The Steroid Scandal

San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds has long annoyed or ignored most writers who cover him, so the steroid questions that have dogged him offer the perfect opportunity for some long overdue literary payback. Many readers will find "Game of Shadows," by San Francisco Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, informative and engaging. It's full of behind-the-scenes accounts of alleged steroid use by famous athletes, although it focuses on Bonds, portraying him as a surly, greedy cad worthy of scorn.

Others, however, may find the book too brisk in passages that don't suit the authors' conclusions. Much of the material remains hamstrung by unnamed sources and rehashed interviews with other publications, and falls well short of any earth-shattering revelations that former major leaguer Jose Canseco didn't already tip us off to in his own tell-all.

The book begins with a glimpse into the early years of Victor Conte, founder of the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative, or BALCO, which became the focal point of the government's investigation into performance enhancing drugs, ensnaring many a famous athlete.

Conte grew up trying to be somebody. His first brush with fame was as a would-be rock star who briefly wrangled his way into the 1970s funk band Tower of Power. The end of the first chapter finds Conte sitting in a pot smoke-filled Chevy at the end of a cul-de-sac, getting fired from the band.

Thanks to grand jury testimony leaked to the San Francisco Chronicle, we learn that BALCO's front as a purveyor of nutritional supplements masked its true purpose: distributing designer steroids. They were doled out to elite athletes by muscle-bound gym rats dealing steroids from their cars, or European track coaches with a long history of tweaking athletic performance through chemistry.

The book asserts that many bulky home-run hitters in Major League Baseball were also the beneficiaries of such chemical advancements. We hear from Bonds' trainer, Greg Anderson, who through grand jury testimony details what he did and who he did it for.

Bonds' power surge is now cemented in baseball history. He holds the single-season home-run record and is currently third on the all-time list, behind only Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron. He figures to pass Ruth early in the upcoming season.

Other baseball players enmeshed in the scandal include Gary Sheffield, Jason Giambi, Armando Rios and Benito Santiago. Some flatly confessed, while others deflected blame by claiming they didn't know what they were ingesting.

Conte's clientele went beyond baseball, according to the authors. A designer substance called The Clear was combined with human growth hormones and insulin for track competitors, they allege.

2A large part of the picture painted here by Williams and Fainaru-Wada comes from Kimberly Bell, Bonds' former mistress, but it remains slightly out of focus. Some readers are bound to be put off by her motives, which appear to be primarily financial. Her metamorphosis from pretty face slinking around the players' parking lot to credible voice just in time for media interviews begs further scrutiny. Yet there's a heavy dependence on her version of the truth throughout "Game of Shadows."

Internal Revenue Service agent Jeff Novitzky is portrayed heroically for his role in crushing BALCO. Before digging through BALCO's garbage bin for clues, he had worked tax angles on drug cases. He finds documents with references to drug cocktails, names and mailing addresses of athletes, and other fodder for federal prosecutors. But no athletes have been charged in the investigation. Conte, Anderson and track coach Remy Korchemny received light sentences for their respective roles in "the steroid scandal that rocked professional sports."

If you want to believe that Bonds used steroids, this is the book for you. If you want to KNOW it, you'll have to wait for an admission from the slugger.

By Ron Harris, Associated Press Writer