Game of Shadows, Mark FainaruWada
Game of Shadows, Mark FainaruWada
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Game of Shadows
Barry Bonds, BALCO, and the Steroids Scandal that Rocked Professional Sports

Author: Mark Fainaru-Wada, Lance Williams

Narrator: Scott Brick

Unabridged: 10 hr 38 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/04/2006


Synopsis

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 sports, 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 blazed their way to Olympic medals and sluggers brought fans back to baseball, sports officials, the media, and fans looked past the rumors and cheered on the athletes to ever-higher levels of performance. Then, in December 2004, San Francisco Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams broke the story of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, a tiny nutritional supplement company that, according to sworn testimony, was supplying elite athletes with banned drugs. The stories shocked the nation and the exposés 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. And at the center of the story is the biggest star of them all, Barry Bonds, the muscle-bound MVP outfielder for the San Francisco Giants whose suspicious late-career renaissance has him threatening Hank Aaron’s all-time home run record.

Shocking, revelatory, and riveting, GAME OF SHADOWS casts light into the shadows of American sports to reveal the dark truths at the heart of the game today.

About The Author

Mark Fainaru-Wada is a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle. He, aloing with Lance Williams, received the prestigious George Polk Award for their investigation into the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO) and allegations of steroid use among elite athletes, including baseball stars Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi.Lance Williams and his partner Mark Fainaru-Wada are reporters on the investigative team at the San Francisco Chronicle. Together, they broke a series of exclusive stories on the BALCO scandal and earned a string of national honors, including the George Polk Award, The Edgar A. Poe Award of the White House Correspondents’ Association, The Dick Schaap Excellence in Sports Journalism Award, and The Associated Press Sports Editors award for investigative reporting. Williams has written on subjects including the California cocaine trade, Oakland’s Black Panther Party, and the career of San Francisco mayor and political power-broker Willie Brown. His journalism also has been honored with the Gerald Loeb Award for financial writing; the California Associated Press’ Fairbanks Award for public service; and, on three occasions, the Center for California Studies' California Journalism Award for political reporting. He was the Society of Professional Journalists’ Northern California Journalist of the Year in 1999. Born in Ohio, he graduated from Brown University and the University of California-Berkeley and attended University College, London, UK. Before joining the Chronicle, he worked as a reporter at the Hayward Daily Review, the Oakland Tribune, and the San Francisco Examiner. He was a University of Michigan Journalism Fellow in 1986–87.Scott Brick, an acclaimed voice artist, screenwriter, and actor, has performed on film, television, and radio. His stage appearances throughout the US include CyranoHamlet, and MacBeth. In the audio industry, Scott has won over 20 Earphones Awards, as well as the 2003 Audie Award in the Best Science Fiction category for Dune: The Butlerian Jihad. After recording nearly 250 books in five years, AudioFile Magazine named Scott “one of the fastest-rising stars in the audiobook galaxy” and proclaimed him one of their Golden Voices. Brick’s range is unparalleled as he reads thrillers to narrative nonfiction, from biographies to science fiction with aplomb.


Reviews

AudiobooksNow review by Andre Wade on 2017-03-04 15:52:02

This book is very in-depth about BALCO, it's founder Victor Conte and his network of athletes, coaches and drug dealers that cheated their way to success. It is very interesting to learn of the cheating techniques and how BALCO was eventually taken down. I really enjoyed listening to this book, which is very well written.

Goodreads review by Tom on August 04, 2018

As a baseball fan, I was very interested in the information in this book. Among other things, it is the story of how Major League Baseball and the Players Union absolutely failed to address a pervasive problem in the sport. It also tells the amazing story of Barry Bonds--amazing because of just how......more

Goodreads review by Jason on May 29, 2017

It's an impressive piece of journalism from the reporters who got those notorious San Francisco Chronicle scoops during the Balco scandal, but, like many contemporary sports books, it doesn't say much for the integrity of professional sports in the US or abroad. The book works well in its meticulous......more

Goodreads review by Luke on June 07, 2018

In a multi-layered investigation spanning years of evidence which covered the art of athletes deceiving drug testers and fans, alike, these two San Francisco Chronicle journalists have exposed the inner workings of the Steroid Era in tremendous detail with plenty of analysis and both far-reaching th......more

Goodreads review by Cody on February 18, 2021

My only regret is that I didn't read this book sooner. It made me rethink a lot of my opinions about not only the baseball players I grew up admiring, but athletes as a whole. While the scandal is many years removed, it still remains an insightful and relevant read for any baseball fan.......more

Goodreads review by Jim on September 28, 2017

Way better than I thought it would be. I thought this would be a boring petty crime story, but turned out to be well written and in depth on the shady side of Bonds and other track athletes. It was shocking to hear how much trust they out in to Conte and took his 'supplements' without any real medic......more


Quotes

"A sober, skillful and utterly damning account of not just the Bonds fiasco but the pervasive influence of steroids in sports."—Los Angeles Times"Devastating. . . . groundbreaking. . . . Necessary reading for anyone concerned with the steroids era in baseball and track and field and its fallout on sports history."—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times"A compelling portrait of conspiracy. . . . Fascinating."—The Boston Globe"Scorching. . . . A testament to baseball’s failure."—Newsweek"Superb. . . . Important and disturbing."—San Francisco Chronicle"The evidence is detailed, damning, and overwhelming. . . . It’s a growing bonfire of controversy. This book is one of the matches."—The Philadelphia Inquirer"[Fainaru-Wada and Williams] have got the goods and they reveal them methodically. Everything is well-sourced and meticulously explicated."—Chicago Tribune“A shocking exposé of the seedy side of pro sports that underscores just how easy it is to cheat.”—Entertainment Weekly


Awards

  • AudioFile Earphones Award