Jamie Mottram's Sports Blog - www.misterirrelevant.com

In a new book called 'Game of Shadows', San Francisco Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams chronicle Barry Bonds' excessive steroid usage from 1998 through at least 2003. It's this week's SI cover story and the SI.com coverage could not come more highly recommended. Of course, most fans already knew or at least assumed a lot of this already, but it's pretty damning and startling stuff nonetheless. A brief synopsis... 

Go to Tombstone Generator and create your own for Bonds' career. Send it my way and posts may ensue.

These two reporters' two-year investigation includes court documents, affidavits from the BALCO case, memos from federal agents, grand jury testimony, audio tapes and interviews with over 200 sources. The findings?

· Bonds turned to steroids in '98 because he was jealous of Mark McGwire.

· He took steroids every which way they could be taken: injecting, swallowing, rubbing, etc.

· He pushed his trainer into starting new cycles before they were due.

· When he was playing in the '02 World Series "he was fueled by meticulous three-week cycles in which he injected growth hormone every other day, took the Cream and the Clear in the days in between, and capped the cycle with Clomid (a women's infertility drug)."

· He is described as "a menacing boor, a tax cheat and an adulterer given to sexual dysfunction, hair loss and wild mood swings" to boot.

Ouch. Amazing player. Amazing story. What a long, hard fall from grace. I wonder if he'll ever play again and how MLB will handle his legacy. At least this should make his ESPN reality show all that much more entertaining.

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• #4 Comment from ucswimma03 
  3/11/06 12:30 PM | Permalink

  I will buy this book the day that it comes out, just as I did with pete rose's book. Barry Bonds for me was my favorite player growing up, now I consider him the second greatest lier in the game of baseball next to pete rose. I am a cincinnatian and I don't think that the man has given the city and the oldest franchise in the world two black eyes should be in the hall. As much as I dislike Bud Selig, he should do what Fay Vincent did with Pete: Ban Bonds For Life.
• #3 Comment from dvh180 
  3/8/06 11:56 AM | Permalink

  bonds lost all credibility as a person and athlete when he had his alimony/child support reduced during the last mlb strike because he wasn't working. he doesn't think of his kid(s) except the current one - how much ego does it take from that to steroids? NOT a big amoral step.
• #2 Comment from monponsett 
  3/7/06 6:55 PM | Permalink

  Bonds should wrestle professionally, as they are less rigidly tested.
• #1 Comment from diecastdude24 
  3/7/06 6:21 PM | Permalink

  The Giants have issued the following statement: "Hey, did we mention we're going to have a Kirk Rueter Day sometime this year?"
  
  P.S.  Maybe Felipe Alou can call the book's co-authors messengers of Satan.  Granted, it'd been done, but if it worked before...