January 22, 2010

ESPN has procured an exclusive interview with a convicted steroids dealer who supplied former Major League Baseball slugger Mark McGwire as early at the late 1980s, and says that the array of drugs he gave McGwire did improve his ability to hit home runs.

A portion of the interview was aired during this afternoon’s SportsCenter. A longer version will run on Sunday’s Outside the Lines (9 a.m. ET, ESPN).

Curtis Wenzlaff, speaking for the first time since McGwire’s recent admission that he used steroids during his playing career, including the season he broke the single-season home run record, tells Outside the Lines reporter T.J. Quinn that McGwire’s goal was to improve his performance on the field.

Interview Excerpts:

T.J. Quinn: “Would it help you hit a baseball?”

Curt Wenzlaff: “Will it help you hit a baseball? Let me put it to you this way. If Paris Hilton was to take that array, she could run over Dick Butkus.”

TJ: “Mark McGwire, last week when he finally admitted that he did use steroids, said he used a little bit for health reasons, to keep himself healthy. What did you think when he said that?”

CW: “I chuckled. Let me put it this way. If excelling and kicking ass on the field is the end result I guess that’s a healthy, good feeling. But for health, there are other things you can take for health that are anabolic, but it wouldn’t be that type of combination.”

TJ: “What was his goal to take an array like this?”

CW: “As anybody — bigger, faster, stronger.”

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