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Something You're Not Telling Us, Jason?

With Barry Bonds supposedly returning to action this week, I noticed an interesting juxtaposition in two baseball stories of recent days.

From Gordon Edes' notes column in Sunday's Boston Globe:

[Pitcher Jason] Christiansen, after being traded to the Angels: ''It's good to get out of a situation where if you pitch a good game, guys ask, 'Did you miss Barry [Bonds] today?' Life goes on without that guy coming to the park. The last five months, we saw him about 20 days. It's tough to answer questions about someone you don't know anything about unless you go on to his website."

And ESPN.com today:

Also Tuesday, a Giants player told The Associated Press that Bonds tussled with pitcher Jason Christiansen in the clubhouse lunchroom at SBC Park earlier this season in a dispute about one of Bonds' trainers.

The player, who witnessed the June altercation but spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not want to talk publicly about an incident between other players, said Christiansen was frustrated with Harvey Shields, Bonds' personal stretch man now employed by the team.

"I don't think punches were thrown," the player said. "It was more grabbing. It was regarding one of Bonds' trainers, Harvey."

ESPN's Pedro Gomez reported on Monday that shortly after the unnamed Giants player and Shields exchanged words, Bonds sought out the player inside the clubhouse and had words.

A scuffle ensued in which Bonds punched the player in the jaw, whereupon the player put Bonds in a headlock and retaliated.

I'm guessing either Christiansen told Edes to keep the fight off the record, or he simply neglected to mention, in his interview about Bonds, the pertinent info that "Barry beat my ass, and then I got traded."

Posted by Stephen Silver at September 7, 2005 12:45 AM