Byrd took growth hormone

BOSTON -- Just what baseball needed before its most eagerly awaited game of the postseason -- a performance-enhancing-drug scandal involving a popular player on the Cleveland Indians, who had enough on their plates trying to prepare for Game 7 of the American League Championship Series against the Boston Red Sox on Sunday night.

Veteran right-hander Paul Byrd, who pitched the Indians to a Game 4 victory Tuesday, said Sunday that he took human growth hormone for a three-year period, under a doctor’s care, because of a pituitary gland issue and that he was recently diagnosed with a tumor on his pituitary gland.

“I have not taken any hormone apart from a doctor’s care and supervision,” Byrd said before the game. “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.”

However, Indians General Manager Mark Shapiro said that Friday night was “the first time I was made aware of any of this,” and Major League Baseball spokesman Pat Courtney said the commissioner’s office did not know of Byrd’s pituitary gland issue and “has never granted a therapeutic use exemption for HGH.”

The San Francisco Chronicle first reported Sunday that Byrd bought nearly $25,000 worth of HGH and syringes between 2002 and 2005, right up until the time baseball formally banned HGH in January 2005, and just before his first and only season with the Angels.

The Chronicle report said Byrd’s purchase was from the Florida anti-aging clinic that was the focus of law enforcement for alleged illegal distribution of performance-enhancing drugs. The purchases were made by credit card from the Palm Beach Rejuvenation Center during a period in which Byrd pitched for Kansas City and Atlanta and was recovering from major elbow surgery.

Based on the paper’s review, Byrd had some shipments sent to his home in Alpharetta, Ga., to the Braves’ spring-training facility in Kissimmee, Fla., and to the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York, when the Braves were in town to play the Mets.

“I did not try to hide anything,” Byrd said. “I purchased things with my credit card on my name. Things came to clubhouses of teams I played on, and I’ve taken blood tests set up by teams in towns. Everything has been done out in the open. I have shipments come to clubhouses and actually, for a short period of time, stored them in a refrigerator, so I feel like that makes things very legitimate.”

Byrd said he has “never taken any hormone or drug that was not prescribed to me by a doctor,” but the Chronicle, citing an anonymous law enforcement source, said two of the prescriptions Byrd used to buy HGH were written by a Florida dentist. The dentist’s license was suspended in 2003 for fraud and incompetence.

One question unanswered Sunday: If Byrd was under a physician’s care, why was HGH ordered online for him from an anti-aging clinic in Florida?

“If that pharmacy did something wrong, I did not know about it,” Byrd said, “and I never received anything in a shipment that wasn’t prescribed to me.”

Byrd, whose fastball tops out at 88 mph, is the latest major league player accused of buying HGH, joining a list that includes Angels outfielder Gary Matthews Jr., Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Troy Glaus, St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Rick Ankiel and Texas Rangers infielder Jerry Hairston Jr.

MLB issued a statement Sunday saying, “We will investigate the allegations concerning Paul Byrd as we have players implicated in previous reports. Since Mr. Byrd and his club are currently active in postseason play, we will interview Mr. Byrd prior to the start of the World Series should the Cleveland club advance.”

HGH is used to treat dwarfism in children and AIDS wasting disease. It is illegal to use without a valid prescription and a doctor’s supervision. It also is illegal for doctors to prescribe growth hormone for uses not specifically approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Performance enhancement is not an approved use.

“I have a reputation. I speak to kids and to churches. I do not want the fans of Cleveland, and I do not want honest, caring people to think I cheated, because I didn’t,” Byrd said. “I don’t want to show up at a stadium and kids not want my autograph and people think I cheated.

“I love this game. I respect this game. I loved it since I was a little boy, and I’ve always wanted to be in the World Series, and I’m one game away from it. Now, I’m dealing with my medical history on a night when I should be talking about Jake Westbrook and the Cleveland Indians.”

Byrd addressed his teammates in a closed-door meeting before the Indians took batting practice Sunday and said, “I don’t want this to affect my team when we take the field. They understand where I’m coming from. It was a very good talk.”

mike.digiovanna@latimes.com