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 Chapter[ IX. The Threat Posed By Internet Sales of Steroids and Human Growth Hormone                                                                                                                                                  ]

 Section[ B. Paul Byrd ]

                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

Paul Byrd

On October 21, 2007, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Cleveland

Indians pitcher Paul Byrd had bought nearly $25,000 worth of human growth hormone and

syringes from the Palm Beach Rejuvenation Center, one of the anti-aging clinics implicated in

the Signature Pharmacy investigation, in thirteen transactions between August 2002 and January

2005.465 According to the story, Byrd used his credit card to purchase the substance and received

more than 1,000 vials of human growth hormone in the transactions, which were sent to his

home in Georgia, to the spring training facility of the Atlanta Braves, where he was playing at

the time, and in one instance to a New York hotel. 466

In public comments in response to the article, Byrd admitted that he had been

taking human growth hormone but said that he had been using it to treat a tumor on his pituitary

gland. Byrd reportedly said that he had never taken “any hormone or drug that was not

464 Luis Fernando Llosa and L. Jon Wertheim, Rx for Trouble: Inside the Steroid Sting,

Sports Illustrated, Mar. 12, 2007, at 62.

465 Byrd has played for six different clubs in Major League Baseball since 1995, the

New York Mets, Atlanta Braves, Philadelphia Phillies, Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Angels

and Cleveland Indians.

466 Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada, Drug Scandal Hits the Playoffs,

S.F. Chron., Oct. 21, 2007, at A1.

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prescribed” to him by a doctor.467 The Chronicle reported that two of Byrd’s prescriptions had

been written by a Florida dentist whose license was suspended in 2003.468

Byrd also reportedly said that “[t]he Indians, my coaches and MLB have known

that I have had a pituitary gland issue for some time,” but Rob Manfred in the Commissioner’s

Office denied that Major League Baseball had given Byrd or any other player a therapeutic use

exemption for human growth hormone.469

Neither I nor any member of my investigative staff had any prior knowledge of

any allegation about Byrd.

12/14/2007

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