar on Oct. 3, 2003, while he signed autographs. Hudson said there wasn't a fight. "You saw what happened with Tim Hudson," Wells said. "He went out there and he got provoked and that's what I think people are doing now with athletes is trying to provoke them to do that, trying to ruin their career. "They just home in on the people who are vampires, like me." His nocturnal excursions could be curtailed in Boston because of its earlier bar closings. "That's good," he said. If "I can just keep myself inside I'll be all right." And he's getting used to being in a Red Sox uniform. "It's not as bad as I thought," he told ESPN.
Padres: Right-hander Jake Peavy finalized his $14.5 million, four-year contract. The sides agreed to the contract earlier in the week, but were waiting to get the pact insured before announcing it. Peavy will earn salaries of $750,000 this season, $2.5 million in 2006, $4.75 million in 2007 and $6 million in 2008. The Padres hold an option for 2009 at $8 million, with a $500,000 buyout. The deal also contains performance bonuses and escalators.
Associated Press