Veteran Jones warns players to watch their words

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - With the chirping between Turk Wendell and Barry Bonds as a distant soundtrack, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays held a players' only meeting before Thursday morning's workout in which veteran reliever Todd Jones warned them to use caution when addressing the topic of steroids.

Essentially, Jones told them, don't hang yourself with words.

"It was just a heads up, because I know when I was a young player, I was told by guys to keep things in-house," said Jones, in Tampa Bay's camp as a non-roster player. "Nothing positive can come out of stuff some of these guys want to keep talking about.

"Nothing has been proven. Nothing is in writing. This is a society in which you're supposed to be innocent until you're proven guilty, but more and more, it's like you're guilty until you're proven innocent.

"Players just need to hush. Players need to hush their mouths."

Jones, a past player representative in Detroit, said that he received no directive from Major League Baseball Players Association headquarters. He said he decided to speak up after Wendell accused Bonds of having taken steroids and Bonds lashed back.

"This whole thing started with the players," Jones said. "Why would you want to blow the game up? Is this good for the game?"