List $29.95

Written by Mark Fainaru-Wada & Lance Williams - Audio book narrated by Arnie Mazer - Abridged Nonfiction - 5 COMPACT DISCS - 6 hours

Publisher, Random House Audiobooks (March 2006)

The complete inside story of the shocking steroids scandal that turned the sports world upside down.

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.

For years, in the shadowy reaches of the world of sports, there were rumors that some of our nation's greatest athletes were using steroids, human growth hormone, and other drugs to run faster, jump higher, and hit harder. But as track stars blazed their way to Olympic medals and sluggers brought fans back to baseball, sports officials, the media, and fans looked past the rumors and cheered on the athletes to ever-higher levels of performance. Then, in December 2004, San Francisco Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams broke the story of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, a tiny nutritional supplement company that, according to sworn testimony, was supplying elite athletes with banned drugs. The stories shocked the nation and the exposés led to congressional hearings on baseball's drug problems and a revived effort to purge the U.S. Olympic movement of drug cheats.

Now, in Game of Shadows, Fainaru-Wada and Williams tell the complete story of BALCO and the investigation that has shaken the foundations of the sporting world. And at the center of the story is the biggest star of them all, Barry Bonds, the muscle-bound MVP outfielder for the San Francisco Giants whose suspicious late-career renaissance has him threatening Hank Aaron's all-time home run record.

Shocking, revelatory, and riveting, Game of Shadows casts light into the shadows of American sports to reveal the dark truths at the heart of the game today.

About the Authors: Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada are investigative reporters for the San Francisco Chronicle. After fifteen months of covering steroid use in sports, in December 2004 they broke the story of the secret grand jury testimony of pro baseball players Jason Giambi and Barry Bonds, making headlines around the world. They won the George Polk Award, the White House Correspondents Association's Edgar A. Poe Award, and the Dick Schaap Excellence in Sports Journalism Award for their reporting. They live in the San Francisco Bay Area.

About the Narrator: Mazer currently works as a writer at Fox5 News, WCBS News Radio 880, produces The Leon Charney Report and is the Executive Producer of The Bill Mazer Radio Show. Mazer adheres to one theory: It's the message, not the medium that's important.