Sports Illustrated Excerpt from Game of Shadows

When I was nine years old, I began paying attention to baseball.

It was the 1968 World series, one of the most thrilling ever. Detroit and St. Louis played a nip-and-tuck seven games, with Bob Gibson and Denny McClain dominating things. The Tigers beat a tired Gibby in game seven, and I got my first heartbreak as a Cards fan.

Hey, I know, I have nothing on Cubs fans. But the fact is that I became a baseball fan during that wonderful Series.

And later, I also stopped being one.

The first coffin nail was the designated hitter, a bad idea that is now entrenched in the sport thanks to the Player's Union.

The next was free agency, an ineffective salary cap, and lousy revenue sharing taking many teams out of contention. Pittsburgh, Detroit, and other formerly proud World Series champions are now mainly supplying talent to the Yankees and Red Sox.

But what stopped me from following baseball in general was Barry Bonds hitting 73 homers in 2001 and its ensuing celebration.

Bonds is an arrogant scofflaw who has made a mockery of great home run hitters like Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Babe Ruth, and the greatest of all, Henry Aaron.

I didn't mention Mark McGwire or Sammy Sosa in that list.

Well, despite the lack of an effective commissioner, perhaps the revelations from San Francisco Chronicle authors Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams will finally bring justice in the case of Bonds and the great home run hitters he has supplanted.

Read the Sports Illustrated excerpt. If it's interesting to you, put in your order at Amazon for the whole book.

At the very least, the man deserves an asterisk.

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