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	Attorney David Ezra's New Book Challenges the Assumption that Slugger Barry Bonds Used Steroids When the Evidence Doesn't Add Up IRVINE, CA -- David Ezra has been a true baseball aficionado most of his life, beginning at the age of seven, when he started immersing himself in Vin Scully's Dodger broadcasts and statistical games such as APBA and rotisserie baseball. Today he is still a huge fan. Most days, however, Ezra puts away the sports page and picks up a pen and legal pad. Ezra is a principal at Berger Kahn, where he specializes in complex litigation and represents clients in insurance, employment and business matters. These two passions -- baseball and law -- are not as far-removed from each other as they seem. In fact, Ezra used his lawyer perspective and love of baseball to publish his first book titled Asterisk: Home Runs, Steroids, and the Rush to Judgment (Triumph, March 2008). "Maybe I'm more skeptical than the average person," Ezra says. "When I first read Game of Shadows, I wasn't fully persuaded that Barry Bonds was a chronic steroid user. I had a problem connecting the dots." In an intriguing response to Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance William's 2006 title, Game of Shadows, Ezra’s Asterisk assesses the complex case against Bonds by pointing to contrary evidence, noting the evidence that appears to be missing, and raising questions about the quality of the inferences that have been drawn from the existing evidence. Undaunted by the star's notoriously abrasive personality, Ezra examines the inconsistencies in the claims at the timetable of Bonds' supposed steroid use. Ezra also explores Bonds' tenuous relationship around the league, with the media and in the public eye, and how his poor reputation has unfairly influenced steroid accusations. The chapter on statistics is sure to make many re-evaluate their assumptions. "Statistics prove Bonds was good, not that he used steroids," Ezra says. "It turns out that stories about Bonds' sudden and huge weight gain, a dramatically expanding head, or other alleged physical indicators of steroid abuse, are often exaggerated or unfounded." Ezra did not set out to write a book about Bonds. It wasn't until he read Game of Shadows that he started to seriously investigate the steroid allegations and the public's apparent rush to judgment against Bonds. Ezra is a native Californian who attended Cal State Fullerton then USC Law School, where he was an editor of the Southern California Law Review and graduated Order of the Coif. Ezra joined Berger Kahn in 1992. In 2005, he started serving as a mediator and co-founded Insurance Dispute Resolution Mediation Services. In 2007, Ezra's peers selected him as a Southern California Super Lawyer. A lifelong baseball fan and student of the game's history, he lives in Huntington Beach with his wife of 12 years, Barbara. Back
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