Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO, and the Steroids Scandal that Rocked Professional Sports | 
 enlarge | Authors: Mark Fainaru-wada, Lance Williams
Publisher: Gotham
Category: Book
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Rating:  110 reviews
Sales Rank: 32551
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Media: Hardcover
Pages: 352
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.3
Dewey Decimal Number: 362.29
Publication Date: March 23, 2006
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Product Description
The blockbuster New York Times bestseller that caused a media firestorm and stayed in the headlines for weeks at last arrives in paperback with a new afterword about the Barry Bonds perjury investigation.
This is the complete inside story of the BALCO steroids scandal from the award-winning reporters who broke the news nationally. In the summer of 1998, as baseball was still struggling to regain popularity lost during the contentious 1994 players strike that caused the World Series to be canceled, a race to break the home-run record transfixed the nation. Over the next three seasons, baseball players across the country hit home runs at unprecedented rates. Although sportswriters pointed to suspicions of juiced baseballs and small parks being responsible, there were whispers that illegal performance-enhancing drugs were being used. But home runs were big business, and baseball carried on with a weak performance-drug testing regime. In December of 2004, after more than a year of investigation, San Francisco Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams broke the story that in a federal investigation of a nutritional supplement company called BALCO, Barry Bonds and fellow slugger Jason Giambi had admitted to taking steroids. Immediately the issue of steroids in baseball became front-page news. In Game of Shadows, Fainaru-Wada and Williams expose the secrets of BALCO, illuminating how professional athletes risked their health for a competitive edge.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 105 more reviews...
 At last, the mighty will fall... March 24, 2006
Robert Busko (Waynesville, NC USA)
63 out of 102 found this review helpful
I've been waiting for this book, or one like it, for years. I like many sports fans tend to hold my heros high. This adoration, premised on the idea that their exploits on the field, are an honest reflection of hard work, dedication, and love of the game. Naive? You bet. Professional sports and sportsmen will take the easy road everytime if it means more of the thing they value the most..... money. As Mark Fainaru-Wada in Game of Shadows, points out, players like Barry Bonds will cheat at every turn not to get our adoration, oh no. They don't want our love and affection. What they want is more money and be-damned everything else, including our trust. Mark McGuire is another who has not only tainted himself; no, he's sullied the game that we and he, no doubt love dearly.
There's a special place in hell for these people. I hope they have their own room where they can spend time together.
Game of Shadows is a great book. Well researched and written in such a convincing manner, even the biggest skeptic will be won over. It'll break your heart if you're a sports enthusiast. Be ware.
The State of Baseball circa 2006 April 2, 2006
Steven Hellerstedt
15 out of 24 found this review helpful
First Jose Canseco, now this.
Canseco, ex-baseball player, admitted steroid user, occasional prevaricator, and Pariah #1 to the lords of the grand old game wrote `Juiced' in 2005. Canseco's memoir is rife with stories of steroid use among major league baseball players, most notably that of Canseco's bash brother teammate and modern day folk hero, Mark McGwire. McGwire, you'll recall, along with Sammy `Juice' Sosa, is credited with bringing the fans back after a disastrous strike in 1994 when, in 1998, they launched a two-pronged, media friendly, successful assault on Roger Maris's record for most home runs hit in a single season. Canseco's book detailed `how baseball got big,' but let's face it, he's a mirror-loving flake who would probably say anything to sell a book or get on Oprah. That he only confirmed what many people had long suspected was kind of beside the point.
`Game of Shadows' ratchets up the stakes considerably. Written by two respected San Francisco investigative reporters and released during spring training, 2006, it directly implicates San Francisco Giants' superstar Barry Bonds as a long term steroid user. Big surprise, eh? Don't all of us add thirty pounds of muscle, have our hair fall our, develop acne and suddenly begin to fly into uncontrollable rages after our 35th birthday? Bonds did all of that, besides hitting more home runs in that period that any at other comparable period in his career.
For all the attention Bonds has received (Bud Selig, the commissioner of baseball, has announced MLB will launch an investigation into steroid use my major league ballplayers a few days ago - that the announcement coincides with the release of this book in no coincidence) `Game of Shadows' is really a three-part story. First, it presents the story of the Oakland-based BALCO founder and head steroid pusher Victor Conte. Running parallel to the Conte/BALCO story is that of Olympic runner Marion Jones and, of course, Bonds. Conte oversaw a huge steroid mill, personality drawing up doping calendars for his famous clients. Olympic athletes, who have a strict anti-doping policy, were able to cheat effectively by taking new designer drugs supplied by Conte and either masking them or flying under the radar because the drug they took was so new - or old, as the book explains - that the drug labs didn't test for them. Major league baseball didn't have a testing policy until recently, so masking was not an issue. Besides Bonds, the book implicates Jason Giambi and Gary Sheffield, among others.
I recommend `Game of Shadows' without hesitation.
Fantastic, but what is the bigger story? August 31, 2006
David H. Peterzell (San Diego, CA United States)
9 out of 12 found this review helpful
The drug industry continues to develop anti-Alzheimer's drugs and other drugs to strengthen cognitive functioning. I'm hoping that I can use these things recreationally the same way some people use steroids. With an IQ of 220, and increased creative/scientific output, I plan to win about 5 Nobel Prizes. I will claim that I'm a natural genius and that I did not use mental-performance-enhancing drugs while coming up with my creamy-clear scientific theories. Moreover, I will win multiple Pulitzer prizes for my Amazon reviews. Until then, book reviews like the one that follows will have to suffice.
Add me to the list of people who enjoyed "Game of Shadows" and found this to be a spectacular piece of investigative journalism. If you like investigative journalism that is reminiscent of Watergate era quality, then you've come to the right place.
Even so, I believe that "Game of Shadows" leaves a fair number of loose ends, and doesn't explain how and why designer drugs permeate professional sports. So here are a few observations and spectulative comments.
Sure, this is a sensational story, and it reeks of truth. But BALCO was just a "Little League" operation. The journalists allude to this at times, but never make this point explicitly. If you wanted to build a world class doping operation, you wouldn't waste time with an unpredictable and narcissistic loudmouth like Victor Conte. You wouldn't invest time or money or trade secrets in someone who was incapable of good science, incapable of maintaining confidentiality, incapable of professionalism; incapable of maintaining good relations with colleagues; and incapable of running a successful business. And you wouldn't have obvious juicers like Greg Anderson distributing the stuff. And without a doubt, you wouldn't want your precious illegal chemicals in the hands of difficult, unpredictable, uncontrollable nuts like Barry Bonds or Bill Romanowski, no matter how special their athletic talents. Most of the characters in this story would be unwelcome in a powerful, widespread and self-protective drug-doping syndicate.
So what do the "Big League" operations look like? The answer to this question is beyond the scope of the book, unfortunately. But think about this for a moment. It is possible to answer this question even if the facts are not provided by "Game of Shadows." Just do a functional assessment of the antecedents, behaviors and consequences described by the authors, and the hidden will become obvious.
First off, the big league operation targets a wealthy and reliable clientele. (I was amazed at how little "Game of Shadows" athletes paid for their drugs; Bonds was portrayed as cheap and unreliable). The business will find athletes, coaches and organizations who are willing to pay large sums of money for quality products. That's not difficult because there's no shortage of individuals who will subscribe to the "cheat or lose" strategy. Moreover, the clientele will need to follow instructions and keep secrets. They will need to keep evidence hidden from competitors, the media, and law enforcement personnel. If caught, they wouldn't dare drag others down with them. One remarkable aspect of "Game of Shadows" is how easily things unraveled; how easy it was to get the characters in the saga to turn on each other. In a more solid operation, run by organized crime, the consequences of snitching outweigh any benefits of telling the truth.
Second, the "big league" chemical products need to change and improve frequently, to maximize chances of winning, and to minimize chances of getting caught. They would be upgraded and changed at least as frequently as Mac OS10. Your rogue chemists must develop designer drugs that are highly sophisticated, remaining anonymous. "Game of Shadows" provided a glimpse of this chemical engineering, though chemist Patrick Arnold was far too visible to be a sensible designer-drug chemist. The chemists who work for organized crime syndicates remain hidden, and do not seek "guru" status. The serious guys aren't out there bragging, especially online, leaving a paper trail.
Third, if your big-time organized illegal business is making huge amounts of money, you'll be able to influence athletic governing boards, sports teams, the media and even government. If an athlete gets caught, it isn't a huge problem. If a small-time punk competitor like Conte gets busted, well hallelujah. But if a doping scandal becomes too big, you'll be able to use your power and influence to minimize its impact. That seems to be what happened with BALCO. For instance, the big fish found ways to squelch the legal momentum of this story, using Kevin Ryan and others. Government hearings took place, and a few stars were sacrificed on the congressional altar... and now it is back to business as usual. Fans continue to flock to professional sports like sheep.
If you, the reader, look a little further under the rock you'll find that organized crime permeates professional sports. One author who suggests a strong link between organized crime and professional sports is the crime writer Dan Moldea. I don't know if I accept all of what Moldea says, but it makes sense to me that the mob would LOVE to design and sell performance-altering drugs. The mob loves money and they have few scruples about how they get it. They design, produce and distribute illicit drugs. They strive to influence government and policy. No doubt, they'd love to see the little guys (Conte/BALCO) go away. They'd love it if the sports commissioners kept drug issues and testing completely private. They'd love it if the doping stories didn't upset the cart too much.
So my take is that there is a a huge untold story behind Game of Shadows: Small independent outfits like BALCO have gotten plenty of attention because of their ineptitude and the fact that they've sold products to some famous athletes. But the "gold standard" performance enhancing drugs are designed and distributed competently and quietly by organized crime. For the most part, they do this under the radar of the law, media and fans, leading to huge profits.
This BALCO story is indeed reminiscent of events during the Watergate era. Thirty years ago, during the Watergate scandal, Americans came to terms with reports put forth by Woodward and Bernstein, and other journalists. They learned, en masse, of the initial criminal events (in this case, a break-in); of a massive cover-up involving famous people and key government officials; of a widespread problem that was not going away. Some people denied the facts or tried to find fault with the journalists. Fanatics spun the events based on their extreme viewpoints. Many sheep err I mean people were simply too stupid or apathetic to understand much, or to understand the importance of the story. Some people followed the story but viewed it as an isolated event. And a few tried to understand the implications at a deeper level. I hope that as you read Game of Shadows, you find this deeper level.
Bonds Fans: Take Note! November 12, 2006
A reader (United States)
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
I don't know how anyone can read this book and retain a shred of respect for the athletes who pumped themselves up with steroids and an array of other illegal substances, in order to best their competition. The authors call them what they are: not champions, but drug cheats. Bloated hulks like Barry Bonds- who continues to lie about his steroid use- should have been thrown out of baseball years ago. Where is Judge Landis when we need him?
The book also details the drug cheating in other sports, and the athletes' justification that, if they didn't use steroids, they would have no chance to excel in any professional sport- that's how rampant steroid use is. The authors also detail how government officials, in thrall to the business of professional baseball and reluctant to do anything that might damage the sport, continued to protect even those athletes who had admitted in closed testimony to steroid use, by refusing to make their names public.
But despite the momentary furor this book caused when it first came out, nothing has really changed. MLB's drug testing procedures are a joke. Bonds has been allowed to go right on hitting his drug-cheat home runs, and will no doubt eventually break the all-time home run record set by Hank Aaron- a disgrace if there ever was one!
The picture the authors paint of Bonds is appalling- what an arrogant, obnoxious, over-privileged SOB! Dislike of Bonds has nothing to do with his race, although he likes to think that it does. People dislike him because he's not only a drug cheat, but a liar, an abuser of women, a serial adulterer, an insulter of fans, teammates, and reporters, and a generally worthless human being. But I guess that's of no importance to Bonds' blindly loyal fans.
This is a birlliant piece of investigative reporting!
Bonds getting steroids from AIDS patients, using bovine hormones March 30, 2006
Richard M. Logan (Seattle, WA)
16 out of 20 found this review helpful
Bonds getting steroids from local AIDS patients (via his "trainer/dealer" Greg Anderson), and use of injectable cattle hormones designed to improve the marbling of commercial beef, are but a few of the amazing revelations in the Fainaru-Wada/Williams book. By far the best sports book I've read since Moneyball, the exhaustive research done by the authors is compelling, and the fact that they're local to the Bay Area serves to give the saga a hometown feel. It is also a tome that ranges far beyond the singular issue of Barry Bonds and goes into much greater detail at a macro level than the previously excerpted articles from Sports Illustrated.
Sections where they detail the special treatment that star athletes received at BALCO headquarters in Burlingame are especially telling. The fact that BALCO reps would actually shepherd their customers through the blood testing at local hospitals illustrates just how widespread the cheating had become -- and how cocky all the particpants were increasingly becoming in defying all attempts at credible testing.
Sections where former Bonds confidantes and myriad others in his "cult of personality" are threatened physically as Bonds goes through impotence, 'roid rage and the other deliterious effects from usage of the hormone and steroid cocktails are downright scary and read almost like a true crime thriller.
I was initially a little skeptical about these authors having an axe to grind, but "Game of Shadows" has surprisingly been one of the more enjoyable reads so far for me this decade. For a guy that was at Pac Bell when Barry launched #500 off Chan Ho Park, I almost feel dirty that I bothered to attend and root him on in the first place.
Good to see that this book has prompted a long overdue investigation by former Senate majority leader George Mitchell into MLB's pervasive steroid problems. To be sure, there is plenty of blame to be laid at the feet of others as well as Bonds, most notably Selig and the MLBPA. However, as Bonds nears the HR marks of Ruth and Aaron, the most storied records in pro sports, it is inconceivable to imagine anyone celebrating the false achievements of a complete and utter pariah -- unless they ignore all information to the contrary.
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