Bonds set to sue 'Game of Shadows' authors

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.

Bonds's attorneys sent a letter yesterday 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.

The letter, signed by Alison Berry Wilkinson, an associate of Bonds's lead attorney, Michael Rains, was posted on the Chronicle's website. A hearing was tentatively scheduled for today in San Francisco Superior Court.

''The reason we filed in the lawsuit in the simplest terms possible is to prevent the authors from promoting themselves and profiting from illegal conduct," Rains told the Associated Press.

He said laws prohibit people from possessing grand jury materials unless they are unsealed and said authors Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, both also reporters for the Chronicle, ''have made a complete farce of the criminal justice system."

The book claims Bonds used steroids, human growth hormone, insulin, and other banned substances for at least five seasons beginning in 1998.

''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."

Bonds's legal team will ask a judge to issue a temporary restraining order forfeiting all profits from publication and distribution.

Williams and Fainaru-Wada said the book will stand up to a court challenge.

The book also claims sluggers Jason Giambi and Gary Sheffield, both now with the New York Yankees, also used performance-enhancing drugs.

The book claims Giambi turned to performance-enhancing drugs because he felt pressured to please his perfectionist father.

''I think it's pretty pathetic that they tried to drag my father into it," Giambi said yesterday.

''I don't even talk about it," Sheffield said.

New York Yankees catcher Jorge Posada was released from the hospital, one day after being admitted for a broken nose suffered before Wednesday's night game against the Red Sox when he was hit in the face by a ball while playing catch. X-rays revealed a fracture. Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said Posada could be out up to a week, but is not worried about his status for Opening Day . . . In other Yankee news, center fielder Johnny Damon remains on schedule to play the field tomorrow for the first time since experiencing left shoulder tendinitis during the World Baseball Classic, and righthander Jaret Wright played catch for the first time since being sidelined by back spasms last Sunday . . . Cablevision Systems Corp., the New York area's largest cable television operator, reached agreement to carry the new network formed by the New York Mets in time for the start of the regular season next month.