Former MLB outfielder Eric Byrnes claims he knows a retired high-profile player who used performance-enhancing drugs during his career.
In a blog post about his experience as a player during the “steroid era,” Byrnes, currently an analyst for MLB Network, detailed several conversations he had with unnamed players about PED use in baseball.
“My first year out of the game, I ran into a borderline HOF calibre player and the issue of steroids came up,” Byrnes wrote. “He proceeded to tell me that he played his entire career steroid free until he realized his time was coming to an end and he became willing to do anything to hang on.
“For the final two years of his career, he used performance-enhancing drugs. He said the main difference that he noticed was how well he could see the baseball!”
Byrnes also said he was told by a former player of a “prominent Hall of Famer” who used steroids during the majority of his career in the 1970s and 80s.
“So many members of the Hall of Fame, including this character, have recently spoken out and condemned guys who have had ties to performance enhancing drugs, saying there is no place for “cheaters” in the HOF … I just wonder how many of the other guys in the “Hall” were actually cheaters themselves?”
In January, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens were among several notable Hall of Fame candidates who were denied entrance into Cooperstown because of their link to PEDs.
Byrnes spent 11 seasons in the majors from 2000 to 2010 and said he was never offered steroids during his career.
