Milwaukee Brewer Ryan Braun was awarded the National League MVP award about 3 
weeks ago. Fast forward 18 days and news breaks that the slugging outfielder tested positive for a performance enhancing drug in one of the urine samples he gave during the 2011 playoffs. Braun is challenging the case and reports have surfaced that his backup sample came back clean. The heightened levels of testosterone in his system (he had nearly 4.5 times the typical athlete) seem indefensible, but Braun’s a good guy in the game and could very well be innocent. I’m not here to proclaim his innocence or berate the guy behind my computer screen, but I want to comment on how this incident could be catastrophic for a sport who’s momentum could not be higher heading into 2012.
Baseball has been buoyed this offseason by the excitement from the greatest day in the history of baseball (or should I say best half hour), by the excitement of a ridiculous Game 6 to the World Series, and by the first Game 7 of the World Series in quite a few years. Momentum has built as a team in south Florida decided to spend money and challenge the big dogs, and as Arte Moreno decided to be the biggest dog on the block with the signing of one of the best players in our generation for $254 million. We’ve had rumors aplenty, handshakes over a new CBA, and a pitcher win the MVP (Congrats again JV). Baseball was finally moving on from its tainted image as a bunch of oversized, cheating monsters of men. Until this Braun bombshell.
Barry Bonds will soon go on trial and prosecutors want him to serve 15 months in prison. Jose Conseco can no longer make money off of book sales about how many steroids he ingested. And recently, baseball became the first North American professional sports league to institute HGH testing. Simply, baseball fans thought steroids were in the past: some far away time to be looked back upon and judged someday when you tell your kids where you were when McGwuire hit his 62nd, or how every pitcher threw 95 and didn’t get hurt. Sure you’d have a rogue minor leaguer (Jordan Schafer comes to mind), or a quirky Major Leaguer get caught twice and immediately retire but, the game was largely unaffected by steroids: it was clean. Until this Braun bombshell.
It’s undeniable that baseball wants us to think the game is clean. That these guys are so good because of hard work and sheer natural talent but, when MVP winner after MVP winner is linked to steroid use, one has to question. This call for the BBWAA to take back Braun’s MVP award is stupid. There’s no asterisks in baseball. You play the contest and the games’ results are final. Vacating wins, or striking names from the record books does little to erase the memories of the people that were there. Do you think those who saw Barry Bonds’ 756th will forget the moment if Bud Selig decides to erase it in that record book? Sports is about the moment, what each moment means and about the special storylines of competition. Whether its pick up 3-on-3 basketball or World Series Game 7, everyone wants to win because winning is awesome. The problem comes when winners cheat. The bigger problem comes when fans suspect winners of cheating.
You ask 90% of Americans if O.J. did it and they say yes. The same can be said of Casey Anthony from this past summer. Sometimes the court of public opinion can be more damning than actual court. Sure, Braun may be able to prove his innocence, or be let off the hook, but the damage has been done. Braun, or whoever leaked this story, has irreversibly tainted Braun’s 2011 campaign and potentially his entire career. Guilty by association is a real thing.
How the potential suspension affects the Brewers’ offseason (they just signed Aramis Ramirez by the way) or how greatly Braun was aided by the uptick in testosterone comes second to a much larger issue. Steroids is back in the baseball rhetoric. And it wasn’t. Until this Braun Bombshell.
Stat of the Day
-Sean Morash
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