Things getting "testy" in Bay Area with Barry

The Patriots play tomorrow at San Diego and have total command of the Boston area sports attention. The only baseball news of note is coming from San Francisco.

Since both Bay Area NFL teams have long gone home the focus in the San Francisco sports pages is on Barry Bonds and it isn't pretty.

In the Chronicle, Bruce Jenkins writes "Here's the really sick part about the latest Barry Bonds episode: It doesn't really change anything around the offices of Magowan, Baer & Shameless. They're still looking ahead to April, figuring all this nonsense will eventually blow over, and they may be right." Ray Ratto fumes "Namely, how much more public humiliation and brand shame the Giants can bring upon themselves by trying to extract the last available dollar out of the left fielder's husk" Gwen Knapp chimes in "We're about six weeks away from the grand ritual of pitchers and catchers reporting to spring training and equidistant from the start of utter mayhem for the Giants." and the paper is asking fans "Should the Giants back out of negotiations to keep Bonds?".

Tim Liotta in the The Examiner writes "Bonds’ routine more tired than ever"

Lovely.

It seems pretty obvious that somebody at the MLB offices in New York dropped a dime on Barry with the NY Daily News, a historical dumping ground for MLB when they want something leaked. Bud Selig does not want him to break Hank Aaron's record and you can be certain that he is putting pressure on the Giants not to sign him. This is going to get real ugly folks.

Roger tells the Houston Chronicle this morning "Right now I'm just chasing my boys around. I'm nowhere close to a decision." and says he hasn't given Brian Cashman's remarks about him this week any thought. Ya right Rog.

The only Red Sox news of note is that the team avoided arbitration with right-hander Kyle Snyder yesterday, agreeing to a one-year, $535,000 contract.

Go Pats!!!