New York ? Bud Selig wants to put baseball’s focus back on the field. To do that, the commissioner has an idea: limit talk about steroids.

Selig recently sent a directive to all 30 teams, telling them to decline comment on the BALCO case “specifically” and performance enhancing drugs “generally.”

While the memo was not sent to players, some of them liked the move.

“I think it’s a good thing,” pitcher Russ Ortiz, Atlanta’s union representative, said Wednesday. “There’s a lot of comments out there. It’s not just the players. It’s other people, too. But it’s all speculation.

“Right now, no one is reporting on baseball. They’re reporting on all this other stuff. Let’s focus on baseball and let the other stuff take care of itself.”

Said Braves manager Bobby Cox: “I’ve not heard about it. I wish I had gotten that yesterday. I’d rather not address it anymore.”

The talk about steroids has swept spring training, with increased speculation and scrutiny over which players might have used them.

Tuesday, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Barry Bonds was given the substances by his personal trainer — who got them from the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative.

According to the newspaper, investigators also were told that steroids were given to New York Yankees standouts Jason Giambi and Gary Sheffield and the Kansas City Royals’ Benito Santiago.

Trainer Greg Anderson gave the players the drugs from BALCO, according to information given to the government and shared with the newspaper. Anderson has been charged with participating in a ring that provided performance-enhancing drugs to pro athletes.

Giambi’s brother, Jeremy, had little to say about the issue.

“It’s just something that’s going on,” he said at Dodgers camp. “I really can’t talk about it. At some point, I will have a comment.”

Asked about his brother, Jeremy said: “He’s going about his business, he’s got a season to play. He’s getting ready to have another big year.”

The subject of steroids has been a daily topic at Yankees manager Joe Torre’s press briefings. The first question Tuesday was about the Chronicle report and Torre politely said “next question.”

Later, Torre was asked whether he was declining comment because he was told to keep quiet or because he didn’t want to talk about the subject. He said both.

“I can’t talk about something I don’t know anything about. We feel that we really don’t want to comment on this thing,” he said.

On the field Wednesday, the Young brothers faced each other Only a few fans were in the seats and the results didn’t count. Even so, the “B” game between Detroit and Tampa Bay marked a big day for the Tigers’ Dmitri and Devil Rays prospect Delmon, with Tampa Bay winning, 8-4, Wednesday at Lakeland, Fla.

Dmitri, an All-Star last season, was 1-for-3 with a walk. Delmon, the top pick in last June’s draft, went 0-for-5 and drove in a run.

“It was a big game,” 18-year-old Delmon said. “There’s a 12-year age difference and we had never played against each other.”

Delmon started in right field for the Devil Rays and played all nine innings. Dmitri requested to play in the “B” game and was the Tigers’ designated hitter.

“It was cool,” Dmitri said, adding that he hadn’t seen his younger brother play since coaching Delmon’s team in a tournament in 2000 and 2001.