Tuesday, March 07, 2006
Re-Established Importance
Headlining every sports site at some point today has been a story about Barry Bonds and steroids:
Juicy Details - ESPN
Book details slugger’s steroid use - Sportsline
Bonds bombshell: Book details slugger’s steroid use - CNNSI, as well as CNN.com
Carrying the AP story:
Book alleges extensive steroid use by Bonds - Fox Sports
Book details Barry Bonds’ doping program - TSN
Report: Bonds began using steroids, vast array of other drugs, in 1998 - Yahoo! Sports
Book gives dope on Bonds - Sportsnet
This will no doubt be the biggest story in the sports world for some time to come.
Is this shocking? If the story about Bonds is all true, or even partially true, not at all.
The story itself comes from an excerpt from “Game of Shadows,” which appears in the March 13 issue of Sports Illustrated. “Game of Shadows” is a book written by two San Francisco Chronicle reporters, Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, who have been following Bonds and the steroid scandal since day one.
What stands out to me is that Sports Illustrated has its name splattered across every major sports site in North America. This issue will sell, the book will sell. SI didn’t do this reporting, Fainaru-Wada and Williams did for their book, but SI will be printing some details first. SI will get attention, some attention it definitely needs in this web/mobile phone/ESPN sports world.
Will this just be a flash in sales for SI, or can SI leverage this situation into something more?