Say it ain’t so, Ryan: continued

It’s not that I wish this situation would just go away; I just wish it would be resolved more quickly than it seems it will be. MLB won’t be meeting on this until the middle of January. In the immediate meantime, we’ll have to hear pundits weighing in how what a shame it is that we’ve been deceived…again.

History has not been kind to the previous players who argued that the test was wrong and they were innocent. Fans really want to believe them, but they’re tired of being constantly disappointed.

The positive test indicates that Braun is “guilty” of having taken whatever substance it was that led to that result. What’s in contention here is, I believe, intent? That doesn’t seem to matter to the powers that be. “Take the drug, get no hug.”

Of course, if it does turn out that Braun was innocent in the sense that what he took had no “baseball value,” but still gets punished, he could get more sympathy as an underdog in an unfair and unfeeling draconian system.

Here’s a excerpt from ESPN’s Outside the Lines program, which focuses on the issues behind the major stories by using actual journalism rather than just bloviating.

Even if a player can establish he did not knowingly take a banned substance, he must show he was not in any way negligent to appeal successfully. For example, taking a dietary supplement that contains an unlabeled performance-enhancing drug would not be sufficient grounds for appeal, but if he were to show that he ingested something that was either tampered with or no player reasonably could have assumed to have been contaminated, the appeal might succeed.

The source close to Braun said he believes that standard can be met.

Look at this line again: “[T]aking a dietary supplement that contains an unlabeled performance-enhancing drug would not be sufficient grounds for appeal.” What does that mean? Unless there’s some technical issue I’m just not getting here, how is someone supposed to know an ingredient is in the substance they consume if it’s not labeled? And shouldn’t everything be labeled. have you picked up a carton of ice cream lately? There are 674 ingredients; everything is labeled. I know Braun was supposedly a very good student in college, but can we reasonably expect any player to be experts in pharmaceutical chemistry?

I was flipping through the dial last night and came across the MLB Network’s Intentional Talk program, with former Major Leaguer Sean Casey and Chris Rose, a typical combination of ex-jock and broadcasting pro. One of the segments considered the Braun situation.

Both Rose and Casey claimed to be “shocked” and even though they reported that Braun was appealing, they pretty much dismissed it as pro forma. Casey pointed out to the history of players being suspended (not one player had successfully overturned his suspension). And although he did say “We need more answers” and “I know for myself and everyone else, we all love Ryan Braun and what he stands for int he game and hopefully this doesn’t tarnish that,” I got the feeling that he and Rose we representative of the philosophy that Braun had let the fans down.

Of course, Braun has been the subject on two of my favorite outlets: Pardon the Interruption and Slate’s Hang Up and Listen podcast, the latter of which mentions the ballplayer’s religion.