Best Chronicle Tag-Team

The steroid scandal broke this fall with word that IRS investigators had raided an odd little supplement company in Burlingame called the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative. Since then, the Chronicle -- largely behind the reporting of Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams -- has ably led the charge, advancing the story beyond the slow trickle of court filings with several bombshells. The biggest thus far was a March 2 story asserting that Barry Bonds, as well as Yankees sluggers Jason Giambi and Gary Sheffield, had received steroids from BALCO, according to information given to federal investigators and shared with the Chronicle. Aside from the obvious implications, the Chronicle's piece revealed the full dimensions of the government's investigation. It was the story everyone was waiting for, the one that actually named names. Moreover, it elicited from Bonds what has to be one of the worst responses to a scandal in the history of public relations: He raised a fist and declared, "Black power."