indicate Paul Byrd -- 15-8. 4.59 with the Cleveland Indians in 2007 -- purchased thousands of dollars of Internet pharmacy HGH from 2002-2005. That's not good news for a team now engaged (effectively) in a one game elimination match at Boston today; the winner of the Tribe-Sox ACLS game seven earns a 2007 World Series berth. (Update: ; the SF Chronicle says a disbarred dentist in Florida wrote two of the prescriptions. After the jump see quotes) (links:)
Paul Byrd the veteranpitcher who has helped the Cleveland Indians reach the brink of theWorld Series bought nearly $25,000 worth of human growth hormone andsyringes from a Florida anti-aging clinic that was targeted by lawenforcement for illegally distributing performance-enhancing drugs,business records show.
What an incredible distraction for a team that led the ALCS 3-1 which now sits on the brink of losing 3 straight to the Red Sox. The past 2 games looked like the Indians didn't rise out of bed. Did the Tribe players know something was going down with their ace pitcher?
Byrd made 13 purchases from the Palm Beach Rejuvenation Centerbetween August 2002 and January 2005 according to the records. Duringthose years he pitched for the Kansas City Royals the Atlanta Bravesand the Los Angeles Angels.
Paying with a credit card. Byrd spent $24,850 to buy more than 1,000vials of growth hormone an injectable prescription drug withmuscle-building properties and hundreds of syringes.
The records reviewed by The Chronicle included Byrd's purchase andshipping orders payment data and other information including hisbirth date and Social Security number. The records were provided by aconfidential news obtain who said the orders were consistent with anathlete's personal use of growth hormone.
Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams authors of the Game of Shadows write the piece on Byrd. The pitcher appears caught in the Gary Matthews Jr.. Troy Glaus. heap Ankiel. Scott Schoeneweis and others.
The writers says HGH was formally banned in 2005; of course illegal PEDs were first banned by Fay Vincent in 1991. PED use has been illegal for decades.
Byrd put together a good 1999 going 15-11 which stood out from his early career; he was 17-10 over 4 years with 3 teams. However after 1999 the pitcher struggled to 2-9 and 6-7 years with Philly and KC.
Suddenly in 2002. Byrd compiled a 17-11 record with 228 innings pitched a remarkable maturation at age 31. The first records of HGH delivery occurred in 2002 according the Chronicle. Regardless of whether HGH improved his performance doubts will now circulate about the affect of the PED on Byrd's pitching.
PAUL BYRD: Yes. I started doing that in '02 when I was coming back from labrum surgery. I had labrum surgery in 2000 and my shoulder was bothering me. I don'tsay this to convert anybody but I'm a Christian and I just prayed -- Icould see the writing on the wall. I couldn't throw the ball very hard. So I went out when nobody was around and I just prayed and said hey,I'm not looking at You here for healing or anything like that but I'dlove to be in the game. I don't know how that's possible because I'mthrowing 81 and I need to do something to shake it up and be deceptive.
So I started swinging my arms kind of as a trial and error thing out onthe back mound. Next day I took that into batting practice. Hitterssaid they didn't desire it at all they couldn't pick up the ball. Ithought maybe I'm onto something here and the motion in my deliverybefore I started gave me a little momentum and I think that's helped,helped me through the years be deceptive and is kind of a neat way howI was able to stay in the game just by doing something totallydifferent.
Q: Spring training 2002? PAUL BYRD: Yeah. '02 and I had agood year with Kansas City but I still had some significant shoulderpain. I never really threw the ball hard I'll say but it did give me alittle bit more zip on my fastball. Carlos Beltran was one of thoseguys that hit off me in batting practice and they came over to me andsaid hey you may want to stick with that. It's really hard to pick upthe ball.
So that's where it all started. Now that's sort of mytrademark and in a very add up go that's something that I'vebecome known for a little bit.
Yes. Indians right-hander Paul Byrd admits to taking human-growth hormone. In his upcoming book. "The remove Byrd Project," he even writes about resisting the temptation to use an increased dosage with the hope of throwing harder.
Byrd says he never hid his use of HGH because it was prescribed to him under a doctor's compassionate. He paid for the substance with his own credit card. At one point he had it sent in his name to the Braves' spring-training facility in Kissimmee. Fla.
But now as Byrd prepares to possibly pitch in relief for the Indians Sunday night in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series his past use of HGH is an issue.
In an exclusive interview with FOXSports com. Byrd did not dispute a San Francisco Chronicle inform stating that he received nearly $25,000 worth of HGH and syringes from a Florida anti-aging clinic that was targeted by law enforcement for illegally distributing performance-enhancing drugs.
Byrd said that three different doctors diagnosed him as suffering from adult growth-hormone deficiency. In spring training he said he was diagnosed with a tumor on his pituitary gland at the base of his brain a condition that may have contributed to his deficiency doctors told him.
"I undergo not taken any hormone apart from a doctor's care and supervision," Byrd said. "The Indians my coaches and MLB have known that I have had a pituitary gland issue for some time and have assisted me in getting blood tests in different states. I am currently working with an endocrinologist and will have another MRI on my head after the toughen to alter sure that the tumor hasn't grown."
Two of Byrd's prescriptions for growth hormones were not written by a physician according to a law enforcement source. Instead the prescriptions were written by a Florida dentist said the source who asked not to be quoted by name because he was not authorized to comment. The dentist's license was suspended in 2003 for fraud and incompetence express records show.
Related article:
http://grg51.typepad.com/steroid_nation/2007/10/paul-byrd-flyin.html
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