Game of Shadows
Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO, and the Steroids Scandal that Rocked Professional Sports is a 2006 nonfiction book by investigative journalists Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, published by Gotham Books, that exposes the systemic use of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) in professional sports through the lens of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) doping operation.[1] The authors detail how BALCO, founded by Victor Conte, developed and supplied undetectable anabolic steroids such as tetrahydrogestrinone ("the clear") and a testosterone-epitestosterone cream ("the cream") to elite athletes, including Major League Baseball's Barry Bonds, track stars like Marion Jones, and others, enabling superhuman physical transformations and record-breaking performances.[2][3] Drawing on leaked federal grand jury transcripts, over 200 interviews, and forensic evidence from positive drug tests, the book reconstructs a decade of evasion tactics by athletes, trainers, and chemists outpacing rudimentary anti-doping measures, particularly in baseball where PED use inflated home run totals and player physiques despite official denials from players' unions and team owners.[2][4] Its publication intensified scrutiny on baseball's integrity, contributing to the 2007 Mitchell Report's recommendations for mandatory testing and suspensions, though implementation faced resistance; Bonds, whose 73 home runs in 2001 and subsequent power surge were linked to BALCO regimens via trainer Greg Anderson, faced perjury charges in 2007 for lying under oath about non-use, resulting in a 2011 conviction later overturned on procedural grounds.[5][6] The authors themselves became central to a controversy when federal prosecutors sought to imprison them for refusing to reveal sources of the leaked testimony, highlighting tensions between journalistic protections and investigative imperatives, ultimately resolved by legislative intervention shielding reporters in such cases.[2]Publication and Background
Authors and Their Reporting
Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams served as investigative reporters on the San Francisco Chronicle's enterprise team, with Fainaru-Wada transitioning from sports reporting—having joined the paper in 1997—to collaborative federal investigations alongside Williams, a veteran journalist who graduated from Brown University in 1972 and specialized in long-form probes into government and corporate misconduct.[7][8] Their prior work included scrutiny of public records and whistleblower accounts in cases involving regulatory failures and criminal enterprises, building expertise in sourcing from court filings and insider documents rather than anonymous speculation.[9][10] In covering the BALCO matter, the duo initiated reporting in late 2003, drawing on federal raid details and athlete interviews, but their breakthrough came with a series of articles published starting December 2, 2004, which disclosed contents of leaked grand jury testimony from athletes under investigation—testimony obtained through protected sources they refused to name despite subpoenas and contempt threats.[11][12] This approach prioritized verifiable excerpts from sworn statements, athlete admissions, and forensic lab data over unconfirmed rumors, earning national awards including the Associated Press Sports Editors' top investigative prize in 2005 for illuminating systemic issues in professional sports.[9][13] Williams and Fainaru-Wada's methodology emphasized cross-verification against public evidence, such as BALCO's seized records and independent chemical analyses, distinguishing their output from contemporaneous media reliance on official denials or player PR statements; their insistence on source confidentiality, however, sparked debates over journalistic ethics, as federal prosecutors argued the leaks undermined the investigation's integrity, leading to a 2006 contempt ruling later vacated after intervention by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.[7][14][15] This empirical focus informed the 2006 book Game of Shadows, expanding their Chronicle dispatches into a documented chronicle grounded in the same primary materials.[16]Publication Details and Context
Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO, and the Steroids Scandal that Rocked Professional Sports was published in hardcover on March 23, 2006, by Gotham Books, an imprint of the Penguin Group.[17] The book was authored by San Francisco Chronicle investigative reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, who expanded their newspaper series on the BALCO scandal into a detailed narrative account.[18] The release came during a period of intensified scrutiny over performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball, following the U.S. House of Representatives' Government Reform Committee hearings on March 17, 2005, which featured testimony from players including Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, and Rafael Palmeiro.[19] This timing coincided with Barry Bonds' anticipated pursuit of Hank Aaron's all-time home run record of 755 during the 2006 season, as Bonds entered the year with 703 career home runs after missing most of 2005 due to injury.[2] The volume incorporates timelines of athlete drug regimens, explanations of substances like tetrahydrogestrinone ("the clear") and its cream delivery form ("the cream"), and profiles of figures such as Bonds, Jason Giambi, and Marion Jones, all derived from records of the federal BALCO investigation and associated grand jury proceedings conducted between 2003 and 2005.[3]Historical Context of PEDs in Baseball
Emergence of Steroid Use in the 1990s
Following the 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike, which canceled the World Series and alienated fans, league officials sought to boost attendance through increased offense, coinciding with a marked surge in home runs and runs scored. In 1995, MLB runs per game reached 4.85, up from 4.33 in 1985, while total home runs climbed from 3,282 in 1990 to 5,451 in 1998.[20][21] This offensive explosion, often termed the "Steroids Era," correlated with widespread adoption of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs), including anabolic steroids, as later confirmed by player admissions.[22] The 1998 home run race between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa exemplified this trend, with McGwire hitting 70 homers and Sosa 66, shattering Roger Maris's 1961 record of 61 and drawing record crowds to heal post-strike wounds. McGwire later admitted using anabolic steroids and androstenedione from 1989 through 2001, including during the 1998 season, attributing no direct causation to his power but acknowledging their role in recovery and physique.[23][24] Such admissions, alongside anecdotal reports of rapid muscle gains in players like Lenny Dykstra, pointed to PEDs as a key driver, though MLB initially downplayed connections amid the popularity boost.[25] Empirical data on player physiques further evidenced this shift: average MLB player weight stabilized around 185 pounds from 1970 to 1992 before rising sharply in the mid-1990s, reaching approximately 190-195 pounds by decade's end, aligning with steroid-facilitated hypertrophy. Anabolic-androgenic steroids promote muscle protein synthesis, leading to increased lean body mass and strength gains of 5-20% in controlled studies, while enhancing recovery from intense training by reducing muscle damage and inflammation.[26][27][28] These trends, including home run rates exceeding 1 per game by 1999—double 1960s levels—served as early indicators of PED prevalence, yet were largely ignored in favor of celebrating the era's excitement, with causal links to steroids only scrutinized post-2000s investigations.[29][30]MLB's Pre-BALCO Policies and Denial
Prior to the BALCO investigation, Major League Baseball prohibited anabolic steroids under a 1991 commissioner's office memo issued by Fay Vincent, which banned the use, possession, or distribution of illegal drugs and controlled substances but provided no testing protocol or penalties beyond voluntary treatment for known users.[31] The absence of enforcement mechanisms stemmed from resistance by the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) during collective bargaining negotiations, where the union consistently opposed random or mandatory drug testing as an infringement on player privacy and due process rights, stalling any comprehensive program until the 2002 labor agreement introduced anonymous survey testing starting in 2003.[32] This lax framework created minimal disincentives for substance use, allowing performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) to proliferate unchecked across clubhouses.[22] Commissioner Bud Selig, assuming the role in 1998 amid post-strike recovery, publicly downplayed steroid concerns despite internal reports of widespread rumors dating to the mid-1990s.[33] In a 2005 congressional testimony, Selig stated that while he had heard anecdotal whispers of PED use following the 1994-95 labor dispute, the issue was not viewed as systemic or performance-altering at scale, a position echoed in earlier MLB statements asserting that drug problems had "greatly subsided."[34][35] Critics, including congressional investigators, highlighted this as institutional denial, noting Selig's reluctance to prioritize testing amid revenue gains from the era's power surge, even as club executives and players reported observable signs of PED influence.[36] The era's statistical anomalies underscored how unmonitored PED access distorted competitive merit. League-wide home runs rose from 3,310 in 1990 to 5,458 in 1998—a 65% increase—while the home run rate per at-bat improved from approximately 1 every 31 at-bats in the early 1990s to 1 every 23 by 1999, exceeding 50% above prior decade baselines without alterations in ballpark dimensions, pitching mounds, or equipment specifications.[29][37] These deviations, concentrated in power metrics rather than contact or speed, aligned temporally with relaxed oversight, enabling a subset of users to inflate records in a manner inconsistent with natural physiological limits or historical variance, thereby eroding the foundational principle of skill-based achievement in baseball.[38]The BALCO Operation
Victor Conte and BALCO's Operations
Victor Conte, a former musician who played bass in funk and soul bands under the nickname "Walking Fish," transitioned to the field of sports nutrition after struggling to make a living in music.[39] [40] Self-taught in biochemistry without completing college, Conte developed his own line of vitamin and mineral supplements aimed at enhancing athletic performance, including products like ZMA and those under the SNAC brand.[41] [42] In 1984, Conte founded the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) in Millbrae, California, initially as a nutritional testing and supplement business, later relocating to Burlingame.[43] [44] BALCO operated as a sports nutrition center, providing blood and urine testing services alongside customized supplement regimens designed to optimize athletes' physiological markers while avoiding detection by standard doping tests.[42] By the mid-1990s, Conte's annual earnings from the lab reached $150,000, reflecting revenue generated from sales of these performance-oriented products to high-profile clients.[42] BALCO's client base comprised elite athletes across sports, including track stars such as Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery, baseball player Barry Bonds, and NFL player Bill Romanowski, who sought the lab's services for purportedly legal nutritional support that skirted regulatory scrutiny.[39] [45] The business model emphasized "designer" supplements engineered to produce benefits akin to banned substances without triggering positive tests, enabling athletes to maintain competitive edges through undetectable means.[41] This approach generated substantial income, with Conte later claiming tens of millions in cumulative sales from such products.[46] A federal raid on BALCO's facilities on September 3, 2003, by IRS agents and a San Mateo County narcotics task force uncovered empirical evidence of the lab's operations, including shipping logs documenting distributions from 1995 onward and client lists pseudonymously identifying athletes.[45] [47] These records, seized alongside calendars and log sheets, detailed supplement shipments and client engagements, providing tangible documentation of BALCO's role as a distribution hub for performance-enhancing regimens.[48]Designer Steroids: "The Clear" and "The Cream"
BALCO Laboratories developed two proprietary performance-enhancing substances known as "The Clear" and "The Cream," engineered to provide anabolic effects while evading standard doping detection methods.[49][50] "The Clear" consists of tetrahydrogestrinone (THG), a synthetic anabolic-androgenic steroid (AAS) designed as the first true designer steroid, synthesized specifically to circumvent anti-doping tests by not matching known banned substances in standard screening protocols.[51][49] THG is orally active and functions as a potent agonist of the androgen receptor, promoting protein synthesis and nitrogen retention for muscle hypertrophy and strength gains.[49] Its undetectability stemmed from its novel structure, derived from gestrinone but modified to avoid identification until advanced mass spectrometry techniques, including comparison with synthesized reference standards, enabled its detection in 2003.[51] "The Cream" is a transdermal cream formulation containing a mixture of testosterone and epitestosterone, applied topically to deliver exogenous testosterone while maintaining a normal urinary testosterone-to-epitestosterone (T/E) ratio, which anti-doping agencies monitored as an indirect marker of doping.[50][52] The epitestosterone component masks elevated testosterone levels by balancing the ratio, typically around 1:1 in natural physiology, allowing users to ingest or apply testosterone without triggering T/E thresholds exceeding 4:1 or 6:1 depending on laboratory protocols.[50] Application involved rubbing small amounts—often described in investigative contexts as doses equivalent to micrograms of each steroid—onto areas like the skin for absorption, minimizing injection risks and enabling precise dosing.[52] Both substances leverage AAS mechanisms to enhance anabolism through androgen receptor activation, increasing muscle protein accretion and recovery from training stress.[53] They also stimulate erythropoiesis by elevating erythropoietin production and directly acting on bone marrow progenitors, raising hemoglobin levels and oxygen-carrying capacity for improved endurance.[53][54] These effects align with established peer-reviewed findings on AAS, where supra-physiological doses dose-dependently boost red blood cell mass independent of endogenous testosterone.[53]Federal Raid and Initial Investigation (2003)
The federal investigation into the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) originated from a tip to the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) on June 5, 2003, when an anonymous caller alerted officials to the distribution of an undetectable designer steroid to elite track and field athletes.[55] USADA subsequently acquired a used syringe containing residue of tetrahydrogestrinone (THG), a novel anabolic agent not previously detectable in standard testing protocols, and forensic analysis traced its source to BALCO through labeling and distribution patterns.[45][56] On September 3, 2003, federal and local authorities executed search warrants at BALCO's headquarters in Burlingame, California, involving agents from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Criminal Investigation Division, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the San Mateo County Narcotics Task Force.[45][57] The raid yielded approximately 600 documents, client records, vials of anabolic steroids, human growth hormone, and other controlled substances, along with evidence of money laundering and conspiracy to distribute performance-enhancing drugs.[58][59] IRS agents led the operation due to suspicions of tax evasion tied to unreported supplement sales, while FDA involvement focused on unapproved drug manufacturing and interstate commerce violations.[60][57] In the immediate aftermath, BALCO founder Victor Conte and executives voluntarily disclosed partial client lists to investigators, facilitating the identification of dozens of athletes receiving shipments of substances labeled as nutritional supplements but containing banned agents.[45] This cooperation, combined with seized shipping manifests and financial records, expanded the probe into a multi-agency effort examining systemic distribution networks.[59] The initial phase uncovered no immediate arrests but laid groundwork for subpoenas and forensic tracing of THG's synthesis, revealing BALCO's role in evading anti-doping regulations through "designer" compounds undetectable until USADA's breakthrough.[61] The investigation's momentum carried into 2004, culminating in the February 12 indictment of Conte, BALCO vice president James Valente, trainer Greg Anderson, and coach Remi Korchemny on 42 counts including conspiracy, steroid distribution, and money laundering.[59][62] These charges stemmed directly from raid evidence, prompting plea negotiations that further exposed athlete connections without relying on later grand jury proceedings.[58]Central Allegations Against Barry Bonds
Timeline of Alleged PED Use (1998–2003)
In 1998, amid the heightened attention on home run hitting following Mark McGwire's and Sammy Sosa's chase for the single-season record, Barry Bonds reconnected with his childhood friend Greg Anderson, who had developed ties to the BALCO laboratory through training other athletes. Bonds hired Anderson as his personal trainer shortly thereafter, marking the onset of an intensified regimen that investigators later alleged incorporated performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) to match the era's power surge.[63][64] This period saw Bonds hit 37 home runs, down slightly from 40 in 1997, but with early signs of physical change as his listed weight rose from 190 pounds in 1996 toward 200 pounds.[65][66] By 1999, allegations detailed in Game of Shadows suggest Bonds' training under Anderson escalated with experimental substances, correlating with a body mass increase to approximately 210-220 pounds and 34 home runs despite a wrist injury limiting play. His on-base plus slugging (OPS) of .902 reflected sustained elite production, though not yet the explosive peaks to come.[63][65] Federal investigators tied this phase to Anderson's BALCO connections, where undetectable "designer" steroids were developed, though Bonds has denied intentional use.[63] In 2000, Bonds' grand jury testimony later confirmed receipt of a substance labeled "the clear" (tetrahydrogestrinone, or THG) and "the cream" (a testosterone gel) from Anderson, which he claimed were unknowingly applied as flaxseed oil and rubbing cream for recovery; these were supplied via BALCO starting that year, per leaked BALCO records and athlete schedules.[63] Performance metrics showed 36 home runs and an OPS of 1.089, with weight nearing 225 pounds, as his slugging percentage climbed amid broader scrutiny of his bulkier frame.[65][67] The 2001 season represented the alleged peak of intensified cycles, with Bonds shattering McGwire's record via 73 home runs—an unprecedented 103% increase from 2000—alongside an OPS+ of 259 (adjusted for era and park, far exceeding his prior career high of 187 in 1993).[65] This output aligned with continued BALCO-sourced regimens, as detailed in investigative reporting, though Bonds attributed gains to natural training. Weight estimates exceeded 230 pounds, fueling speculation. Through 2002 and 2003, allegations persist of ongoing use, with Bonds hitting 46 and 45 home runs respectively, maintaining OPS+ above 230 both years, and listed weight at 228 pounds in 2003.[65][67] His December 2003 grand jury testimony reiterated unknowing application of clear and cream into 2003, but prosecutors cited positive drug tests and witness accounts contradicting denial of awareness, tying cycles to sustained power despite age 38-39.[63][69]Physical Transformations and Performance Metrics
Barry Bonds exhibited marked physical alterations starting in the late 1990s, including an apparent expansion in head size that necessitated larger hats, a change attributed by experts to potential human growth hormone (HGH) use, which induces acromegaly-like effects such as disproportionate growth in extremities and craniofacial structures in adults.[70] [71] Witnesses close to Bonds also observed his shoe size increasing by three full sizes around age 34, alongside broader muscular hypertrophy inconsistent with natural aging or training progression alone.[72] These transformations aligned with anabolic-androgenic steroid (AAS) pharmacology, where elevated testosterone derivatives promote androgenic side effects like acne vulgaris from sebaceous gland overstimulation and laryngeal changes causing voice deepening via hypertrophy of vocal cord tissues.[73] Performance data further underscored anomalous power gains post-1998, when Bonds allegedly initiated performance-enhancing drug (PED) use amid envy of Mark McGwire's home run chase.[63] Prior to 1999, Bonds amassed 411 home runs over 2,042 games with a career on-base plus slugging (OPS) averaging approximately .950 across peak seasons from 1990–1998, reflecting elite but sustainable output.[65] From 1999–2004, however, he slugged 258 home runs in 1,143 games—an average of 43 per season—while posting OPS figures exceeding 1.000 annually (e.g., 1.135 in 2001), culminating in a record 73 homers that year.[74] Such metrics implied exit velocities often surpassing 110 mph on deep-flown balls, far exceeding natural physiological limits for bat speed and force transfer in a player of Bonds' age (36–39), as longer-season home run distances correlate with enhanced kinetic energy from steroid-augmented muscle mass.[75]| Year Range | Games Played | Home Runs | OPS |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990–1998 | 1,487 | 312 | ~.950 (avg.)[65] |
| 1999–2004 | 1,143 | 258 | 1.045+ (annual avg.)[74] |