Ryan Braun was facing a 50 game suspension for failing a random drug test administered by Major League Baseball that showed elevated levels of testosterone in his system. And today, on Thursday February 23 he became the first player in MLB history to overturn a positive drug test. An arbitration panel of three judges looked at the information provided by MLB and Brauny's lawyers and overturned the suspension with what we have heard is due to a human error in the testing procedure. Latest word is that there is a strict step-by-step protocol to follow in these cases and it wasn't followed to a T, which could have led to his urine sample being tainted at any given moment during the delay in getting it from Braun to the testing facility. We may never know the whole story but the fact is that Braun does not have to serve the suspension and that MLB's drug testing program (which used to be foolproof and no-nonsense) is now fallible and will most likely have to be significantly altered so that this kind of thing doesn't happen again. Then what about all those players that failed the test in the past? I bet they have some questions about their tests and the results which saw them serve suspensions. It's like that movie Minority Report. The Precogs can see murders before they happen and then the police can stop the crimes from being committed. But who is to say the crimes would have still happened? You never know. And when Tom Cruise gets blamed for murder he looks for a false-positive that would lead to his innocence. But there is none. But then something changes and he doesn't commit the crime. I don't know where I was going with that but Tom Cruise was set up and chose the higher path. And Ryan Braun? Who knows man. Did he take something or did MLB's test just really fuck it up? Maybe we'll know someday.
Or maybe we won't. Players are tested at various times per year and it could be anywhere from 1 to 4 times or more. So they know that this shit is coming. And players also fail drug tests often and then more information is gathered and it goes before the arbitration panel but we never know about it because this process is supposed to be kept confidential. We were never supposed to hear about any of this. The steroid accusations flew out right away and labels like MV-PED (performance enhancing drugs) made me giggle. And that's because I don't really care for Ryan Braun. And I don't really know why. He's always just rubbed me the wrong way. Whether it is his uber-PC talk to the media, complaining about the shadows at Miller Park or maybe just because everyone loves the shit out of him. I can't stand his gelled up hairdo, clothing line and bush baby eyes. I've never lied about my distaste for him and this failed drug test just really put me over the edge. Finally I thought, people would see him for who he really is. But then this whole thing happens and people are going nuts like we won some kind of prize and screaming that he is innocent. Sure with Braun being available to play all 162 games is best for the team but let's be honest - with improved pitching and defense we would have been alright. People are making such a fuss about what we lost (Fielder) but not giving credit to what we gained - a full season of Greinke and KRod and vastly improved defense (Ramirez, Gonzalez and yes Gamel).
When I heard the verdict today I can almost guarantee you that I was the only person in Milwaukee who was upset. And truth be told I don't really know why I was upset about it. Something happened tonight that changed my outlook on this whole thing:
Despite what it looks like in the video, I wasn't high when I recorded this. My eyes just always look like that. I don't know why I can't fully open up my eyes. I'm like a newborn puppy that can't navigate the World on their own. I needed my Mother to point me in the right direction. Luckily at the time when this whole Ryan Braun PED thing was going on I was living with my Mother as I was attempting to put my fucking life back together. As I described in the video, real life shit happened to me that put all of this nonsense in perspective and made all of this Braun talk pointless. So what that he cheated and got caught. So what? We all cheat. We just all don't get caught. But when we do we often throw people under the bus to save our own asses or do whatever else it takes to avoid serving the punishment. If you're going to be mad at Ryan Braun you might as well just get mad at yourself. your family, your friends and every single one of the 6 billion people in this World because we've all made mistakes. If you want to live your life being bitter and mad go ahead. I don't have time for that shit. Life is too short despite it also being the longest thing ever. Now I'm must talking nonsense. But isn't that really what this is anyway?
- pookon -
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