Another MLBer fesses up to being on HGH. This time it's Paul Byrd; big-time pitcher for the Cleveland Indians--yeah the same guys who made it to the ALCS... the same Byrd hailed for his stamina, stick-to-it-ness, etc.
Paul Byrd. He of the book deal, in which he brags about his HGH usage. (HGH is a banned substance under MLB guideines.)
Neither did Brady Anderson or Mark McGwire.
Byrd says he used HGH because he has an "adult growth hormone deficiency syndrome" caused by a pituitary gland problem.
Sorry but every man has glad problems with glands--it's called "getting older". As you age, you lose testosterone and your production of estrogen goes up just enough to make muscle gain, muscle strength, stamina and recovery more difficult. You get tired, you can't do what you used to do when you were younger...
any doctor will tell you this.
So how do you counteract the "aging process" and pituitary problems? Steriods. Human Growth Hormone.
What Byrd did was realize that he had a ceiling--a point at which he was going to start losing physical strength and recovery abilities and he took drugs to beat it.
If you forgive or excuse Byrd's use, you gotta give everyone else a pass. Byrd was using this substance to prolong his career and aide in maintaining world-class performance levels.
He's no different from Jason Giambi, Mark McGwire, Brady Anderson, Jeremy Giambi, Rick Ankeil, Scott Schoenweiss, Wally Joyner, Ken Caminiti, Matt Lawton, Brett Boone,Rafeal Palmiero, Jason Grimsley, Pete Rose Jr. (yup--he used while he was in the minors) and all the countless others who've done "the stuff" as Giambi sheepishly called it.
Now I left one big obvious name off for clear reasons:
No one cares what anyone does except Bonds. The hypocritical powers that be and the league's mob of hypocritical fans have decided (for all sorts of reasons) that no matter who's done/does what, that unless Bonds goes down nothing else matters.
And it's that level of two-faced, assissine hypocrisy of singling out indivual guys for reasons that have almost nothing to do with integrity (i.e. "i don't like him"/he's black, he's mean, he choked in the playoffs, etc.) while excusing/downplaying everyone else's offense is why baseball will get exactly what it deserves in the end.
Okay I gotta write more on this. Why? Cuz I'm annoyed. Work with me here:
Lance Armstrong had cancer--so does that means it would've been cool for him to use steroids even though steroids are common treatment for folks with cancer? 'course not. Otherwise Lance would say "hey i got my 7 straight Tour De France titles fair and square--i only used 'just enough' HGH/steroids to get healthy, but i swear i never took enough to give me any advantages over any other riders.'" But nope, LA denies to any all that he never took a thing because he knows it's wrong, period.
If an MLBer gets injured, can he now say, "i was hurt--so i used steroids/HGH but just enough to help recoup from my disease/injury?"
C'mon. Brett Favre had his injuries did we forgive his Vicodin and Percodan abuse? Oh wait, actually, we did. (Those pesky Double standards are a mother.)
Under Byrd's logic, anybody can now come up with a good reason/excuse for taking banned substances; and depending on who they are, how much we like them, we have to accept their rationale.
But at the end of the day, if you're gonna excuse Byrd's use, you have to excuse every athlete that says, "hey i was hurt/sick/born with a condition/blah-blah-blah.
.. all i wanted was 'just enough to medicine' to stay in the game/feed my family."
If y'all are cool with that, then I'll give Byrd a pass, too.
Otherwise, call out him for what he did. Better yet, go one step further and apply the same rules to every athlete no matter what your personal feelings are about them. Then maybe, you have a clean sport.
For once.
