Book Report: “Game of Shadows”

I know, I know. The book was published how long ago? Anyway, I just finished reading it and came away thoroughly impressed by the scope of the reporting and the authors’ storytelling.

In “Game of Shadows,” authors Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams cover the steroids-in-sports saga from one tangent to the next. Not only is former San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds, and his alleged performance-enhancing drug use, discussed at length but so is the PED use of more than a dozen other professional and Olympic athletes. And these are significant names — baseball MVPs, NFL All-Pros, track and field’s elite — not minor league has-beens.

Jason Giambi, Marion Jones, Tim Montgomery Bill Romanowski, Gary Sheffield, Dana Stubblefield, etc.

The big-time names aside, Fainaru-Wada and Williams do something with this book that I did not expect — they switch the roles of the central characters. In real life, BALCO founder Victor Conte is the antagonist and FBI agent Jeff Novitzki the protagonist, for obvious reasons. OK. Conte’s the drug dealer, Novitzki’s the “crime” fighter.

But in “Game of Shadows,” the roles are reversed. Conte is portrayed as the protagonist and Novitzki is given the role of antagonist. Conte claims that athletes must cheat to compete at the highest level. It was his view that he had “no choice” but to become a conduit to their success. In a sense, Conte believed he was helping everyone succeed. Conversly, Novitzki is a federal agent portrayed as having an axe to grind against those trying to cheat the game of baseball and will stop at nothing to prove Conte is supplying steroids to Barry Bonds. Which, of course, Conte is.

It’s the best part of the book. The authors uncover the BALCO controversy and turn it inside-out upon itself. From a fly-on-the wall’s perspective of what was said inside the conference rooms at the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO), to Bonds’ locker inside the Giants’ beautiful waterfront ballpark and the car ride with convicted steroid-dealer Greg Anderson in between, Fainaru-Wada and Williams really give the reader the ability to imagine how it was that Bonds became the all-time single-season home run champion around his 40th birthday, an age when ballplayers aren’t ballplayers anymore.

He should Bolt for the NFL

This guy is amazing. Two races, two world records, two Olympic gold medals.

Jamaica’s Usain Bolt, winner of both the Men’s 100 and 200 at the 2008 Beijing Games, is undoubtedly the world’s fastest man. Earth has literally been scorched beneath his feet.

Now the question is: How fast will the NFL come calling?

As electrifying an athlete as there is in China this summer, Bolt shocked viewers with his awesome margin of victory in the 100 before displaying his unbridled athleticism in winning the 200.

One would think there has got to be a team looking for a 6-foot-5 deep threat who can run 50 yards in the blink of an eye. A bigger, faster Terrell Owens, anyone?

Olympic sprinters have had some success in the NFL, though none were nearly as fast as Bolt. James Jett comes to mind, but only because his name, like Bolt’s, is an easy image to conjure.

Bolt could make millions in only a few short seasons in the NFL. Sure, he’ll receive plenty of livestock and ganja upon his triumphant return to Jamaica. But he could buy all the pork and pot he could ever want for a lifetime playing just the three-plus years between now and the 2012 London Games.

And if his hands fail him as a receiver, you could still be the best special teams player the league has ever seen. Imagine him returning kickoffs and punts… or as a gunner in kick coverage. Scratch that. He’d probably outrun most kicks.

Pistorius will be the first of many

Oscar Pistorius, a double amputee, received finite approval on Friday, May 16, to attempt to make his country’s Olympic team. Previously barred from competition by Track and Field’s ruling body, Pistorius appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and won the right to compete in all IAAF events and qualify for the Beijing Games later this year.

The court’s decision may seem somewhat insignificant now; narrowed to allowing one exceptional man to qualify, if he can, for the Olympics. But their ruling is likely to change the future for every physically-limited athlete in the world.

So starting at the very top, here’s my Top 5 list of potential side-effects from the Pistorius ruling.

1. Paralympic Games are more popular than the Olympic Games. Why watch ordinary athletes when you can see someone with no arms and one leg win the 50 Freestyle?

2. Wheelchair rugby, popularized by the film Murderball, is sanctioned on all MMA undercards.

3. Rowing isn’t for Oxford-ites anymore. Not when you have oars for arms.

4. Skiers with skis for legs. Moguls, schmoguls.

5. Skeleton, without a complete skeleton, becomes the new niche sport.

Does Pistorius have an unfair advantage? Take the poll.