Game of Shadows     Game of Shadows is the controversial expose of steroid abuse in Major League Baseball written by San Francisco Chronicle journalists Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams  Based primarily on leaked grand jury testimony and several well-placed confidential sources, Game of Shadows purports to reveal what really happened inside baseball’s largest scandal since Pete Rose chose the under. The main utility the book provides is the fusion of information from all sources, that is to say it absorbs the convoluted information concerning this issue and synthesizes it into a readable format. From the beginnings of Victor Conte’s career in nutritional supplements to Barry Bond’s career statistics, Game of Shadows chronicles the origin of steroid use in sports and its effects on some of the greatest names to ever play America’s game or wear her flag at the Olympics. 
           

     Game of Shadows is not a linear story of how steroids got from point A to point Barry, but rather how the pressures and dynamics of the game provided a fertile field for steroids to grow its crop of inflated statistics, increased trips to the Disabled List, and competitive chemistry. It chronicles steroids’ jump from the ranks of the inflated flesh junkies that dominate professional body building to the performance based world of professional sports. More importantly, it illustrates that steroids is not a problem that affects just a small proportion of second tier athletes, but an epidemic that threatens to destroy the credibility of a number of professional sports as well as that symbol of competitive spirit, the Olympics.
             In terms of professional and Olympic athletes “outed”, Game of Shadows is virtually a Who’s Who of top-drawer athletes. The book purports to contain evidence of steroid use by such Olympians as Tim Montgomery, Marion Jones, and Chryste Gaines, and American professional athletes Bill Romanowski, Gary Sheffield, Mark McGwire, and, ad nauseum, Barry Bonds. While the evidence against the other athletes is solid, the book saves its knock out punch for San Francisco Giants outfielder and baseball icon Barry Bonds. The book, in no uncertain terms, describes Barry Bonds as a megalomaniacal racist bent on surpassing baseball’s records in order to elevate his stature, receive larger contracts, and bask in the adoration that is sure to follow. The book does not limit itself to Barry’s on-field antics, but goes on to describe him in his private life as a domineering, obsessive philanderer who uses his children as a shield from the media and bad mouths his father as he lies on his deathbed. The picture painted is not a pretty one, and the book pulls no punches in its description of Bonds.
            Game of Shadows also provides an excellent description of the current drug testing policies in Major League Baseball and the Olympics and illustrates their respective strengths and weaknesses as they pertain to the use of so called “undetectable” steroids. A significant portion of the book is dedicated to the efforts being made to improve these policies and their associated tests, as well as the difficulties that lay therein, especially the work by “independent laboratories” that continue to engineer steroids that cannot be detected by the conventional battery of steroid tests.
In summation, Game of Shadows is a startling account of the pervasive nature of steroids within professional sports and the Olympics. The book’s assertions and associated evidence will cause even the most skeptical reader to question the heroic feats portrayed upon his television screen. Most importantly, it will perhaps energize the fans of baseball and the Olympics to put pressure upon the heads of those leading the current investigations so that the nation and the world can finally have a bit of closure and feel reasonably sure that the medals around the neck of their nation’s most prized athletes are not made of Fool’s Gold.