A Giant mess gets messier

Holliston's Mark Sweeney long has been considered a great teammate, one of those guys who's effective on the field and contributes many intangibles off it.

So what a kick in the teeth it must have been for Sweeney last week when the New York Daily News reported that Barry Bonds had told major league baseball authorities that he'd taken something out of Sweeney's locker that made him test positive for amphetamines.

"Nothing like dragging your teammate down and throwing him under the bus," said one veteran American League player. "That, to me, is despicable."

A former Bonds teammate, and longtime friend, said, "It's hard to keep defending Barry. Something like that with Sweeney, that's not right."

There were a few more reactions just like that one.

Sweeney, whose locker is far from Bonds's, at first wasn't going to respond, letting agent Barry Axelrod handle it. But he finally submitted to an Associated Press interview, saying, "That was kind of a shock. I heard my name mentioned. I didn't know who mentioned it. I was angered and hurt a little bit that, however it came out, someone didn't know the facts."

The classy Sweeney said all the right things, including that he appreciated Bonds clearing him in a statement released subsequent to the Daily News report.

Sweeney, 37, who has played for six teams in his career, had established a solid relationship with Bonds over the last year. If anyone in the clubhouse tried to quell the anti-Bonds sentiments in the national media and unify the team, it was Sweeney.

During a two-week venture to San Francisco last season to follow Bonds and his pursuit of Babe Ruth on the home run list, I witnessed Sweeney do his level best to calm down the circus act around the Giants clubhouse.

It's not easy. There's a lot that goes into being Bonds's teammate, dealing with him and his entourage. It was Sweeney who came up with the idea for an "American Idol" parody in spring training last year, when Bonds dressed up as Paula Abdul, a gesture to help the team bond.

This latest controversy will not endear Bonds to the people who matter most in the game -- the fraternity of players.

One baseball official offered a twofold take on it.

"I think those people who have been on the fence concerning Bonds's potential steroids use will now begin to move against him," he said. "I don't think he made any friends or won over any new supporters over this. Implicating a teammate, even though he apologized, will only make Mark Sweeney more endearing to the public while Bonds will take another hit. It smacks of a kindergarten beef where the boy is caught with mud on his shoes and blames it on Johnny."

The second issue, according to the official: "It gives the Giants even more leverage in their negotiations with Bonds. He's now tested positive for amphetamines. He's implicated a teammate. And so now the Giants, who have been trying to seek all sorts of protections in the deal in case Barry Bonds is indicted, I'm sure will have all the leverage in getting what they want in the contract."

The Giants and Bonds agreed on a one-year, $16 million contract in December, but it has not been signed yet, as the Giants attempt to build in provisions for protection in case Bonds goes to jail for perjury or tax evasion.

Prior to the agreement, the Giants tried very hard to acquire Manny Ramírez, but according to a source familiar with the talks, they never had the package of young players the Red Sox wanted. Prior to that, the Giants pursued Alfonso Soriano and Carlos Lee.

Officials of a few teams told me they're hoping and praying that Bonds doesn't hit his record-breaking homer at their ballparks next season. The Giants come to Boston for a three-game series June 15-17, but he needs 22 homers to pass Hank Aaron, and that would seem too soon, though not out of the question.

If and when it happens, how will commissioner Bud Selig recognize it? Will it be a joyous occasion or a dark day?

Selig has repeatedly said that players and trainers and doctors have told him that amphetamines are a far more serious epidemic in baseball than steroids. Now you're talking about a player who might have been involved with both.

It's too bad. Bonds is a great athlete and he has dominated the game like no other player. But it seems he has ruined everything with poor choices.

Sad, too, that a guy like Sweeney had to be dragged through mud that's eating up the game like quicksand.

An early-rising farmhand?

Everyone in the Red Sox organization is anticipating the rise of 22-year-old righthander Clay Buchholz. Buchholz, a lanky 6 feet 3 inches, 190 pounds, was a combined 11-4 with a 2.42 ERA with 140 strikeouts and 33 walks in 119 innings at Single A Greenville and Wilmington. Here are a few questions for Buchholz, who could start at Double A Portland.

Q. How close do you think you are to the bigs?

CB: "Physically, I've been told I have the stuff, but it's all about the mental game. Until you're mentally prepared, I don't think you can come here and deal with what major league baseball deals you. Being here and talking to guys who have gone through it and them talking to me about it, I can't wait to get up there."

Q. What do you throw?

CB: "Four-seam and two-seam fastballs. I developed my circle change last year; it helped me out of a lot of jams. A slider and a curveball. My curve -- a 12-to-6 type -- worked well. There were a couple of times when it stayed up in the zone. I've been working on my first-pitch command. First-pitch strikes. It came to me a bit at the end of the season, and I had pretty good success when I did throw first-pitch strikes."

Q. Did you feel you ever got beat up by anyone?

CB: "There were a couple of times I can remember. In West Virginia it was pretty bad, six earned runs in four innings. That was pretty bad for the way I was throwing. I had a streak of a couple of bad games, but I picked it up. I got distracted, I guess. I lost focus on everything. But from the midway point of last season, I could have thrown any pitch in any situation and would have been successful. I was just zoned in."

Q. How about your arm angle?

CB: "It might be a little bit in the slot at three-quarters. I threw from the side at times in college, but they won't let me do it here. I had two arm slots. They'd rather me stay in one slot and master all the pitches from that one arm slot. The sidearm was a good pitch to righthanded hitters. If I threw a curveball, it would start behind them. If they're not looking for it, it makes them look pretty funny up there."

Q. You hear about guys getting into their radar gun readings. Where are you?

CB: "I think I touched 97 last year. I'm usually 91-94, somewhere around there. Late in the game if I need something extra, I can go get it and touch 95-97. If I can sit at 92 and hit where I want to throw it, I can get by doing that."

Tewksbury works with youngsters on the transition game

Former pitcher Bob Tewksbury is now a Red Sox minor league psychologist who is trying to help young players make an easy transition from the minors to the majors. Tewksbury, along with major league performance enhancement coach Don Kalkstein, held sessions at Boston's rookie development program last week on dealing with the mental aspects of the game.

"Veteran players know how to handle it," Tewksbury said. "The part that was hardest for me was the first three years of service time because you have no control on whether the team can send you down. You get up there after spending time in the minors and then you don't know if you belong.

"I remember I broke in at Yankee Stadium facing Jim Rice and Dwight Evans. Oh, my God!

"The pressures to stay up there once you're there are pretty stressful. I wish I'd had someone to talk to about it. What I stress is: Just control the things you can control and don't worry about the outside forces."

The Sox have done a good job adding this new phase of development to their minor league program. They speak to players about everything from how much to tip the clubhouse workers, to what to wear when traveling, to what to say to the media.

"I think the sessions went well," said Tewksbury, who received his master's degree in sports psychology from Boston University.

"If we can prepare them for what to expect and not have those struggles that a lot of players have had, that's just one less thing they have to worry about."

Etc.

Apropos of nothing: 1. Red Sox PR man Peter Chase often kidded that he'd love to be mentioned in this portion of the Sunday baseball notes. Peter, you got it. Good luck as the new Chicago Cubs head PR man. You'll be missed; 2. Seeing Russ Gibson, a backup catcher on the 1967 Sox, at the Boston Baseball Writers dinner made me think of May 12, 1967, when Bob Tillman nailed John Wyatt with a throw off the head as he was trying to catch Al Kaline stealing second; 3. El Guapo, Rich Garces, was en fuego in winter ball in Venezuela, where he saved 11 games in the regular season; 4. The Rockies signed Sox bust Javy Lopez a few days before they acquired Rodrigo Lopez from the Orioles. Javy was Rodrigo's personal catcher in Baltimore; 5. It's the last year for Indians spring training in Winter Haven, Fla. (they're moving to Arizona). Chain O'Lakes Park could become condos by this time next year.

Message to Ryan Howard: Don't ever change. Humble, appreciative, kind, and accommodating, Howard rendered a heartfelt acceptance speech for the Ted Williams Award as baseball's best hitter at the Boston writers dinner to a crowd of 900. "Ryan wanted to accept this award because it's named after Ted Williams," said his father, Ron, after the dinner. "That meant a lot to him. Just as it meant so much to him to receive the Hank Aaron Award at the World Series, and this weekend he's receiving the Josh Gibson Award in Kansas City. Ryan's very touched by all of this."

Haven't been able to convince Curt Schilling that he has a chance at being a Hall of Famer should he record at least 220 wins. He has a superb postseason record (7-2, 2.06 ERA, including 2-1 with a 2.11 ERA in the World Series). He has two championship rings. He has a.600 winning percentage (207-138) with 3,015 strikeouts. Is he not comparable to Jim "Catfish" Hunter (224-166, 3.26, a 10-2, 3.26 postseason record, including 5-1, 3.29 in World Series)? Schilling feels he'll run up against 300-game winners Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and Randy Johnson. True, but how many guys will reach 300 in the future? Or 250 or 220, for that matter? Schilling also said he won't be talked out of retirement at the end of the season, has sold his homes in Arizona and Philadelphia, and plans to live in Medfield when his playing days are over.

The Sox aren't worried about Wily Mo Peña's struggles in winter ball for Aguilas in the Dominican (2 for 38, 4 RBIs in the regular season, and struggling in the playoffs). They feel it's only a slump and nothing related to his wrist and hand injuries of last season. While Peña appears to have a lock on the fourth outfielder spot, with the intention of getting 400 or so at-bats, the Sox are going to add some competition to the fifth outfielder spot. David Murphy appears to have a chance to stick, but the Sox are going to offer a veteran outfielder a minor league contract and spring training invite. There are a few free agent outfielders left on the market, but players such as Trot Nixon, Preston Wilson, Darin Erstad, Shannon Stewart, and Jeromy Burnitz probably will receive major league deals.

Count Ellis Burks among those who were disappointed to see Jim Rice fall short of the Hall of Fame again. " I don't understand that," said Burks. "That guy was so feared as a hitter. There's a couple of years left, so it may happen yet. I hope so." Burks, a special assistant with the Indians under Mark Shapiro, played 18 seasons and had 352 home runs, 1,206 RBIs, and a .291 average. "I missed about 800 games because of injuries," said Burks. "That's about five years. If I had those games back, who knows what I would have done? But I just loved playing the game and I enjoyed my career. That's what is important to me."

Of all the players in winter ball, scouts were really impressed with Sox prospect Edgar Martinez, who threw strikes and pitched like a guy who could be on the verge of making the majors. "People are often torn about Edgar because he's mostly just a fastball pitcher, but he looked like a confident kid out there when I saw him," said an American League scout who covered Venezuela, where Martinez pitched for Pastora de los Llanos. "I don't know anything about Boston's situation, but I would think if he came into camp, he's going to look pretty good compared to a lot of pitchers they have in camp." Martinez returned to Boston and took part in Boston's rookie development program. A positional player in the Sox system who played well was first baseman Luis Antonio Jimenez, who hit .302 with 4 homers and 24 RBIs in the regular season for Cardenales de Lara. "Good power, hit the ball hard," said the scout.

Nick Cafardo can be reached at cafardo@globe.com; material from personal interviews, wire services, other beat writers, and league and team sources was used in this report.