Mark McGwire's bro says he juiced

[southsider2k5]

I don't have a link, but is is on the ESPN bottom line...

[Dick Allen]

So he just confirms what everyone already knows and throws his brother under a bus. I'm glad I have a better brother.

[Brian]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3851381

 

Book proposal implicates McGwireComment Email Print ESPN.com news services

 

Brother Claims McGwire Used Steroids

Peter Gammons on Jay McGwire's claim that he introduced Mark McGwire to performance-enhancing drugs

Tags: MLBBrother Claims McGwire Used Steroids

A new book proposal, submitted by the admittedly estranged brother of Mark McGwire, claims the former major league slugger used both steroids and human growth hormone during his career.

 

In the proposal, first reported Wednesday on Deadspin.com, Jay McGwire alleges that Mark used Deca-Durabolin and that he introduced Mark to performance-enhancing drugs in 1994.

 

“

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, talking about his brother Mark in reported book proposal

 

According to the report, Jay McGwire writes in his proposal that his brother "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."

 

Jose Canseco, in a book he wrote in 2005, claims he and McGwire, former Oakland A's teammates, used performance-enhancing drugs as far back as 1988. Jay McGwire disputes that in the book proposal.

 

The McGwire brothers reportedly haven't spoken to each other for years.

 

The book, "The McGwire Family Secret: The Truth about Steroids, a Slugger and Ultimate Redemption," is reportedly being sent by Jay McGwire to several publishing houses in New York. Deadspin.com said that it has been turned down by "many" publishers.

 

Jay McGwire is a bodybuilder. He writes in the proposal that he took his brother to his supplier and trainer after a 1994 bodybuilding championship, which Jay won. He says McGwire started using performance-enhancing substances then.

 

Jay McGwire claims in the proposal that Mark McGwire used androstenedione in 1998 to allow Mark "to avoid all the potential adverse side effects that could occur from using anabolic steroids, such as water retention, hair loss, and liver, heart, or kidney stress. In addition, he wouldn't have cholesterol problems or testicular atrophy. And there were no problems with the law."

 

McGwire hit 70 home runs in the 1998 season, breaking Roger Maris' single-season record. It has since been eclipsed by Barry Bonds.

 

Jay McGwire, in the reported proposal, also says he wished his brother would have confessed at the famous congressional hearing, instead of saying he wasn't going to talk about the past. Jay McGwire also writes that he doesn't believe missing out on the Hall of Fame will affect his brother.

 

"Mark is a man I think most would like to forgive because his reason wasn't nefarious -- it was for survival," he wrote, according to the proposal. "My bringing the truth to surface about Mark is out of love. 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. "

 

The Deadspin.com report does not say if Mark McGwire has commented on the proposal. McGwire has been out of the public eye since retiring from the St. Louis Cardinals in 2001. He is now 45 years old.

[Kyyle23]

http://www.sportsbybrooks.com/bodybuilding...k-mcgwire-21935

 

First off, there’s the issue of Mark McGwire taking that first plunge (into his own buttcheek):

 

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.

Then there’s the androstenedione (”Andro”) that reporters found in his locker:

 

So I directed him to androstenedione testosterone booster, which is non-hormonal (which is why it can be sold legally and is not affected by the 2004 Anabolic Steroid Control Act) and works naturally with your body. … sing andro allowed Mark to avoid all the potential adverse side effects that could occur from using anabolic steroids, such as water retention, hair loss, and liver, heart, or kidney stress. In addition, he wouldn’t have cholesterol problems or testicular atrophy. And there were no problems with the law

 

We had Mark and his fiancée over one day to visit our house and things sort of got out of control with my nine-year-old stepson, Eric, when he bumped Mark accidentally and coffee spilled on Mark’s clothes. Mark picked him up and yelled at him and swatted him on his butt like a parent. After that you could hear a pin drop in that room. Everyone was shocked. This is where it all hit the fan, right before Mark’s wedding. That’s when the relationship got strained. […] After that my wife, Francine, didn’t want to go to the wedding. Mark was upset about that. The whole situation was just very irritable and not good. Now Francine doesn’t like him. And Dan has experienced the same thing; his wife doesn’t like Mark, either, but for different reasons.

[MHizzle85]

Not a McGuire fan, but it's a shame when your own brother tries to throw more dirt on your name.

[Dick Allen]

Jay-bird had a different take 11 years ago:

 

Great Chase Turns Into Great Debate

By Ross Newhan

August 25, 1998 in print edition C-1

 

No one knows Mark McGwire’s body better than Jay McGwire, his 28-year-old younger brother and a physical trainer who works at a fitness facility in Chino Hills.

 

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.

 

That program also has become a subject of debate in the last week as the St. Louis Cardinal first baseman wages a riveting home run duel with Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs and closes in on Roger Maris’ record of 61 homers.

 

The debate stems from McGwire’s recent confirmation that he uses androstenedione, thought to be a naturally occurring testosterone booster that is sold over the counter as a dietary supplement.

 

It is legal in baseball but banned by the NFL, NCAA and International Olympic Committee.

 

All consider it to have steroid qualities, putting it in the class of performance-enhancing and potentially dangerous anabolic steroids, which have been linked to coronary disease, cancer, liver dysfunction and severe mood and mental disorders.

 

What it is and what it isn’t is as much a part of the debate as McGwire’s open use of it. For instance, Michael Mellman, the Dodgers’ team doctor, said he doesn’t recommend androstenedione or anything like it.

 

“If I don’t know that it will help and I can’t assure it won’t hurt, then I’m not going to recommend that a player use it,” he said.

 

“It comes out of a poorly regulated industry in which there is no required testing for safety and efficacy.”

 

Said a high ranking baseball official: “I’ve been on the phone to medical people for the better part of the last two days. One says we have a problem [by not banning androstenedione and similar substances] and the next says we don’t. We certainly didn’t need this at this time, but at the least we’re going to take a harder look at it in conjunction with the players union, and that machinery is being put in place now.”

 

McGwire has used androstenedione for more than a year, and several other protein and amino acid-type supplements, including creatine, for four years. Jay McGwire, who said he has used similar supplements since he was in high school without any physical ramifications, put his brother on the program during the injury-marred 1993 and ‘94 seasons.

 

In no way, the younger McGwire said, does androstenedione directly enhance McGwire’s performance on the field.

 

In no way, he said, is he cheating.

 

“It has nothing to do with his swing,” Jay McGwire said. “The only thing he gets out of it is enhanced tissue recovery. Weightlifting tears down tissue. This allows him to recover more quickly. It allows him to work out six times a week instead of four.

 

“Mark had lifted before he got hurt [in ‘93], but not correctly. We put him on a program strengthening his legs and abs, not just his upper body. We worked at increasing his flexibility. He’s bigger and quicker now. He has phenomenal bat speed, range of motion.”

 

If there are some attempting to discredit his three consecutive seasons of 50 or more home runs as a product of testosterone and performance-enhancers, how do they explain the 49 homers he hit as a rookie or the 39 in 1990 or the 42 in 1992? McGwire was already averaging 36 homers a year before injuring his heel in 1993.

 

“This should be the greatest time in his life,” Jay McGwire said. “So many people come up to me every day to say that he’s creating so much joy and excitement for them. But then there’s these other people who just want to bring him down.

 

“I mean, Mark takes so much pride in his body and is so worried about what people think of him that he would never do anything to damage his health or image. The key to anything is moderation, but that’s not to say he’s taking steroids because he isn’t.

 

“I don’t know why the NFL and IOC have banned these products. We’re fortunate to be in a time when we know so much more about nutrition and have these supplements available to help us achieve our goals.”

 

Brotherly love is understandable, but Dr. Gary Wadler, a supplement authority and associate professor of medicine at NYU, was reached at his Long Island office and said it would be foolish to “delude anyone that this is an innocuous substance.”

 

“As a hormonal-related testosterone precursor it carries all the components of an anabolic steroid,” he said. “An anabolic steroid, used in conjunction with a strength program, can definitely enhance performance where strength is important but carries serious health risks.”

 

He added that the disturbing aspect is that McGwire and others have basically authored a contract with the devil by tempting all the “wannabes” to use these supplements and he bemoaned the absence of government regulation in a $6-billion industry climbing toward $12 billion.

 

“The government considers testosterone a controlled substance and requires a triplicate prescription to acquire it, but here you have an over-the-counter product that turns into a controlled substance [by elevating testosterone levels],” Wadler said. “That’s schizophrenic. It’s just so dangerous to allow these precursors to be sold over the counter without having to prove the safety and efficacy.”

 

Androstenedione was a favorite of the former East German sports machine. It was used in a more potent nasal spray then. Now it is taken orally. The positive test it can produce is difficult to differentiate from the banned steroids, a significant reason that it too, is banned by the IOC and others as a related substance.

 

Patrick Arnold helped introduce and market the capsule form as president of Seymour Bio-Organics of Seymour, Ill. He said in reasonable dosages it creates a very “transitory and mild testosterone increase of about 30% on average for two or three hours” and is virtually impossible to abuse because of the body’s own fail-safe system.

 

“It doesn’t build muscle over the long term, but can it increase concentration and strength in a given performance? It’s never been proven, but that’s what we hope,” Arnold said.

 

“It’s a very safe way of performance enhancement. I mean, let’s face it. Drinking a cup of coffee can enhance performance, and I would say this is just as safe.”

 

So, apparently, would the brothers McGwire.