SPORTSNET.CA
The final word on the steroid scandal which drove Mark McGwire from baseball may end up coming from an unusual source, his brother.
According to an online report, Jay McGwire, the body-building brother of the former big league slugger, is shopping a book proposal to major publishing houses that claims he introduced the former single-season home run record holder to steroids and that he also used human growth hormone. The unofficial title of the book is The McGwire Family Secret.
In the book proposal McGwire claims the brothers (there are four, including ex-NFL quarterback Dan McGwire) had a falling out and no longer speak.
“My bringing the truth to the surface about Mark is out of love,” McGwire outlines. “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.”
McGwire’s brother claims to have introduced his brother to a steroid dealer shortly after he (Jay McGwire) won a bodybuilding contest in May 1994. The drugs were initially used in low dosage to avoid bulking up too quickly and becoming too muscular for the game of baseball.
Steroid allegations in book form are no stranger to McGwire, who was the subject in ex-teammate Jose Canseco’s 2005 book Juiced. Canseco claims to have personally injected McGwire in the Oakland A’s clubhouse when the two were teammates in 1998.
McGwire’s 583 career home runs once seemed an automatic pass to the Hall of Fame, but he received less than 25% of the vote this year, far short of the 75% required.
