We talked today to Lance Williams, who co-wrote the book Game of Shadows, chronicling the BALCO scandal and Barry Bonds' alleged involvement with steroids. He's also been covering the Bonds trial for California Watch.

Here's a 2006 excerpt from the book, co-written with Mark Fainaru-Wada, published in Sports Illustrated. The article delves into the possible motivation for Bonds' alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs.

Williams spoke with Scott Shafer on Forum today (archived here), and afterward, we sat down with him to ask a few questions about the trial and about Barry Bonds.

Here's an audio clip (embedded) of a conversation about steroids, purportedly between Greg Anderson and Steve Hoskins, cited in our video interview.

[ad fullwidth]

The audio was recorded by Hoskins, Bonds' former personal assistant and business manager. Hoskins testified that Bonds started using steroids in 1999 and that Hoskins saw Anderson, Bonds' trainer, emerge syringe in hand from a bedroom with Bonds. Hoskins said he secretly recorded the conversation to prove to Bonds' father, former major leaguer Bobby Bonds, that his son was doing steroids. The recording is in large part unintelligible without the transcript provided by the prosecution, but Lance Williams says he listened to it repeatedly in 2005, and that it does indeed match the prosecution's version.

Related:

The Barry Bonds Dilemma (News Fix)
"Barry Bonds will be remembered as..." (News Fix)

Game of ShadowsGame of Shadows

Video: "Game of Shadows" Co-Author Lance Williams on the Barry Bonds Trial