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Bonds to discuss steroids on ESPN show

Those who have covered the Giants know that Barry Bonds usually refuses to talk to reporters. But Bonds, who is being paid an undisclosed amount by ESPN to do a reality show, is going to respond on that program to allegations he used steroids, producer Mike Tollin told Daily Variety. The report in Variety came out Thursday (March 23), same day that Bonds’ lawyer announced that he would sue the two Chronicle reporters, Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, who wrote the book “Game of Shadows” that detailed Bonds’ alleged steroid use. Also named as defendants are the Chronicle, Sports Illustrated (which published excerpts of the book) and the book’s publisher, Gotham Books. The suit isn’t a libel action — that would allow the defendants to question Bonds under oath — but instead a claim that the plaintiffs violated California’s unfair business practices law by using secret grand jury transcripts in the book. The suit asks a court to seize profits from the book and hold contempt hearings to determine how the reporters obtained transcripts of grand jury proceedings in the Balco steroids lab case. As for the TV show, Bonds is expected to offer reasons why the steroid allegations are untrue. For instance, Bonds will deny that he took steroids because he was jealous of Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa during their home-run race in 1989. “Anyone who knows me knows I’m not jealous of anybody,” Bonds says on the show, according to Variety. “I’m proud of what Mark McGwire did; I’m proud of what Sammy did. They lifted the game.”

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