Bonds plans law suit over 'Game of Shadows' book

SAN FRANCISCO -- Barry Bonds plans to sue the authors and publisher of a book that alleges the San Francisco Giants' slugger used steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs.\nBonds' attorneys sent a letter Thursday to an agent for the authors of "Game of Shadows," alerting them of plans to sue the writers, publisher Gotham Books, the San Francisco Chronicle and Sports Illustrated, which published excerpts this month.\nThe letter, signed by Alison Berry Wilkinson, an associate of Bonds' lead attorney, Michael Rains, was posted on the Chronicle's Web site. A hearing was tentatively scheduled for Friday in San Francisco Superior Court.\nThe book by Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams was released Thursday. It claims Bonds used steroids, human growth hormone, insulin and other banned substances for at least five seasons beginning in 1998.\n"We certainly stand by our reporters and the reporting they did for us," Chronicle Executive Vice President and Editor Phil Bronstein said. "Nothing that's happened will change that."\nBonds' legal team will ask a judge Friday to issue a temporary restraining order forfeiting all profits from publication and distribution, according to the letter. The lawyers plan to file the suit under California's unfair competition law.\nThe Chronicle reported that the attorneys will ask a federal judge to initiate contempt proceedings "for the use of illegally obtained" grand jury transcripts the authors used in writing the book. The paper also reported that Rains said profits should be forfeited because of that.\nWilliams and Fainaru-Wada said the book will stand up to a court challenge.\n"I don't know what the legal action they contemplate is," Williams said. "Gotham can speak to the legal issues, but the facts in our book are true and they will stand up to scrutiny."\n"We fully stand behind our reporting of the book," Fainaru-Wada added.\nLisa Johnson, a spokeswoman for publisher Gotham Books, said the publisher supports both authors. \n"We at Gotham Books are shocked that Barry Bonds would take such a foolish step," she said. "Any respected First Amendment lawyer in America knows that his claim is nonsense"