Sports

The complete inside story of the shocking steroids scandal that turned the sports world upside down
For years, in the shadowy reaches of the world of sport, 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 like Marion Jones blazed their way to Olympic medals and sluggers such as Mark McGwire brought fans back to baseball with stratospheric home runs, sports officials, the media, and fans looked past the rumors and cheered on the stars to ever-higher levels of performance. Then, in December 2004, after more than fifteen months of relentless reporting, "San Francisco Chronicle" reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams broke the story of the Bay Area Lab Co-operative, a tiny nutritional supplement company that according to sworn testimony was supplying elite athletes, including baseball MVP Jason Giambi, with banned drugs. The stories, exposing rampant cheating at the highest levels of athletics, shocked the nation as sports heroes were brought low and their records were tainted. The exposes 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. They reveal how an obscure, self-proclaimed nutritionist, Victor Conte, became a steroid svengali to multi-millionaire athletes desperate for a competitive edge, and how he created superstars with his potent cocktails of miracle drugs. They expose the international web of coaches and trainers who funneled athletes to BALCO, and how the drug cheats stayed a step ahead of the testing agencies and the law. They detail how an aggressive IRS investigator doggedly gathered evidence until Conte and his co-conspirators were brought to justice. And at the center of the story is the biggest star of them all, Barry Bonds, the muscle-bound MVP outfielder of the San Francisco Giants whose suspicious late-career renaissance has him threatening Hank Aaron's all-time home run record.

Shocking, revelatory, and page-turning, "Game of Shadows" casts light into the shadows of American sport to reveal the dark truths at the heart of the game today.

Fifteen world championships in the 350 cc and 500 cc classes, 18 Italian national titles (175, 250, 350 and 500 cc), 311 victories in world championship races of which 123 were world championship counters and 10 wins in the legendary TT. That is the incredible record of Giacomo Agostini, achieved between 1962, the year in which he won his first race at Bologna-San Luca on a Morini Settebello, and 1977 when he took the win at Hockenheim on a Yamamoto in the 750 cc class.

Agostini - just about everyone calls him Ago - was the greatest racing motorcyclist ever, and today he has decided to review his magnificent career again by bringing together the greatest, most significant photographs of his life in a book. The debut on the Morini, the golden years with MV and the less dazzling period with Yamaha, his experience as a team manager as well as his family, friends and his fleeting appearance on four wheels; these are the chapters that comprise this work, which has never previously been attempted.

"Golf in America: The First One Hundred Years" is the only book to cover the entire history of the game in the United States--from the days of the Apple Tree Gang to the present. It shows how golf developed and how it blossomed into America's sporting passion. More than 20 million American men and women play golf, and many more millions watch the major tournaments as they are televised each week. Spectator crowds have grown so large that a new type of golf course--the stadium course--has had to be created to accommodate them.

"Golf in America" is lavishly illustrated with more than 400 pictures--many rare and historic, many commissioned specially for this volume--that provide a visual feast.

Individual chapters by the editors of "GOLF Magazine" and several other first-rate writers on the game cover the birth of golf in America; the amateurs; the pros; women's golf; equipment; the media; golf course architecture; instruction; and resorts.

Special features filled with valuable information will delight anyone interested in the game. Among these are: Players of the Decade: The ten men from 1888 to 1988 and the five women form 1938 to 1988 who were the best of their era. Walt Spitzmiller, the famed sporting artist, was commissioned to paint an action portrait of each Player of the Decade; all fifteen are reproduced in magnificent full-page color.100 Heroes of American Golf: The men and women who have made the mightiest impact on the American game of golf are profiled in alphabetical order--from Willie Anderson (1878-1910) to Fuzzy Zoeller (b. 1951). Information on professionals and amateurs, on celebrities like Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, and Dinah Shore; on golf officials likeCommissioner Deane Beman and great golf architects like Robert Trent Jones becomes instantly accessible. Portrait sketches of each hero were specially commissioned and enliven this excellent reference feature.Winners of Major Championships: This feature offers complete lists of winners of the Masters, U.S. Open, British Open, PGA Championship, U.S. Amateur, U.S. Women's Open, and LPGA Championship.A Chronology of the game in America pulls together, year by year, the various subjects covered in depth throughout the book.A bibliography and full index round out a handsome and informative volume that celebrates, above all, the men and women who make the game of golf so exciting.

"455 pictures, including 164 in full color."