SFC: Byrd ordered HGH

[mike311gd]

So that's the fuel to Bryd's awesome wind-up. If that's all it takes for him to replicate a pitcher from the early 1900s, I'm OK with it.

 

[CollegeJournalist]

CJ, you contradicted yourself in back-to-back posts.

And to say there was no hue and cry over Merriman and Harrison getting caught for 'roid/HGH use ... you got to be kidding me.

How? I responded to Chuck's question. Baseball fans will act outraged, then still go to games. Not many are going to just give up following baseball. But you have to acknowledge the difference in coverage the baseball steroid deal gets with the NFL steroid/PED stuff. Yes, I know, the NFL dealt with it in the 80s, but that doesn't mean it isn't still happening. So it's OK for Merriman to serve his suspension and then resume as the face of the Chargers (other than LT)? Meanwhile, there's no evidence of (insert ML player here) taking steroids, but assume away! Right?

In my second post, I just acknowledged that it would be a pretty big story in my hometown, since Byrd is one of the few successful hometown boys in the Majors.

I'm not saying steroids shouldn't be a big story. It's a big issue. It's just funny how the sport viewed as the up-and-comer is portrayed against the sport viewed as the washed-up old guy.

 

[zeke12]

So that's the fuel to Bryd's awesome wind-up. If that's all it takes for him to replicate a pitcher from the early 1900s, I'm OK with it.

Paul Byrd would be the worst advertisement for steroids ever.

"Want to be a curiously effective junker? Shoot this stuff in your ass."

 

[Fenian_Bastard]

I think it has more to do with this being a bigger story in our business than it is to fans.

 

[LiveStrong]

Of course. It's because the NFL dealt with its steroid outrage in the 1980s, Lyle Alzado, etc.

That's probably part of it, but younger fans don't really care or remember about it that long ago. I think it's more that people look at the sports differently, with football being such a gladiator sport that they don't see as much wrong with being on something extra to get ready for "battle"

 

[Duane Postum]

Took it for medical reasons ... and didn't hide it.

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/7358706

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Dear Indians players:

Next time someone asks you anything about this series, just say, "Who cares? There's always next year!"

Sincerely,
Manny

 

[Hank_Scorpio]

As a Yankees fan, this is getting pretty annoying after the whole Rogers thing last year. (ducking from irrelevant Giambi responses).

,

How are the Giambi responses irrelevant?

because we have no reason to believe he was cheating any timenear either series and was no factor in them. Byrd &Rogers were crucial parts of it.

: : : :

So we should just completely ignore Giambi's steriod use?

 

[mike311gd]

Took it for medical reasons ... and didn't hide it.

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/7358706

Good pull by Rosenthal. Talk about a quick turnaround.

 

[wickedwritah]

Someone is moving something similar, too.

 

[Write-brained]

Current events will certainly help his proposed book find a buyer. The book not only describes his HGH use but also describes his addiction to pornography, etc.

Here's a lengthy but occassionally interview Q&A with him.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=alipour/071016&sportCat=mlb

On the eve of his ALCS Game 4 outing, Byrd took some time to talk about some of the topics he'll cover in his book, including his struggles with pornography, cheating, and sharing his faith with the media and clubhouse mates, and to discuss how religion can unify and, at times, divide a clubhouse.

Alipour: You describe this book as being graphic. How so?

Byrd: It's not a politically correct book. It's not for a young audience. It's for people in their 20s and 30s that go through similar battles, like with pornography. I've had a real struggle with pornography, from before I became a Christian, when pornography was the good old American way. After I became a Christian, it really began to bother me, but God didn't really take it away. I struggle with porn one night, and somebody asks me a question about Jesus the next day in the outfield, so you feel like a hypocrite trying to share. It's the elephant in the locker room.

Crazy.

 

[steveu]

Ok seriously, am I the only one who thinks this is crazy? It's like every 2 weeks, another MLB'er is outted on steriods now. Now I know baseball has gone through a lot of things(Sox scandal, strike) and has come back strong, but this is just amazing to me. At what point do fans just say "What kind of sport am I watching over here?".
It's getting to the point where I wouldn't even be surprised to see if A-Rod was doing this stuff.

What's amazing to me is that Rodney Harrison and Shawne Merriman, two star players, get caught doing steroids, and no one -- not the fans, not the media, not the players, not the coaches -- bats an eye.

But if Paul Byrd, who the average baseball fan couldn't pick out of a lineup, gets caught, it's national news.

All because, according to ESPN, we're all supposed to worship the NFL and despise any Major League Baseball that's not played on Sunday nights.

APPLAUSE! APPLAUSE!!

Only you got the sport wrong. ESPN is up the NBA's ass, not the NFL.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Current events will certainly help his proposed book find a buyer. The book not only describes his HGH use but also describes his addiction to pornography, etc.

Terry Pluto ghost-write it?

 

[Guy_Incognito]

As a Yankees fan, this is getting pretty annoying after the whole Rogers thing last year. (ducking from irrelevant Giambi responses).

,

How are the Giambi responses irrelevant?

because we have no reason to believe he was cheating any timenear either series and was no factor in them. Byrd &Rogers were crucial parts of it.

: : : :

So we should just completely ignore Giambi's steriod use?

No, in a conversation about steroids in general or many other contexts. Not in the contexts of cheaters in the division round of the playoffs the last couple of years. That would be Rogers, and we thought at the time of the original statement, Byrd.

 

[dmc]

As a Yankees fan, this is getting pretty annoying after the whole Rogers thing last year. (ducking from irrelevant Giambi responses).

,

How are the Giambi responses irrelevant?

because we have no reason to believe he was cheating any timenear either series and was no factor in them. Byrd &Rogers were crucial parts of it.

Giambi hit 2 home runs in game 7, 2003 alcs. Pretty relevant.

 

[Moderator1]

As a Yankees fan, this is getting pretty annoying after the whole Rogers thing last year. (ducking from irrelevant Giambi responses).

,

How are the Giambi responses irrelevant?

because we have no reason to believe he was cheating any timenear either series and was no factor in them. Byrd &Rogers were crucial parts of it.

Giambi hit 2 home runs in game 7, 2003 alcs. Pretty relevant.

Isn't that game tonight? And I don't think he's playing.

 

[Dignan]

Took it for medical reasons ... and didn't hide it.

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/7358706

Come on. An athlete orders $25,000 worth of HGH for "medical reasons?" Because he has trouble sleeping? A $20 bottle of Ambien will cure that.

 

[Write-brained]

Took it for medical reasons ... and didn't hide it.

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/7358706

Come on. An athlete orders $25,000 worth of HGH for "medical reasons?" Because he has trouble sleeping? A $20 bottle of Ambien will cure that.

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 have 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 season to make sure that the tumor hasn't grown."

 

[mike311gd]

Took it for medical reasons ... and didn't hide it.

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/7358706

Come on. An athlete orders $25,000 worth of HGH for "medical reasons?" Because he has trouble sleeping? A $20 bottle of Ambien will cure that.

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 have 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 season to make sure that the tumor hasn't grown."

Right on. There's a big difference between being tired and having a tumor at the base of his brain.

 

[novelist_wannabe]

He was doing the next-game starter interviews and was talking about the fact that he doesn't throw in the mid-90s and used the phrase, "I just go with what God gave me." His use may very well be legit, but we are certainly left to question that statement.