The luck of Paul Byrd and his $25,000 HGH bill--Selig allowed his 'group' confidentiality

On top of that, this winter the New York Baseball Writers voted his boss, Eric Wedge, manager of the year. Boston Baseball Writers voted Indians General Manager Mark Shapiro baseball Executive of the Year.

• (Byrd's sections in the Mitchell Report, p.242,243, 245, 246)--His group, the "alleged internet" group was allowed to gab to Selig confidentially (page 242). The relevant details in the Mitchell Report only refer to media accounts, nothing Mitchell found out himself. Apparently he passed on that opportunity by giving the "alleged internet group" the ability to speak to Selig with the guarantee their words would not be repeated to Mitchell.
• WHERE ARE THE HEADLINES 'BYRD LIED' 'BYRD IS A LIAR AND A CHEAT?' BYRD SAID THE INDIANS AND MLB KNEW ABOUT HIS 'PITUITARY CONDITION.'
• ROB MANFRED HERE SAYS MLB KNEW NOTHING ABOUT IT. WHY WERE CLEVELAND INDIANS' MANAGERS GIVEN HONORS BY NY AND BOSTON BASEBALL WRITERS THIS WINTER?
• WHY HAVEN'T PAUL BYRD, MARK SHAPIRO AND ERIC WEDGE BEEN CALLED BEFORE CONGRESS?
• WHERE ARE THEIR SUSPENSIONS BY MLB?
• Mitchell knew nothing, mainly what he read in the San Francisco Chronicle.

"B. Alleged Internet Purchases of Performance Enhancing Substances By Players in Major League Baseball

• Since the initial news reports

of the raid by New York and Florida law enforcement officials on Signature Pharmacy and several rejuvenation centers, the names of several current and former major league players

• have appeared in the media as alleged purchasers

of performance enhancing substances through these operations. These include current major league players Rick Ankiel,

• Paul Byrd,

Jay Gibbons, Troy Glaus, Jose Guillen, Jerry Hairston, Jr., Gary Matthews, Jr., and Scott Schoeneweis, and former players David Bell, Jose Canseco, Jason Grimsley, Darren Holmes, John Rocker, Ismael Valdez, Matt Williams, and

• The Commissioner’s Office conducted its own disciplinary interviews of the players who were still active at the time of the reports about their alleged possession or use.

Players agreed to the interviews on the condition that the information they provided would not be shared with me by the Commissioner’s Office."

• (How did this (non-Radomski group) get special treatment?) sm

(Mitchell Report): "Either directly or in some cases through the Commissioner’s Office, I requested each of these 16 current and former players to meet with me to respond to the allegations about them in these reports. Other than Canseco, whose lawyer provided information in response to my inquiry, all of the players either declined or did not respond to my invitation."

• (to page 245)

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.

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.

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 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. 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."

• Reference: Words in quotes from Mitchell Report, pages 242, 243 , 245, and 246. (pdf)

P.S. Paul Byrd wrote a book which will be on the stands in August.

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