Bonds has a little bit to say about 'midget' Costas

-- Barry Bonds' reaction to chemist Patrick Arnold's comments this week on Bob Costas' HBO sports program, that Bonds and Gary Sheffield took performance-enhancing drugs, was swift and concise Wednesday afternoon.
"You mean that little midget man who absolutely knows jack s--- about baseball? Who never played the game? I saw it," Bonds said of Costas.
Speaking with just four reporters, Bonds said he was not acquainted with Arnold, the man widely credited with creating the "the clear," a drug distributed by the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO).
"I've never seen that man in my entire life," Bonds said. "I've never heard of the man. Never."
Bonds, who had not spoken publicly since the Giants came home Monday from a trip to Chicago and Milwaukee, finally emerged from near-seclusion in the San Francisco clubhouse a few minutes after 6 p.m. Wednesday, just moments before the clubhouse closed to the media.
He also responded to Boston pitcher Curt Schilling, who insinuated on the same HBO program that Bonds would be suing people for if the steroid allegations that have swirled around him for years were false.
"Don't worry," Bonds said. "My day will come."
Speaking a day after his 43rd birthday and before a game in which he was not in the Giants lineup, Bonds said he felt OK despite manager Bruce Bochy's decision to give him the night off.
When someone mentioned that Atlanta pitchers were challenging him this week -- most notably Tim Hudson, who threw 13 strikes in 14 pitches to Bonds on Tuesday and retired him on two of three at-bats -- Bonds bristled.
"Challenging me is fastballs, sucker," he said with both a smile and an edge. "Don't throw me a changeup and a split-finger and a slider at my kneecaps. Tell me what's coming and I'll challenge you. I'll put it in the f------ water.
"(Tuesday) was a great pitching performance. There's a difference, OK? Don't degrade my skills, man."
Now 43, he said he didn't feel a day older -- and he made it clear again that he's in his element in San Francisco.
When one of the reporters joked that the chorus of Happy Birthday fans in the left-field bleachers sang to him in the first inning of Tuesday's game sounded out of tune, he smiled.
"Ain't nothing out of tune in this ballpark," Bonds said.