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BREAKING NEWS: Paul Byrd allegedly purchases HGH from Florida clinic

In breaking news, Paul Byrd has allegedly purchased over $25,000 worth of HGH from the Palm Beach Rejuvenation Center that is being investigated for illegal performance enhancing drug distribution, according to the San Francisco chronicle.

It’s alleged that Byrd has made 13 purchase from between August 2002, to January 2005.  It’s believed that Byrd purchased thousands of vials of HGH, to go along with hundreds of syringes, supposedly to inject the drug.  His last purchase allegedly came one week before the drug was officially banned by Major League baseball.

How sure are the reports?  Well, it’s being reported that they have gotten his birthdate and social security number from each purchasing order, and that he allegedly used a credit card to make the purchases.  Although I’ve heard nothing that says this is a sure thing, it sure seems that way.

The HGH purchases allegedly coincide with arm trouble that Byrd began having at the latter end of the 2002 season.  He finished ‘02 with his best season as a starter, garnering 17 wins, but after pitching one inning during the 2003 spring training, Byrd went on the DL, and eventually had Tommy John surgery in July of ‘03.  Byrd began the 2004 season on the DL, still recovering from the surgery, and was finally activated in June.  He made 19 starts over the rest of the season, going 9-8, with a 3.94 ERA.  If the reports turn out to be true, and they certainly appear to be, there are two things to keep in mind.

1.  Byrd was using HGH before it was a banned MLB substance,

and

2.  Byrd was using it to recover from Tommy John surgery.

No, I’m not trying to look past the HGH or make excuses for Byrd.  It is what it is.  Still, this seems to be another one of the HGH cases that should go away.  It’s the until then that worries me.

ESPN ran with the press conference after his October 15th start when he talked about the double pump and old school wind up.  He talked about his elbow injury in ‘02 and ‘03, and how he lost his velocity when he came back from the surgery.  Byrd came up with the wind-up as something to add deception to his pitches during this time period.  It also looks like he turned to something else to aid in his recovery.

Byrd has gone on the record saying that he doesn’t believe that there are as many players using steroids as originally thought, and in May in the Plain Dealer, he said,

“I strongly disagree with the use of steroids and cheating in the game, I have a huge problem with that. I work as hard as I can to compete within the rules.”

AT THE END OF THE DAY, HE STOPPED BEFORE THE BAN, AND USED IT TO RECOVER, AS I’M WILLING TO BET, WE ARE GOING TO FIND OUT MANY OTHERS DID AS WELL.  WHAT DOES BOTHER ME IS THAT IT COMES OUT BEFORE GAME 7 OF THE ALCS.  CLEVELAND HAS ENOUGH TO WORRY ABOUT THAN TO HAVE TO DEAL WITH THIS GARBAGE. YOU KNOW, AT THE END OF THE DAY, I AM SICK OF THE GRANDSTANDING OF PAPERS LIKE THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE. YEAH, REPORT THE NEWS, BUT IT’S NICE HOW THEY WAIT UNTIL A GAME SEVEN TO GET THE MOST BANG FOR THE BUCK. RIDICULOUS…UTTERLY RIDICULOUS.

More on this as it comes in.

Link to the San Francisco Chronicle Article that broke the story.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 21st, 2007 at 7:49 am and is filed under HGH, Paul Byrd, James Pete. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.