Chris Lynch links to this article on Playboy's web site. It's the story of the BALCO investigation, with extensive statements from the undercover agent who was shadowing Greg Anderson. This article has done more to convince me that these players really are using steroids than any other I've read. However, it also troubles me.

To White, Novitzky -- who did not participate in this article -- seemed to have an unusual interest in the ballplayer. He mentioned Bonds frequently after a sighting or a Giants game. One day at court Novitzky struck up a conversation with White that went beyond the usual talk-radio banter.

"That Bonds. He's a great athlete," White says Novitzky told him. "You think he's on steroids?"

White took a moment before replying, in his bourbon-and-cotton voice, "I think they're all on steroids. All of our top major leaguers."

Novitzky seemed to care only about Bonds. "He's such an asshole to the press," he said. "I'd sure like to prove it."

White is undercover agent Iran White. Novitzky is is Jeff Novitzky, an IRS agent. It was Novitzky who pressed the investigation. However, given his statement above, I wonder if it would have ever happened if Bonds had been a nice guy. It seems to me Novitzky, for some reason, was out to get Bonds, rather than catch criminals or clean up a sport.

The other interesting thing is that Iran White, just as he was closing in on Anderson, had a stroke. (The stroke was a result of a muscle that tore during weight lifting. I'm sure if that had happened to an athlete, someone would have blamed steroids.) So White never got the goods on Anderson, never made the drug deal he wanted to make, never got him to talk about juicing up Bonds or anyone else. So what does Novitzky do?

Shortly before noon on September 3, 2003, helicopters pound the air over BALCO's tiny offices. A pack of unmarked sedans surrounds the building. In a move other agencies would later question, IRS agents are told to place IRS placards on the dashboard of their cars. Nearly two dozen agents, several in black IRS flak jackets, along with a doctor the USADA has sent, crowd through BALCO's front door. Down the hall is a refrigerator for blood samples and a machine that resembles a mass spectrometer. A gym is farther back, its walls covered with framed signed jerseys of Bonds, Jones and other athletes.

...

Conte turns on Anderson, too, telling cops the trainer is supplying baseball players with testosterone cream and THG. He agrees to take investigators to a storage locker across the freeway, where they find THG, cream, human growth hormone, other steroids and files on athletes. As Conte leaves the BALCO offices a wave of news cameras and reporters engulfs him.

"Are these TV cameras?" he asks, clearly stunned. "How did this happen?"

Many agents -- everyone, in fact, who doesn't work for the IRS -- are angered by the publicity. The search of BALCO, which was supposed to remain secret for countless investigative reasons, now resembles an episode of Cops. Members of other law enforcement groups are furious at the publicity stunt. The search was designed as a pressure tactic, not as the end of the investigation; there are no plans to arrest Conte, who walks free.

So Novitzky jeopardizes the investigation with a poor search warrent execution. Why?

These days White wonders whether political headlines weren't grabbed over the possibility of larger and broader charges. Was Novitzky's intent to shape his investigative exploits into a book? Or did ego and one federal agency's desire to control the investigation determine the focus of what now plays across TV screens?

I'm eager to see how this plays out. I'm eager to see what names come to light, and how much evidence is againt them. I'm also eager to see if Novitzky profits from this investigation.