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Title details for Game of Shadows by Mark Fainaru-Wada - Available

Game of Shadows

Barry Bonds, BALCO, and the Steroids Scandal that Rocked Professional Sports

by Mark Fainaru-Wada
Scott Brick
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 1 copy available
This audiobook is the window into the underground world of cheating at the highest levels, which set off a frenzy of activity and hand-wringing in the offices of Major League Baseball and Congress. Through the authors' pursuit of sources and documents, they were able to open for public view a world in which elite athletes trade money and risk their health for the edge that will allow them to run faster, hit harder, and compete longer—and then cash in on the fame and wealth that comes only to those at the very top of their games.
What the compelling newspaper articles weren't able to provide is the kind of narrative and inside-baseball look at BALCO that only a book or audiobook could explore. This is the definitive account of the sports story of our times, as written by the journalists who blew it open.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    October 10, 2006

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780739353714
      • File size: 306422 KB
      • Duration: 10:38:22

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      The fascinating story of Barry Bonds and the people and companies that allegedly supplied him steroids is so well-written that the quality of the reader seems irrelevant, but not with Scott Brick at microphone. The authors' research is encyclopedic, documenting not only Bonds's controversial life, but also the lives of a Who's Who of sports. Brick's reading could not be better. His style is laid-back, and his timing is so good that the listener becomes thoroughly engrossed with the book. However, Brick turns on the intensity at the end, reading with a biting style that pulls no punches. GAME OF SHADOWS will appeal not only to sports fans, but to anyone who wants to learn a lot about the seedy world behind many of our athletic "heroes." D.J.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      Starred review from January 1, 2007
      This audio has all the information anyone needs to understand doping, including the use of steroids, in track and field athletics and among professional U.S. athletes. This is a story of big ambitions, big egos, big bucks, and big sleaze, told in gym rat/locker room adult vernacular. "San Francisco Chronicle" reporters Fainaru-Wada and Williams present convincing evidence that doping is widespread among Olympic athletes and marquee players from major league baseball (MLB) and the National Football League (NFL) and that BALCO (Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative) was a major player in the development of undetectable steroids for performance enhancement. There are really very few "good guys" in this story: even the authors' employer was among the San Francisco-area newspapers that published secret grand jury testimony in order to expose steroid use in MLB. Also, it becomes obvious that kids die emulating their MLB and NFL heroes. To truly understand why Barry Bond's personal trainer, Greg Anderson, was recently imprisoned for contempt of court for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury, get this audio. Read by Scott Brick, "Game of Shadows" is highly recommended.Cliff Glaviano, Bowling Green State Univ. Libs., OH

      Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      The abridged version of this book gets right to the point: Barry Bonds and other elite athletes used steroids because that was the only way they could succeed and used other substances to mask this use when they were tested. Some people might not find this surprising, but hearing the actual evidence is jarring to anyone who relishes true competition. Narrator Arnie Mazer's voice is nasally, reedy, combative, and somewhat annoying. In other words, he's the perfect person to read a sports book in which the athletes try to dupe unwitting fans. It's as if Mazer, speaking for the public, is outraged that our baseball, football, and Olympic heroes would sell their souls for one more victory. R.I.G. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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