• Growing up in Atlanta, Marlon was a Braves fan. Hank Aaron was a family friend. And Byrd idolized Dale Murphy. He always wanted to wear Murphy's No. 3.

           "But because I was a big kid, I always got the higher numbers," Byrd said.

• Byrd originally attended Georgia Tech out of high school on a football scholarship, but left for junior college after a calf injury during his sophomore year. When doctors operated, they discovered an infection and swlling of the anterior tibialis muscle so severe that it had cut off the circulation. The surgeons considered immediate amputation, but decided to hold off. They cleaned out the infection and hoped to eventually operate again to reconnect the tendons.

  Marlon wore a hard cast for six weeks, then began a slow and arduous rehabilitation process that took almost two more years. His focus became baseball. But while he was rehabbing, his weight ballooned to 315 pounds! He worked to get his knee in shape, but between studying for his degree in business management and working at the local Planet Smoothie, he blossomed, to say the least.

  "I didn't realize how big I had gotten," he said. "I thought maybe 250, 260. But that really made me mad. It ticked me off and became a driving force. I went on a diet. I worked my butt off and lost 90 pounds in five months. I'd get up at 1 o'clock in the morning and get on the StairMaster. It became a fetish. And I believe that's what turned it around for me. I don't take it well when people tell me what I can't do."

• Marlon is tremendously strong, especially in the lower body. Before games he lifts weights. Then, after games, he lifts more weights. Physically, Byrd resembles Dee Brown of the Royals' organization.
• He works harder than most players. And he plays harder, too. He has a lot of heart and passion for the game. He is hungry, not complacent. He has great makeup, great character and great intensity.
• In 2000, Marlon received the Paul Owens Award as Phillies Minor League Player of the Year. In the South Atlantic League, he was tops in triples and sixth in batting average.
• He has a sense of humor, but is all work on the field. He has a strong desire to learn more and improve his game. He is a manager's dream.
• In 2001, Byrd was the Eastern League MVP.

• "His focal point is not just to be a Major League player. It's to be a front-line player," said Gary Varsho, his manager at Reading in 2001, and now a Phillies' coach. "He's quiet but he's extremely driven. I've never come across somebody so focused on what he wants to accomplish."

  Added general manager Ed Wade: "He doesn't just want to make the club. He wants to be Rookie of the Year. And that's great. I think it comes from within. He's just wired a certain way."

• Byrd seems to have inherited that inner drive from his parents. His father, Charles, was one of 10 children and now works in marketing for American Express Financial. His mother, Emma, has 11 brothers and sisters and was the first of the family to go to college. She's a project manager for IBM.

  "My parents instilled that in me," he said. "If I was cutting the lawn and the lines weren't straight, my Dad would get on me. He always told me that if I was going to be a janitor, be the best janitor I could be." When he was in seventh grade, the family moved into a neighborhood where many of the kids played tennis. He had never played, so not surprisingly he got beat almost every game. He threw himself into the sport until he could win consistently.

• In the offseason, he becomes a bit of a recluse. He works out intensely. He rarely goes to a restaurant, preferring to cook healthy meals for himself. He has a personal trainer and a physical therapist. He eats organic vegetables, and that is really his favorite food. His goal is to arrive at spring training with five percent body fat.

  However, Marlon had ballooned to about 250 pounds by the end of the 2002 season. He started adding weight after being hospitalized in July with what Byrd described as "a full body cramp."

• "I like to visualize, and what I'm visualizing is winning the Rookie of the Year Award," Byrd said. "That's my goal. It's also my goal to be a 30-30 player, a 40-40 player, to be the new breed of centerfielder, along with guys like Ken Griffey, Jr. and Andruw Jones. I want to be linked with those names. I want to see people walking around in the stands wearing my jersey." (Editor's note: Byrd is a nice player, but nobody has ever compared him to Ken Griffey Jr.)

• On August 30, 2002, Byrd was charged with simple assault, disorderly conduct, reckless endangering of another person, and harassment. The charges stem from an incident involving the 25-year-old outfielder and his girlfriend, Nikki Giavasis, that occurred in the parking lot of Lackawanna County Stadium, when Byrd was playing for the triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons. According to an affidavit, Byrd grabbed Giavasis by the hair and dragged her out of a car after they had been arguing.

  They were soon reconciled, but had to stand trial on the charges, even though Giavasis didn't want charges filed. She had injuries and went to the hospital, so police would not drop the matter. According to an affidavit, Byrd and Giavasis had argued in the parking lot of the stadium. When she got into a car to leave, Byrd grabbed her out of it and dragged her on the ground. She told police Byrd was "twisting her arm, trying to break it," and that Byrd punched her in the head and chest. Police stated they saw red marks on her chest, swelling and bruising to her left elbow, broken fingernails, and a bleeding finger.

  Byrd acknowledged the incident when he joined the Phillies a week later, saying: "I made a mistake. It was a personal and private matter. People make mistakes, and that's exactly what I did."

• During the offseason before 2003 spring training, Marlon worked out five days a week with eight-time National League batting champ and future Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn. They also worked with Phillies teammate Jimmy Rollins. Byrd said Gwynn emphasized getting in a proper position to hit the ball where it's pitched. "He's a master," Byrd said. "When you work with him, you don't leave until you get it right."
• In 2004, Marlon showed up for spring training having shaved his head. Before that, he had hair that ranged from an Afro to cornrows. "I did it for my Mom," Byrd said. "She likes the bald look."
• Byrd lives and breathes baseball. He can recite the out pitches for his boyhood heroes: the Atlanta Braves, the Glenn Hubbards, Dale Murphys, et al.

• In June 2005, while the Nationals were on a road trip, Marlon's 2002 black Cadillac Escalade was stolen.

  According to Byrd, the police found the car on June 23, but they didn't tell him until a week later and didn't disclose the location of where they found it. Byrd said the perpetrators took his stereo equipment from inside the car. 

• In June 2005,  Byrd was ejected from a game after arguing with first base umpire Bill Miller, who called Byrd out on a swinging strike. Byrd ran from shallow left field to argue with Miller. But Joe Brinkman, who was the crew chief, tried to grab Byrd and was knocked to the ground. Nationals trainer Tim Abraham and Marlins trainer Sean Cunningham tended to Brinkman, who suffered a scrape on his right forehead, but remained in the game.
• During the offseason before 2007 spring training, Marlon got married. The bacelor party in Las Vegas included a lot of his Phillies teammates, like Ryan Howard, Geoff Geary, and Shane Victorino.
• In November 2006, Marlon got married to a Philadelphia girl.
• In 2007, Byrd received the Texas Rangers' Harold McKinney Good Guy Award.

• Former Cubs manager Lou Piniella said Byrd is an impressive player.

  "I like the way he plays," Piniella said in 2010. "He's a kid who has fun. He plays hard, he hustles. He's a throwback. We've enjoyed having him. He does a nice job in center field. If you had 13 like him, you wouldn't have many problems."

• Marlon provides unselfish leadership. He is always happy and doesn't worry about anything except the team. He has a great personality. And, scouts call him a gamer.

• Byrd has a knack of pitcking up on ways that pitchers might be giving something up and tipping what pitch they are going to throw by holding their glove a certain way or some other clue.

  "When I came to the big leagues, Bobby Abreu and Ricky Ledee taught me about pitchers tipping pitches," Marlon said.

• Byrd on his offseason routine: "The first two weeks after the season ends, I'll eat nothing but raw vegetables. I do a detox and cleanse my whole body for six minutes every night, just to draw out everything—do steam showers every day. I do Epsom salt baths for six minutes every night, just to draw out everything. Once a week, I'll do dead lifts, as heavy as possible, probably like 415 pounds, one rep, six sets of that.

  "After a two-week span, I start doing my lifting, about the middle of October, and start getting into it slowly. In November, it's more getting my core strength and flexibility back, and I'll do a lot of kettlebell stuff -- kettlebell movements.

  "In December, I start boxing and get my springing in and go a little heavier and start working on getting my strength up. Usually, I start hitting January 1," Byrd said.

• Byrd incorporated the martial art, Muay Thai (pronounced "moy tie") to his pre-2012 offseason program. The intense sessions, which he does three to four times a week, plus a dramatic change in his diet has helped the Cubs center fielder go from 255 pounds, which he weighed at the end of the 2011 season, to 215. That's the same weight he was his senior year in high school.

  "Now, he's a lean, mean, fighting machine," said Robert Cole, Byrd's instructor at L.A. Boxing in Chicago and a retired national champion from England.

  Playing baseball requires balance, coordination, skill and some kicks. The first step in the transformation regarded Byrd's diet, and he saw New York nutritionist Robert Pastore in New York on the recommendation of Raul Ibanez and Jayson Werth. Tests revealed Byrd was allergic to milk and wheat, and very close to having celiac disease. His wife, Andrea, had the same allergies. Pastore advised the Byrds to change their diet and both saw instant results.

  "The fat started melting away," Byrd said Wednesday. "No more bloating, no more food sensitivities. My body just kicked into high gear and I was able to keep it revved up."

  He used to box when he was younger, and also when he was in Philadelphia at Joe Hand Gym. Muay Thai evolved from hand-to-hand tactics of the Thai army. A form of martial arts, it features punches, kicks, elbows, knees, standing grappling, and head-butts to wear down the opponent.

• During the winter before 2012 spring training, Byrd added a new tattoo on his right arm—an excerpt from Teddy Roosevelt's "Citizenship in a Republic" speech delivered at the Sorbonne in Paris on April 23, 1910: 

  “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

  Marlon's first post of 2012: "The quote is not talking about going out and trying to succeed, it’s talking about giving it your all regardless, win, lose, or draw, whatever happens, and knowing that whenever you get up and then you go home, that you have no questions, none whatsoever. You can’t question yourself, you can’t doubt yourself. I feel I do that every single year. This last year was not a good year for me but at the same time, I left it all out on the field. It wasn’t like, oh, I could’ve done more, I could’ve done better. I didn’t have a good year. I put it all out there and didn’t have a good year. I came into the offseason and trained harder. I’ve done that every single year, good or bad. I feel that’s my character."

• In 2012, Byrd was on a mission to prove that a down year in 2011, and a poor start with the Cubs in 2012, were an aberration. Marlon arrives at the park hours earlier than he used to. Ever since a 2007 conversation with Kenny Lofton, who was 40 at the time, Byrd has learned that with every year of age, a ballplayer must work harder and harder.

  STEROIDS

• June 25, 2009: Byrd understands that fans, the media, and even some of his peers in baseball might question his decision to use supplements from Victor Conte, the brains behind the BALCO steroid scandal.

  But Byrd stands by his decision, saying it's the right thing for him and his career. While others might think Byrd is subjecting himself to the risk of testing positive for a banned substance, he said Conte's help reduces that chance.

  "People are going to question it. Of course, they are," Byrd said. "His supplements work for me. The things that I'm taking are subtle supplements to play the game. It's weird to say, but it's safer, in my opinion.

  "I've never been labeled a cheater. I know Victor has. If I was doing something wrong, do you think I would have come out with it? I'm being honest."

• June 25, 2012: Marlon was suspended for 50 games after testing positive for Tamoxifen. He will be put on the restricted list and will remain there until Aug. 20.

  Tamoxifen—its brand name in the United States is Nolvadex—is a medicine that blocks the effects of the estrogen hormone in the body. It is used to treat breast cancer in women or men and is used by steroid users to prevent the growth of breast tissues in men and to stop post-cycle crashes.

  Byrd issued a statement through the Major League Baseball Players' Association.

  "I made an inexcusable mistake," the statement said. "Several years ago, I had surgery for a condition that was private and unrelated to baseball. (Note: The medical condition, called gynecomastia.) Last winter, I suffered a recurrence of that condition and I was provided with a medication that resulted in my positive test. Although that medication is on the banned list, I absolutely did not use it for performance-enhancement reasons.

  "I am  mortified by my carelessness and I apologize to everyone who loves this game as I do. I will serve my suspension, continue to work hard, and hope that I am given an opportunity to help a club win later this season."

• Byrd was packing up his apartment in Boston in June 2012. He had just been released by the Red Sox, who saw no reason to believe that he might raise his average from a paltry .210.

  "If you don't get it right in spring training, it's too late," Byrd said of his swing, which had crumbled into an unreliable mess. "I couldn't fix it—at all."

  Nor could he foresee what would come when he answered his cell phone that day. The voice on the other end of the line, an official from Major League Baseball, delivered the sobering news that Byrd had tested positive for a banned substance.

  The punishment was stark: a 50-game suspension, the permanent stain of a PED violation, and perhaps the end of a career in which Byrd went from a brash rookie with the 2002 Phillies to an All-Star outfielder with the 2010 Cubs. (Marc Carig - 10/06/13)

• Byrd resurrected his career after thousands of swings inside a batting cage in the San Fernando Valley, through playing on the pockmarked fields of the Mexican League and through restoring his value while starting in rightfield for the Mets. The final phase of Byrd's remarkable comeback led him to the Pirates, who traded for him with the hope that he'd help them earn their first playoff berth in 21 seasons.

  "Everything we've hoped for we've gotten," Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said in October 2013. "This guy has thrown aces all over the table."

  "We joke around," Byrd said less than 24 hours after the champagne shower that followed the Pirates' wild-card triumph on Oct. 1. "This time last year, I was eating tacos."

  It wasn't Byrd's first choice to begin the 2012 season with the Cubs and end it with Los Tomateros de Culiacán—the Tomato Pickers. But when his suspension ended and no teams showed interest in giving him a second chance, he had no choice but to cross the border for his only chance to prove he still could play.

  "We completely revamped his swing," said Doug Latta, a former high school baseball coach who never had met Byrd until last summer.

  They since have spent countless hours together, first in the San Fernando Valley, where Latta owns and operates a batting cage, and then in Mexico, where the two often broke down swing tape over breakfast before games in the Pacific League. When he was suspended, Byrd only recently had moved his family's offseason home to Southern California, and he returned there to serve out his punishment. He hoped to use the time to fix his faulty swing. He held on to the belief that with hard work and time to refine his hitting mechanics, he still had the raw skills to play in the big leagues.

  A simple Google search uncovered Latta's facility, "The Ballyard." The building is indistinguishable from the rest of the squat warehouses off a busy six-lane highway. Coils of barbed wire sit atop a chain-link fence and most of the walls are gray. Inside, black netting hangs from the ceiling to form a pair of side-by-side hitting stalls. Plastic buckets filled with baseballs are stacked along a wall.

  What passes for carpeting is really just worn-down AstroTurf that doubles as a sponge for sweat. It was everything Byrd hoped it would be. Earlier in 2013, Latta leaned back into a worn office chair and reached into a file cabinet. He fished out the discs that hold digital videos of Byrd's tireless work. The tape is marked July 12—their first day working together.

  "Garbage," Byrd would later say of his swing. 

  The two worked straight through for 2 1/2 months until Byrd joined Los Tomateros de Culiacán. One of his first games was in Puerto Peñasco, where no grass grows in the outfield.

  "I was checking it out to make sure I wasn't going to break my ankle," said Byrd, who inspected the dirt for holes.

  Byrd hit his way out of the Mexican League and signed a minor-league deal with the Mets—the only team willing to take him on before spring training.  (Marc Carig - 10/06/13)

• June 1-Nov 3, 2016: Marlon Byrd was suspended for 162 games for his second positive PED test. While he says he did not knowingly take them, he did not appeal the suspension.

  TRANSACTIONS

• June 2, 1999: Byrd was drafted by the Phillies in the 10th round, out of Georgia Perimeter JUCO.
• May 14, 2005: The Nationals sent OF Endy Chavez to the Phillies, acquiring Byrd.
• July 14, 2006: The Nationals designated Byrd for assignment.
• December 8, 2006: Marlon signed a one-year contract with the Rangers.
• January 16, 2008: Byrd and the Rangers avoided salary arbitration when they agreed to a $1.8 million contract.
• January 30, 2009: The Rangers and Marlon again avoided salary arbitration, agreeing to a one-year, $3.06 million contract. He was asking for $3.6 million in arbitration and the Rangers were offering $2.7 million.
• November 5, 2009: Byrd filed for free agency.
• December 31, 2009: Marlon signed a three-year, $15 million contract with the Cubs. It calls for $3 million in 2010, $5.5 million in 2011, and $6.5 million in 2012.
• April 21, 2012: The Red Sox sent RHP Michael Bowden and a player to be named to the Cubs, acquiring Byrd.
• June 9, 2012: The Red Sox released Byrd.
• February 1, 2013: Marlon signed with the Mets organization.
• August 27, 2013: The Pirates sent SS Dilson Herrera to the Mets, acquiring Byrd and C John Buck.
• November 12, 2013: Byrd signed with the Phillies for two years and $16 million.
• December 31, 2014: The Reds sent P Ben Lively to the Phillies, acquiring Marlon and money to help pay the $8 million Byrd is owed for 2015.
• August 20, 2015: The Giants sent RHP Stephen Johnson to the Reds, to acquire Byrd and cash.
• March 18, 2016:  The Indians signed Byrd to a Minor League pact.
• Nov 3, 2016: Byrd chose free agency

• Marlon has great bat speed. And when the ball hits the bat, it just sounds different than from most hitters. Very few hitters have that.
• His tremendous power comes from his compact swing and muscular physique. 
• Byrd has an improving knowledge of the strike zone, but still needs to walk more often.
• Marlon has a quiet, compact stroke. He stays back on offspeed pitches. And he hits to all fields.

• During 2002 spring training, Byrd picked up a valuable lesson from Phillie teammate Bobby Abreu. Byrd noticed that Abreu, a lefthanded hitter, begins every round of batting practice by hitting balls to the opposite field. Gradually, Abreu works into pull mode, letting his hands and eyes concentrate on preparing for pitches in every part of the zone.

  The righthanded Byrd emulated that approach throughout the 2002 season, and it still helps him hit for average when he goes into a power drought.

• "He still has trouble with good fastballs," said Phillies manager Larry Bowa in 2003. "He's so strong that sometimes he waits too long before he triggers. He's getting a lot of hits to right field. The one thing that's hard to teach in my opinion is how to hit a good fastball. You can teach a player how to hit a good breaking ball because it's a matter of waiting. Byrd's not starting soon enough at the plate," Bowa said. "Everything's late. If he triggers right, he'll hit a good fastball."
• In 2003, Byrd started the season slowly. He was hitting just .167 on May 13, but finished hitting .303 with seven homers and 45 RBIs. He also became the Phillies' leadoff hitter, and showed he can handle pennant-race baseball. He hit .330 and stole six of his 11 bases in September.
• In 2004, Phillies hitting guru Charlie Manuel helped Byrd develop a trigger in his swing. And, Manuel had Marlon move his hands slightly to get an earlier start to his swing, which he hopes will aid bat control and reduce strikeouts.

• Marlon uses a 26-inch bat. That is a pretty small bat. Why use it?

  "It makes you focus on a little part [of your swing]," Carlos Pena said.

  Tony Campana got one for himself. He used it at Double-A and Byrd suggested Campana revive his workouts. He'll take 20 or so swings with it, using one hand. When Campana was swinging it once with two hands, Byrd noticed the smaller bat seemed to be in better proportion with the 5-foot 8-inch Campana.

  "He told me I looked more comfortable with it," Campana said.

  Tyler Colvin is a proponent.

  "It helps me get my hands to where they should be," Colvin said.

  Pena said he'll take some swings with his top hand, then his bottom hand.

  "Then you put it together so it feels like you're putting pieces together of your swing and at the end when it all comes together, it feels really good," Pena said. "It's just one other exercise."  (Carrie Muscat-MLB.com-September 2011)

• Marlon had signed with the Rangers in the offseason before 2007 spring training, hoping that working with hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo would fix his swing, but the team designated him for assignment. So he watched Opening Day on a TV in the weight room, unsure if he would clear waivers.

  "The first time I got sent down was '04," Byrd said, "and I got sent down in '04, '05, '06 and '07."

  When Byrd returned to the Majors, though, he was finally there to stay. He had toiled with Jaramillo, "who's one of the best hitting coaches ever," in Byrd's mind, and completely retooled his swing.

  "My swing was terrible," he said. "I mean, it was."

  Tinkering under Jaramillo's tutelage, Byrd went from spending parts of four seasons in the Minors in the mid-2000s into an above-average Major Leaguer in the last years of the decade, culminating with an All-Star appearance in 2010 and, after two seasons of regression, his best season yet in 2013 with the Mets.

  It was in Texas where, in 2007, Jaramillo and Byrd were first united. In one offseason, with Jaramillo's help, Byrd's swing transformed from a jumbled mess into a mechanically sound stroke teeming with power potential. Byrd transformed from a fledgling big leaguer into a staple in Major League lineups.

  "He's had his ups and downs, but the great part about him, he doesn't give in and keeps working and keeps making mental adjustments," Jaramillo said. "That's where he is today."

• Both Rudy Jaramillo and Mets manager Terry Collins credit Byrd's work ethic as the root of his sudden success. Byrd played in Mexico in the winter after a disastrous 2012, taking time to put in the extra work. Before games, he is constantly in the batting cage or the weight room, watching film or simply holding a bat. 

  It all starts with the hips, the part of the body Jaramillo seems to always come back to when he talks about swinging.

  "He was just not getting his hips in position consistently," Jaramillo said.

  When Jaramillo left the Rangers for the Cubs in 2010, Byrd followed shortly. Reunited with his swing doctor, Byrd made his first All-Star appearance.

• Byrd is not afraid to talk about the suspicions that come with this type of improved production at this age. He served a 50-game suspension in 2012 after he tested positive for tamoxifen, a medicine that blocks the effects of estrogen and is commonly used to mask steroid use.

  It was prescribed to Byrd for reasons outside of baseball, he says, and it led to the one blemish on an otherwise spotless record. The surge is surprising, but he insists it is natural—the product of desperation and dedication.

  "Sometimes you need an overhaul," Byrd said. "I'm still trying to get better. Still learning. It's just one of those things where you've got to get your swing right. If not, I'd have been gone."

• August 28, 2015: Byrd's grand slam was the Giants' Major League-leading eighth of the season, establishing a franchise record. This total eclipsed the seven amassed by the club in 1951, 1954, 1970, 1998 and 2000.

• As of the start of the 2017 season, Byrd's career Major League stats were: .275 batting average, 159 home runs with 710 RBI's in 5,579 at-bats.

• Byrd is a real good outfielder. He had a poor arm but worked so hard and improved it so much that it now even plays in right field. Now he has an average Major League arm.
• He is a true centerfielder who can really run down balls out there. He has solid range in center. His instincts out there are very good, allowing him to read the ball off the bat very well.

• Marlon is a very aggressive outfielder. His plays sets the tone for his teammates. He saves a lot of extra bases from coming into being during a season, always running in an all-out effort to stop runs for scoring.
  
  He never makes excuses, he just grinds. He never gves up, laying out for fly balls even if the team is down 10 runs. He plays with energy and a desire to excel.

• Byrd is a solid, above average runner. He has the speed to steal bases but he is not a base-stealer. He never really picked up the technique.
• He can run the 60-yard-dash in 6.5 seconds.

• Marlon can score from first on a long single or a double, he can go from first to third real well, but he is not a solid base-stealer on the Major League level.

• In 2004, Byrd was working on a tap step to get better drive off his right foot on steal attempts.

• 1996: Marlon almost lost his right leg to amputation. Doctors discovered an infection that caused the circulation to stop. He missed two seasons of college ball, during which he transferred from Georgia Tech to Georgia Perimeter JUCO.

  A careless accident as a Georgia Tech freshman had nearly cost him his athletic future. He karate-kicked a door in jest and sustained muscular damage to his right leg. He came down with an infection that cut off the circulation to the nerves in his leg and required three operations. Byrd ballooned to 315 pounds, a far cry from the days when he was a sought-after high school running back.

• April 13, 2003: Byrd went on the D.L. with a lacerated left knee he suffered in a home plate collision with Reds' C Jason LaRue. Marlon was thrown out at the plate by CF Ruben Mateo.
• October 8, 2003: Marlon had arthroscopic surgery to repair the posterior labrum in his left shoulder. Cincinnati Reds team doctor Tim Kremchek performed the surgery.  Byrd likely injured himself diving for a ball in June, but played through it. He didn't let any discomfort affect his performance, as he hit .317 from July 1 through the end of the season.
• March 20-May 3, 2005: Byrd dislocated and fractured his right ring finger when he dived headfirst into first base on a pickoff attempt during an exhibition game.
• May 15, 2007: Marlon went on the D.L. for a week with a hamstring injury.
• April 17-May 14, 2008:  Marlon went on the D.L. with inflammation in his left knee.
• October 2, 2008: Byrd had surgery to clean up jagged cartilage in his left knee that bothered him all season.
• August 28, 2009: Marlon passed a kidney stone after being sidelined with it for three days.
• March 29, 2011: Byrd was day-to-day because of a stiff back at the start of the season.

• May 21-July 2, 2011: Marlon was hospitalized overnight after being hit on the left side of his face under his eye by a pitch in the second inning by the Red Sox's Alfredo Aceves. And he went on the D.L.

  With one out in the second and the count 1-2, Byrd was struck by a pitch, and he dropped to the dirt. He was writhing in pain—and grabbed his face. He was able to walk off under his own power but had a bloody gash under his eye. He never lost consciousness. Byrd was taken to Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary to be examined.

  Marlon suffered multiple facial fractures, "but other than that I have my vision, no brain damage. It could've been worse, so no complaints," Byrd bravely said. Doctors had to wait a few days for the swelling to subside to know the full severity of the injury.

• June 2-19, 2015: Byrd went on the D.L. after he fractured his right wrist when he was hit by a pitch in a Reds' 5-4 loss to the Phillies.

  Marlon was hit on the right hand bySean O'Sullivanleading off the sixth inning. Byrd reacted with considerable pain but shook off the injury and went to first base. He had to leave the game in the bottom of the seventh.