Legal Research

Game of Shadows

By mdell

San Francisco Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams chronicle their 15 month investigation into superstar athletes? use of steroids, growth hormones and other banned drugs. Their investigation shocked the nation and led to Congressional hearings. Interestingly, it was the IRS that played a major role in gathering the evidence that brought Victor Conte and others to justice. It seems that when no one else can put the bad guys away, the IRS can get them!

?Now, in Game of Shadows, Fainaru-Wada and Williams tell the complete story of BALCO [the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative] 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, the muscle-bound MVP outfielder of the San Francisco Giants, Barry Bonds, whose suspicious late-career renaissance has him threatening Hank Aaron?s all-time home run record.? ?From Game of Shadows Inside Flap at http://www.gameofshadows.com/_insideflap.html

Posted by Marin Dell

Full post as published by FSU College of Law Library Blog on March 08, 2006 (boomark / email).