Game of Shadows : Barry Bonds, Balco, and the Steroids Scandal That Rocked Professional Sports

by Fainaru-Wada, Mark; Williams, Lance

• ISBN13: 9781592401994
• ISBN10: 1592401996
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-03-23
• Publisher: AVERY PUBLISHING GROUP

Summary

The complete inside story of the shocking steroids scandal that turned the sports world upside down For years, in the shadowy reaches of the world of sport, there were rumors that some of our nation’s greatest athletes were using steroids, human growth hormone, and other drugs to run faster, jump higher, and hit harder. But as track stars like Marion Jones blazed their way to Olympic medals and sluggers such as Mark McGwire brought fans back to baseball with stratospheric home runs, sports officials, the media, and fans looked past the rumors and cheered on the stars to ever-higher levels of performance. Then, in December 2004, after more than fifteen months of relentless reporting, San Francisco Chroniclereporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams broke the story of the Bay Area Lab Co-operative, a tiny nutritional supplement company that according to sworn testimony was supplying elite athletes, including baseball MVP Jason Giambi, with banned drugs. The stories, exposing rampant cheating at the highest levels of athletics, shocked the nation as sports heroes were brought low and their records were tainted. The exposes led to Congressional hearings on baseball’s drug problems, and a revived effort to purge the U.S. Olympic movement of drug cheats.Now, in Game of Shadows, Fainaru-Wada and Williams tell the complete story of BALCO and the investigation that has shaken the foundations of the sporting world. They reveal how an obscure, self-proclaimed nutritionist, Victor Conte, became a steroid svengali to multi-millionaire athletes desperate for a competitive edge, and how he created superstars with his potent cocktails of miracle drugs. They expose the international web of coaches and trainers who funneled athletes to BALCO, and how the drug cheats stayed a step ahead of the testing agencies and the law. They detail how an aggressive IRS investigator doggedly gathered evidence until Conte and his co-conspirators were brought to justice. And at the center of the story is the biggest star of them all, Barry Bonds, the muscle-bound MVP outfielder of the San Francisco Giants whose suspicious late-career renaissance has him threatening Hank Aaron’s all-time home run record.Shocking, revelatory, and page-turning, Game of Shadowscasts light into the shadows of American sport to reveal the dark truths at the heart of the game today.

Author Biography

MARK FAINARU-WADA and LANCE WILLIAMS are investigative reporters for the San Francisco Chronicle. After fifteen months of covering steroid use in sports, in December 2004 they reported in the Chronicle on the secret grand jury testimony of pro baseball players Jason Giambi and Barry Bonds, making headlines around the world. Fainaru- Wada and Williams won the Dick Schaap Excellence in Sports Journalism Award, the George Polk Award, and the White House Correspondents-' Association-'s Edgar A. Poe Award for their reporting.

Table of Contents

Prologue	ix
Part I Cheat or Lose	xix
Part II The Investigation	151	(62)
Part III The Most Wanted Man in America	213	(49)
Epilogue	262	(9)
Appendix One Bonds and Steroids	271	(6)
Appendix Two Bonds' Numbers	277	(6)
Source Notes	283	(30)
Acknowledgments	313	(4)
About the Authors	317	(4)
Index	321