Eric Byrnes gave an interview on various subjects on The Razor and Mr. T show on KNBR in San Francisco on Friday, December 14. Here is my transcript of some portions of the interview that concerned the Mitchell Report and drug use in major league baseball. (I didn’t transcribe every um, but I kept the ones I that had “editorial content” or that were needed for the fact that the thought changed direction midstream. the hiatuses (…) are either for the same reason or denote a longish pause where there was no “um”:

Ralph Barbieri (The Razor, hereinafter RB): Let’s get down to Eric Byrnes, your official opinion on the Mitchell Report.

Eric Byrnes (hereinafter EB): My official opinion on the Mitchell Report is, um, I knew way too many guys on there, Ralph and , uh,

RB: Who were your closest friends?

EB: I came up with Adam Piatt the whole way. Obviously, Miguel Tejada, playing with him in Oakland and playing with him in Baltimore, playing against him in the Dominican Republic, spending time with him, you know, knowing him, you know, as well as I do. And then obviously, one of my very best friends, F.P. Santangelo. So, to see those three guys come up, um, you know it’s…in some ways I was shocked. In others I wasn’t.

RB: Well you had to know Tejada had a good chance of being on there, right?

EB: You know, what’s funny is like I almost, when I played with him, and Rafael Palmeiro originally said something, and implicated him in giving him B-12 shots that Palmeiro took that eventually had, you know, that he blamed for a positive drug test, he blamed Tejada. So, you know, that didn’t make any sense to me and at that time I didn’t think about it, and I’ve always kind of um, I’ve used this analogy before: But, you know, it’s kind of like the drug culture of steroids is kind of like the drug culture in life. And, obviously, you know, I like to go out and have a good time and party with my friends and have a few cocktails. And, you know, you’re out there, you’re having a good time, and everything’s going great and you know, maybe the bottles of vodka are flowing, and everyone’s high fiving, you know, maybe a round of shots for everyone. And then your buddy comes up to you and tells you that everybody there is on coke. And you kind of, you just kind of “Whoa!” are taken aback by it. And, but you never know it because nobody…I think it’s because you don’t do it…I’ve never seen, you know, the funny thing is I never saw steroids; I never saw HGH; I never even overheard guys talking about taking it. I heard guys gossiping about other guys who possibly had taken it. But I’ve never heard individuals talk about taking it and I never saw it. It’s the same thing with coke for me in this “go out” world. I’ve…you know, these people could do what they want to do. And that’s, that’s their choices. You know, whether or not, you know, those are good choices…well look, it’s probably not the best thing for you, either one of them, OK? But, um, it is one of those things that I was very uh, I was very… maybe I was just ignorant. I don’t know. But it’s a…neither one of those things are good, and it was kind of a sad day, I think, for everybody.

Tom Tolbert (TT): Well, you knew it existed, though.

EB: Of course, I knew it existed.

RB (talking over EB): Well he’s not deaf, dumb and blind for godsakes.

EB: Yeah, I knew it was there.

RB: He knew it existed.

EB: As a baseball player, not only did I know it existed, but as a baseball player, you know, there was times where I actually thought about, OK, you know, is this something that I need to do to elevate my game? Is this what I have to do to be a major leaguer? Is this what I have to do if I want to be one of the top major leaguers? Because you look at all of them and you’re  like, man, is this natural? Are these guys really just this good? And you know, the answer that I that I had years ago is No, it’s not natural, and and  really it was those illegal substances that made them better.

Now, at the same time, when I decided that I had to make the choice  like, you know like   this is not the road that I’m going to go down.

RB: And was there a time, Eric, where you made a conscious decision not to?

EB: Yes, there was, Ralph. It was probably right as I was breaking into the major leagues and I was going up and down. And, I, I…But nobody ever offered it to me…

RB: (Interrupting) ‘Cause I might have done it at that time. If I figured that would give me a major league job and without it, I might not, uh, you know, I certainly would have been tempted.

EB: Ok, well the thing is, is at that point, I’m looking at it and I’m like, you know what? I’m not even sure if it’s going to help me. And then the other thing is that a lot of people that I suspected of doing steroids, the way these guys were breaking out, just I wasn’t interested. And to tell you the truth, the biggest reason, more than anything…is the fact that I wasn’t into losing my hair, I wasn’t into having acne all over my back, and I wasn’t into my package shrinking. (RB chuckling) It’s like those three things right there were enough for me to say, “You know what? Steroids is for the birds, and, and, and I’m just not that into it.

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All I can say is, “Thank goodness Byrnesie is vain!”  I’d hate to think of him risking his health on ‘roids and HGH of dubious value. Drugs purchased in the black market are of uncertain quality. If we are to find out just was these drugs are good for, if anything, the effects must be observed under controlled conditions with medical supervision. A full clinical study, perhaps. That doesn’t happen when you buy drugs from a clubhouse attendant.

As for enhancing performance, we know from watching Byrnesie, and the rest of the players who don’t use PEDs, that it is possible to perform at a high level without taking drugs that might shrink your package.

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