Boston — Just hours before Game 7 of the AL championship series Sunday, Cleveland's Paul 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 before his team's game against the Red Sox. "Everything has been done out in the open. I have a reputation. I speak to kids, I speak to churches. I do not want the fans of Cleveland or honest, caring people to think that I cheated. Because I didn't."
Byrd 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 Jan. 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.
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 unidentified law enforcement source, said two of Byrd's prescriptions for HGH were not written by a physician.
Byrd said he has a pituitary-gland condition. 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.
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