Marlon Jerrard Byrd (born August 30, 1977), is an American former professional baseball outfielder, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Philadelphia Phillies, Washington Nationals, Texas Rangers, Chicago Cubs, Boston Red Sox, New York Mets, Pittsburgh Pirates, San Francisco Giants, Cincinnati Reds, and Cleveland Indians. He was suspended twice for using performance-enhancing drugs.\n', '

Byrd is a 1995 graduate of Sprayberry High School in Marietta, Georgia, and won All-State honors in baseball and football. He played on the 1993 state runner-up team as a sophomore, and was part of the 1995 state championship team.[citation needed]\n', '

Byrd began his college baseball career at Georgia Tech. As a sophomore in 1996, after experiencing discomfort in his leg, Byrd was diagnosed with an infection in his tibialis anterior muscle, the largest muscle in the lower leg. After considering amputation, doctors chose to perform surgery to remove the muscle entirely. Between Thanksgiving in 1996 and January 1997, Byrd underwent a total of three operations. He spent nearly two years rehabbing the injury, during which time his body weight rose from 225 to 315 pounds. He shed the weight by approximating a bodybuilder diet and then enrolled at Georgia Perimeter College where he played his final season of college baseball in 1999.\n', '

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