Former amateur bodybuilder Jay McGwire, the youngest brother of baseball player Mark McGwire, is fighting for the honor of being the first person to have introduced and injected Mark McGwire with anabolic steroids. The younger McGwire is trying to sell a manuscript entitled “The McGwire Family Secret: The Truth about Steroids, a Slugger, and Ultimate Redemption” that details Mark McGwire’s use of performance enhancing drugs (“Mark McGwire’s One-Eyed Baby Brother Reveals The Not-So-Startling Truth,” January 21).
“Shortly after I won the Contra Costa Bodybuilding Championships in May of 1994, Mark took the plunge. I accompanied him to Sacramento where we met with my supplier and trainer, who explained to him how the different drugs would work on his body and answered a myriad of questions from Mark. Given Mark’s curiosity and lack of knowledge about steroids I saw from Mark, I would be shocked if Mark did something like what Jose Canseco claimed happened back in the early years….[M]ark began to use, but in low dosages so he wouldn’t lift his way out of baseball. Deca-Durabolin helped with his joint problems and recovery, while growth hormone helped his strength, making him leaner in the process. I became the first person to inject him, like most first-timers he couldn’t plunge in the needle himself. Later a girlfriend injected him.”
Jay McGwire seeks to take credit for designing Big Mac’s first steroid cycle that incorporated Deca Durabolin as well as human growth hormone (HGH). Jay McGwire also took credit for introducing his brother to androstenedione shortly after Associated Press reporter Steve Wilstein published the story “Drug OK in Baseball, Not Olympics” announcing the discovery of the legal anabolic steroid supplement in Mark McGwire’s locker in July 1998 (“Great Chase Turns Into Great Debate,” August 25, 1998).
The McGwires, often mistaken for twins, lived together in Northern California while Mark recovered from the heel and lower back injuries that sidelined him for virtually the entire 1993 and ˜94 seasons, and it was Jay, into bodybuilding since high school, who helped redesign the supplement-aided weightlifting program that helped his brother return bigger and better than ever. […]
The key to anything is moderation, but that’s not to say he’s taking steroids because he isn’t.”
Jay McGwire faces stiff competition from others who claim to have provided Mark McGwire with anabolic steroids. Jose Canseco talked about using Deca Durabolin and Winstrol when he and McGwire played with the Oakland A’s as the “Bash Brothers” in 1998 (“Jay McGwire pitching book detailing brother Mark McGwire’s steroid use,” January 21).
In his 2005 book “Juiced,” Jose Canseco wrote that he began injecting Mark McGwire with steroids in 1988, when they were teammates with the Oakland A’s. “I injected Mark in the bathrooms at the (Oakland) Coliseum more times than I can remember,” Canseco said. “Sometimes we did it before batting practice, sometimes afterward. It was no big deal.”
Convicted steroid dealer Curtis Wenzlaff admitted to providing Mark McGwire with Winstrol V, Equipoise and testosterone after he was arrested by Special Agent Greg Stejskal arrested him as part of the FBI Operation Equine (“Who Knew?,” November 9, 2005).
He says he soon picked up McGwire as a client, too. Wenzlaff’s training-session notes show he put McGwire on a mix of Winstrol V, testosterone and the veterinary steroid Equipoise. (McGwire, through a spokesman, declined comment.)
Sources in the Operation Equine steroid investigation even provided specific cycles allegedly used by Mark McGwire (“Hitting the Mark: FBI informants say McGwire was juiced,” March 13, 2005).
The recipe called for 1/2 cc of testosterone cypionate every three days; one cc of testosterone enanthate per week; equipoise and winstrol v, 1/4 cc every three days, injected into the buttocks, one in one cheek, one in the other.
It was the cocktail of a hardcore steroids user, and it is one of the “arrays,” or steroid recipes, Mark McGwire used to become the biggest thing in baseball in the 1990s, sources have told the Daily News.
“My bringing the truth to surface about Mark is out of love,” according to Jay McGwire, “I want Mark to live in truth to see the light, to come to repentance so he can live in freedom”which is the only way to live.” Jay McGwire’s motivations for writing a book about his brother’s steroid and performance-enhancing drug use are highly suspect. Both of his brothers had considerable success in sports – Mark McGwire in Major League Baseball (MLB) and Dan McGwire in the National Football League (NFL) whereas Jay McGwire’s greatest athletic achievement was winning a bodybuilding trophy.
Apparently, Jay McGwire is a born-again Christian who rediscovered God and is doing it out of the goodness of his heart. But it is difficult to believe his motivations arise “out of love” for his brother.
About the author
Millard writes about anabolic steroids and performance enhancing drugs and their use and impact in sport and society. He discusses the medical and non-medical uses of anabolic-androgenic steroids while advocating a harm reduction approach to steroid education.
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