Byrd-brained ideas in a book

CLEVELAND (AP) -- Paul Byrd doesn't reveal anything new about using human growth hormone or provide any enlightenment on the subject in his new book.

"Free Byrd: The Power of a Liberated Life," deals mostly with how the Cleveland Indians' right-hander, a former Angels pitcher, strives to balance his strong religous beliefs with the day-to-day life in a baseball clubhouse.

"What I did learn was that writing on deadline scared me to death," Byrd said Friday before Cleveland opened a three-game interleague series against the Cincinnati Reds. "Facing the Yankees at Yankee Stadium? That's something I've prepared myself to handle.

"But when my editors moved up my deadline, it was nerve-wracking because I was writing it last December and didn't know what the commissioner's office was doing about me and HGH."

The final chapter is about how Byrd was at the center of controversy hours before Game 7 of last fall's AL Championship Series in Boston, when it was reported he had purchased HGH from 2002-05 to help control a problem with his pituitary gland.

Byrd has insisted all along that his use was legally prescribed. Nevertheless, he and others implicated in the Mitchell Report concerning drug use in baseball were under investigation all winter. All were granted amnesty in April.

In the book, Byrd does admit that he wondered if he doubled his prescribed dosage whether or not it would make him throw harder and enhance his career.

"I was able to say no to those tempting voices," Byrd wrote.

One of the more amusing chapters describes how Byrd, while pitching for Philadelphia, got into a skirmish with Atlanta's Eddie Perez. Phillies teammate Curt Schilling came to his rescue, much to Byrd's surprise.

"I just think it shocked me because at the time I thought Curt would be the last person on our team to go to battle and risk injury for me," Byrd wrote.