BOSTON — His reputation, his clean-cut image, his stature as one of baseball’s good guys, they all took a hit.
And Paul Byrd, the soft-tossing pitcher who prides himself on command and control, couldn’t stop it.
Just hours before Game 7 of the AL championship series Sunday, Byrd acknowledged using human growth hormone for a medical condition. But the Cleveland Indians’ right-hander claims he never injected the banned drug without a doctor’s prescription.
“I have nothing to hide,” Byrd said about two hours before his team’s biggest game against the Boston Red Sox. “Everything has been done out in the open. I have a reputation. I do not want the fans of Cleveland or honest, caring people to think that I cheated.
“Because I didn’t.”
Byrd, whose win in Game 4 of the ALCS moved the Indians within one victory of the World Series, bought nearly $25,000 worth of HGH and syringes from 2002-05, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Sunday.
HGH was not banned by baseball until January 13, 2005. Byrd made his final purchase of HGH a week earlier, the newspaper said.
The Chronicle said Byrd made 13 purchases of HGH between August 2002 and January 2005. During those seasons, he was with Kansas City, Atlanta and the Los Angeles Angels.
Known for his old-school windup and savvy on the mound, Byrd bought HGH from a Palm Beach, Fla., anti-aging clinic under investigation by authorities for possible illegal distribution of performance-enhancing drugs, the paper said.
The Chronicle, citing an anonymous law enforcement source, said two of Byrd’s prescriptions for HGH were not written by a physician.
Standing in front of a media throng outside the Indians’ clubhouse, Byrd said he has a pituitary gland condition that required him to take HGH.
Pressed on when he was diagnosed and the nature of his condition, Byrd declined several times to give any details. HGH is banned by Major League Baseball and the International Olympic Committee.
“I have never taken any hormones or any drugs not prescribed to me,” Byrd said.
Byrd claimed baseball officials have known that he’s been taking the drug, which he said he has stored in clubhouse refrigerators.
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