I was never a fan of Barry Bonds. Being a Dodger fan, I loathed anyone who donned the orange and black of San Francisco. However, I did respect the numbers he put up throughout his entire career. We all remember the insane numbers he put up near the tail end of his career. Like everyone else in the world, I suspected Bonds did steroids. I watched the news and read the articles. Everyone knew it but no one could prove it.

As much as I wanted to see Major League Baseball rip Bonds from the history books, I had to give him the benefit of the doubt because there was no solid evidence against him.

And then I read Game of Shadows.

The last remaining traces of respect I had for the alleged home run king vanished. There is no doubt Bonds did steroids. Sure, at the time the MLB did not have a drug policy, but federal government had already prohibited the use of non-prescribed steroids in this nation. Bonds was clearly breaking the law and so was his entourage around him. Additionally, the San Francisco Giants organization, the Players’ Union, and Bud Selig practically encouraged steroid use by turning a blind eye.

I was captivated with how devastating and damning this book is for Major League Baseball. The Steroid Era is (hopefully) over now, and I hope it remains that way.

If you really want to see the ugly underpinnings of Major League Baseball and almost any competitive professional sport, this book will blind you with thorough research.

This was a good book. Very good. So why only 3 stars? Because in many ways I felt like I was reading a tabloid. Or perhaps it's that I'm disgusted by the scope and depth of the PED scandal. Either way, where once my local GNC received no more than neutral ignorance, I now see it as a portal to a shortcut on the highway to hell.

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 incredibly egocentric, brusque, foolish and just mean-spirited he was (and is, I suspect).

The book tells two parallel stories--one concerning baseball and another about track and field. Track comes away looking much better because cheating athletes were actually given suspensions prior to the 2004 Olympics, whereas no baseball players were suspended or indicted at the time of these investigations.

The authors are reporters for the SF Chronicle and the book reads a little like a collection of articles. It is extremely well researched and while it is not poorly written, it does lack the flow and cohesiveness that a masterful writer would have given it.

Pathetic

Barry Bonds is a douche bag! He should be ashamed to call himself the Home Run King! I was not surprised he played the Race card. As far as Marion Jones, she needs to be Tarred and Feathered. She was a superior athlete from the beginning, why did she need performance enhancing drugs. All of them mentioned in the book should have an *** next to their names or their names erased from record books. I was already wining myself from profession sports. Consider me done! I will try to enjoy high school sports and even that is becoming infectious. SMH

This book did not much scratch my baseball itch. It talked as much about chemistry and about track as it did about baseball. What the book did accomplish is to move my general dislike of Barry Bonds into absolute disgust. His decision to "juice" did not so moved me. I can understand that he had a lot of athletes who wanted to be the best baseball player possible used a chemical advantage to do so under the pressure that they did not want to fall behind. But reading about the way Bonds treated the people around him was discussing. For instance, he told one girlfriend casually that he was going to marry someone else but that their "arrangement" would not change. He was only marrying this other girl so that he could get custody of his kids from his ex-wife. This same unfortunate girlfriend who was berated and manipulated by Bonds also took him at his word that he would buy her a house and quit a respectable job to move as he "requested". Of course Bonds didn't follow through to support her in the course of action he insisted upon, and she fell deeper and deeper in debt.

Journalism's Finest.

I know it this book was written by two journalists, but since you have no idea where the "sources" come from, it really reads like a trashy novel.

This trashy; yet entertaining, "novel" revolves around steroids, BALCO, and namely, Barry Bonds. I am not sure what the authors intent was with the book, but I think at first, they wanted to really expose BALCO. In the end, they just went out to vilify Barry Bonds. I am sure this was done to sell more books.

I wish they had just stuck to BALCO and exposed a variety of athletes and not just focused on Bonds. Everyone out there already hates Bonds, except for Giants fans, of course.

If you are a baseball fan, then I highly recommend this book. It's well-written and very interesting. It's hard to put down. If you are a Giants fan, then you should probably stay away from this book. It will only depress you.

Being a Giants fan must suck.

Go Dodgers!

In a world where winning is actually everything, professional athletes are put in a tough position in determining how far they are willing to push the boundaries in order to achieve the prize. Organized sports, such as the MLB (Major League Baseball) and NHL (National Hockey League) may seem like it’s just for fun because it involves grown adults playing children’s games, but in reality it’s more of a business. When you put an innocent child’s game into the bright spotlights of national entertainment and business, you may run into some problems.
This collaboration of Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams went into extreme detail about each person mentioned in the book, from their early life up until how they got involved with BALCO and how getting involved with BALCO changed their lives. You really get to know each person’s story from a variety of angles, allowing you to decide whether or not they were being truthful. Fainaru-Wada and Williams use a lot of unfamiliar, but specific, scientific terms when they explain the content of the drugs and how it affected their performance. While it could be confusing at first, you eventually get the gist of what you can and can’t do to your body. As they worked to expose every incriminating detail of the case, they keep you engaged by structuring the facts in a way that builds the tension and prevents you from putting the book down! The way they describe these real events puts a clear picture in your head of exactly how it all went down, which makes it a more exciting read.
I loved this book and I strongly believe that anybody who is a fan of baseball, or even just sports in general, would find this book entertaining. Everybody wants to be in on the gossip and this book uncovers all that anyone could ever hope for regarding the BALCO scandal that shook professional sports.

A good read and very informational. Extremely thorough in all of their research. Book does end very abruptly though and doesn’t finish the tale of what happens to Barry Bonds but that happens after this book was published.

If Barry Bonds had retired at the end of the 1998 major league baseball season he would have been a first ballot inductee into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2005. Barry Bonds was the greatest outfielder of his generation. In the field his extraordinary arm was matched by his spectacular defensive range. At the plate he hit for both power and average. And on the base path he could steal and advance at will. As the authors note, Barry Bonds thought he was a better baseball player than every baseball player he ever met. And in most cases he was right.

At the end of the 1998 season Barry Bonds was 34 years old. He had won 3 National League MVP awards, was a career .290 hitter with 1,917 hits, 1,357 walks, 1,216 RBI and 411 Home Runs. And he wore size 10 1/2 shoes, size 42 jersey, size 7 1/4 hat (over a head full of hair), stood 6' 1" tall and weighed 190 lbs.

During the 1998 major league season Barry Bonds watched two of his fellow players -- Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa -- wage a season long home run derby in pursuit of Roger Maris' single season home run record. (In 1961 Roger Maris hit 61 home runs to break Babe Ruth's record 60 home runs during the 1927 season. Ruth's record had stood for 34 years. Maris' record would stand for 37 years.)

And as baseball fans feted McGwire and Sosa as genuine heroes -- and the national media proclaimed them the saviors of baseball -- the greatest outfielder of his generation seethed.

Barry Bonds knew he was a better baseball player than Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa combined. And with each home run McGwire and Sosa hit in 1998 (they'd both eclipse Maris -- McGwire hit 70 and Sosa hit 66) Bonds fury grew.

Barry Bonds was 34 years old. He'd never hit more than 46 home runs in a single season (five years earlier in 1993). And in his anger he decided he would do whatever it took to show the world he was the best home run hitter to ever play the game.

In his own words, Barry Bonds would "take the shit."

And like most athletes who chose to "take the shit" two things happened. First, there was phenomenal athletic success. Second, there was the discovery of the cheating and the resulting consequences.

Using a suite of anabolic steroids and human growth hormone Barry Bonds transformed himself -- literally and figuratively -- into the best home run hitter to ever play the game.

Over the next six seasons, from 1999 to 2004, Bonds would average an unprecedented 50 home runs per season. (In 2001 he'd hit 73 home runs to break McGwire's single season record that had stood for a mere three years.)

And over those six seasons -- all after age 35 -- Barry Bonds physically grew at an alarming rate. His shoe size went from 10 1/2 to 13, his jersey went from size 42 to size 54, where a size 7 1/4 hat once covered a head full of hair he now wore a 7 3/4 hat over a shaved head, he grew from 6' 1" tall to 6' 3" tall and he went from weighing 190 lbs. with some body fat to weighing 260 lbs. with no body fat.

What did Barry Bonds mean in 1998 when he said he would "take the shit"? And what, ultimately, were the consequences of his decision? That is answered in this detailed account written by Mark Fainaru-Wu and Lance Williams.

And the answers involve more than 'the cream,' 'the clear,' THG, EPO, human growth hormone and Barry Bonds' mission to claim every home run record in baseball history.

It's an intriguing story with colorful 'criminals' like Victor Conte, Greg Anderson and Remi Korchemny and the underground scientists who produce undetectable anabolic steroids. There are countless cheating athletes from the the Olympics, NFL and MLB. And their coaches and trainers. And their employers. There are straight arrow Boy Scout federal agents, scientists and anti-doping crusaders earnestly seeking to clean things up. There are politicians who talk out of both sides of their mouth, want it both ways and cause more harm than good. There are grieving parents who've lost their children to steroid abuse (children following the example set by their athletic role models). And it's all rounded out by an ensemble cast of journalists, attorneys and judges.

The story is not a pleasant one. It's dirty. And it's genuinely heartbreaking.

If Barry Bonds had retired at the end of the 1998 major league baseball season he would have been a first ballot inductee into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2005. But he didn't. Driven by a furious anger Barry Bonds decide to "take the shit" in order to hit as many home runs as possible. He succeeded. And in doing so the greatest outfielder of his generation guaranteed he will never be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

This is a good read, but a sad one. As a baseball fan myself, I could not help but be saddened by what I was reading. Records and statistics are more important in baseball than perhaps any other sport. And for some, as in the case with players like Barry Bonds, it became an obsession. The steroid scandal of BALCO was huge. It ran through not only baseball, but the Olympics and all other sports as well. This story is a page turner that reads like a crime novel with villain after villain appearing and yet there is no real hero to be found. Who is most at fault? Is it the one who sells the drugs and persuades others to take them (Victor Conte)? Is it the one who just has to have "that record and notoriety? (Barry Bonds, Marion Jones, ect.)" Is it the people running the sports who look the other way for greed and profit sake (Bud Selig)? Or perhaps its all of them. Either way, this true story of darkness has no happy ending.

I found this an interesting account of the steroids history in baseball and the Olympics. It told the story of Barry Bonds and many of the other steroid users in baseball as well as Marion Jones and other Olympic athletes who used or were caught using banned substances in sports. I know there are strong urges to use steroids to become the best you can be in your sport. I can now better understand the pressure that Lance Armstrong felt to use steroids to win the many Tour de France's he competed in. I'm optimistic that we can get these substances out of sports, but know there will always be a temptation to use them. Lifetime bans for cheaters might be the only way to rid sports of these intense problems. A recommended read.