49ers

Well, that was a letdown. The three 49ers who weren't in Singletary Village have arrived, now that the workouts went from voluntarily involuntary to full involuntary, and there wasn't a note of acrimony, bitterness or even a: "What? A meeting? Already?"

Manny Lawson, the defensive end who wants a new contract, took the highest possible road on his situation, saying when reminded of the players who got new deals this summer, "Kudos to them. Kudos to them. I'm glad for anyone that got that done. Me? I don't know. I'll let upstairs handle what they need to handle upstairs."

"Upstairs" is the other end of the contract impasse, a lovely impersonal name for the Trent Baalke/Paraag Marathe/Jed York/Name That Rogue Executive group that determines how much money comes through the spigot. Lawson, who doesn't have the kind of leverage to do a modified Crabtree or even an Albert Haynesworth power pout, has chosen to take the gentler path while he tries to wrestle his position back from Ahmad Brooks.

"He went in there when I was away, and now I'm back," Lawson said. "Competition is where it's at, so we're going to go."

Not exactly a rhetorical Molotov cocktail, that. Then again, this is not a place where the big gesture is welcomed unless it springs forth from head coach Mike Singletary. And he's not holding out.

The other two players who missed all the voluntary/involuntary workouts, cornerbacks Nate Clements and Shawntae Spencer, reported to minicamp as well after spending their off-seasons in Arizona and Pittsburgh, respectively. Clements even forfeited a $500,000 workout bonus by continuing the rehab on his injured shoulder, the one that knocked him into civilian clothes in Week 5 last year. Spencer has worked in Pittsburgh in the past with trainer Buddy Morris, so his absence from previous workouts was not a surprise, and Clements is trying to recapture his place atop the cornerback pool after losing his job in the starting lineup the week before his injury.

"I was telling a friend that I felt anxious about being back, like the same feeling I would get the night before a game," Clements said. "Everything that happened last year really helped put some things in perspective for me, not just football, with family, too. I got to spend more time with my family, which was different because this takes such a toll on your time."

And when he wasn't bonding, he was bouncing a series of weighted medicine balls as though they were volleyballs - spongy, heavy balls that helped strengthen the shoulder that he said was 100 percent even before the calendar turned.

"I was healed up before the season ended," he said. "Now I've had time to rest up and get ready for the season."

Clements, 30, is at a strange place in his career - still working off a huge contract but clearly with something to prove to Singletary after a difficult 2009.

Spencer, 28, is closer to his prime, and with the only real hole on his resume being an unusual devotion to his hometown Pittsburgh Pirates, has a statement to make on a defense that is clearly the strength of this team and the key to its advancement in 2010.

E-mail Ray Ratto at rratto@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page B - 2 of the San Francisco Chronicle