Journalists Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, authors of the book "Game of Shadows," will participate in a roundtable discussion titled "Steroids and Baseball: Where is the Public Interest?" at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 19, in Kern Building, University Park. The event is free to the public.
Fainaru-Wada and Williams were reporters with the San Francisco Chronicle when they initially covered the local and federal raid of Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) in 2003. Their investigative efforts revealed the widespread use of steroids in Major League Baseball and other professional sports. Fainaru-Wada and Williams shared a 2004 George Polk Award for sports reporting.
Both reporters refused to disclose the identity of an anonymous source who leaked grand jury testimony. While Fainaru-Wada and Williams did not identify the source, they were spared prison sentences in February 2007 when an attorney involved in the BALCO case pleaded guilty to leaking the testimony.
The discussion will be moderated by Stephen Ross, professor of law, with Penn State professors Scott Kretchmar, an expert on sports philosophy and ethics, and Charles Yesalis, whose research interests include steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs.
Sponsors include the Penn State Dickinson School of Law and its Institute for Sports Law, Policy and Research; the Smeal College of Business and its Center for Sports Business Research; and the College of Communications and its Curley Center for Sports Journalism.