Since the announcement was made yesterday I have been pondering what exactly I would say about Ryan Braun winning his appeal. Well quite frankly I don't believe his claim to innocence is as strong as he makes it out to be. I hate the fact that I dont believe him because Braun is one of my favorite players but Ive been burned before. One thing that stuck out for me is Braun saying he was tested 25 times and passed all of them. So what, you can be in a fight 25 times and never kill someone but if you kill someone in fight 26 does that soften the blow? I know a little bit of a stretch but I think you know what I'm getting at. There are so many questions that have yet to be answered that maybe taking such a strong stance on this issue might be a little premature. My biggest problem with this whole thing is that the Braun camp is that they are attacking the credibility of the collector rather than trying to clear his name. I know there needs to be a protocol for these type of things but until you can show me how this guy did alter the sample, I will stay on the side of Ryan Braun tested positive for a PED.The main reason Ryan Braun won his appeal was that the urine collector (who does it part time, weird) did not send the sample right away. He got the sample on a Saturday and did not send it to Montreal until Monday. This is directly from the MLB CBA "Absent unusual circumstances, the specimens should be sent by FedEx to the Laboratory on the same day they are collected." That obviously didn't happen and that's why Braun won. I have beat up on Braun this whole post but MLB only has itself to blame. First of all how do you not know that FedEx is open on Saturday? Last time i checked Sunday was the only day mail isn't delivered. In a way you cant blame them for taking that stance, and i also understand following procedure. If you don't have a protocol to follow it allows the opportunity for samples to be tainted or messed with. Plain and simple MLB screwed up and in principle they were right in that the collector did not follow the rules of the CBA. In my opinion however unless you can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that either the collector deliberately tampered the sample or because it was kept in the basement it was altered, you cant overturn the suspension.
Whether or not you personally think Ryan Braun took any PEDs, his name will always be linked with Manny, Palmeiro, McGwire and everybody else associated with PEDs. Braun says he is a victim of the process but the real victims are the fans of major league baseball. Now we have to hear about another star player who will have that infamous cloud of suspicion over him. I want to be wrong about Ryan Braun and if I am I will be the first to admit it. I just cant get over the fact they were more worried about the process of the test rather than proving Braun didn't test positive. People will also doubt Braun because the year in question was his best statistically. All in all it is yet another black eye for the sport of baseball, one that might take a while to heal.
I'm going to post two Videos and let you all decide for yourself who you want to believe.
First this is Braun's press conference from earlier today.
http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:7611725
Next is Dr. Gary Wadler who is the Chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency
http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:7612292
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