Late Show With Game Of Shadows

If Barry Bonds' life "is in shambles," as the Giants' outfielder claimed on Monday in an interview with the Associated Press, the outlook didn't get much rosier later that evening.

That's when San Francisco Chronicle writers Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman to hype their book, Game of Shadows. One of Letterman's cleverest traits is that he many times will act the part of the befuddled host, pretending that his skull is too dense to absorb the details of a subject so that guests are compelled to explain things in simple terms. And so the nation heard the entire Bonds steroid saga in language they could really understand, and it was pretty damning.

There was even a little before-and-after photo presentation; the pre-steroids Bonds with the body of Ray Lankford, and, poof! Post-chemical Bonds as Harmon Killebrew. Best line of the evening: Letterman: "Is Bud Selig still the acting commissioner?" Williams: "That's no act." What really hurt Bonds, though, was Letterman's first guest of the evening, Sharon Stone, who was promoting her movie Basic Instinct 2. Talk about a ratings-grabber; that's about the best lead-in that a pair of rumpled newspaper reporters could ever hope for. Even if she is 94. Bonds Proclaims 'My Life Is In Shambles.' [MSNBC] Top Ten Ways Barry Bonds Can Improve His Image Late Show Contest [Late Show With David Letterman]