In 1998, Mark McGwire was chasing the ghost of Roger Maris and Sammy Sosa was chasing Mark McGwire. The 1998 home run chase made everyone feel better about baseball. Now the truth can be told; the era of feel-good baseball was based on a lie. We now know that Mark McGwire's strength and endurance down the stretch came, in par,t as a result of steroid use.

Game of Shadows ripped the cover off baseball's little secret — that the best hitter in baseball had been aided by modern pharmacology and he was not alone. A few years back, Jose Canseco's own book detailing substantial steroid use was dismissed as an angry ball-player settling scores. No longer in baseball and fuming that he could not have a shot at 500 homers and possible Hall of fame entry, Canseco wrote a scorching book detailing his own steroid use and that of other stars in the fame.

As a sport, baseball has some unofficial standards that in the past ensured Hall of Fame entry. Hit 500 homers in a career and your ticket to the Hall of Fame has been clicked. Garner 3000 hits and you are on your way to Cooperstown, with no questions asked. If you win 300 victories from the pitcher's mound, you will be in the Hall of Fame.

Canseco was one of the most complete players when he was with the A's. He could run, hit with power and one year stole 40 bases along with slugging 40 homers. But in the last years of his career, Canseco became the butt of many jokes as the player who allowed a home run bounced off his head. His glory day as an A disappeared from memory.

Originally his book was dismissed as a combination of exaggeration or outright fabrication but Canseco's words proved to be truth. His book led to Congressional hearings in which Americans saw Rafael Palmeiro wag his finger to deny any steroid use; Mark McGwire essentially admitted his guilt by not answering the question. Palmeiro later tested positive for steroids and the hearings verified much of what Canseco stated was the truth.

Authors Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams detail Barry Bonds' morph from one of baseball's all-around players to the most dangerous hitter in history. Since Bonds turned 35, he put up numbers that would be unreal for younger players and definitely surreal for a player his age. If a ball was close to the strike zone, Bonds stroked over into the McCovey Cove.