by Chas Danner
Several readers are echoing this one:
I love it anytime sports makes its way on to The Dish, but come on. You mention Ryan Braun as a PED user in your post and you never mention that his positive test was thrown out on appeal. I realize Braun not necessarily being guilty hurts the premise of your piece a bit, but leaving that out of the post is bush league.
Point taken. I should have included more context on Braun, or at least linked to one of the many articles that looked at the larger story of his test (which showed synthetic testosterone in his urine). Braun did indeed win his appeal [NYT] and faced no consequences from his positive test. However, my take at the time, after reading a great deal about the case, was that the decision was hardly an exoneration – more like he and his lawyers won on a technicality. And while Braun has consistently maintained his innocence, he didn't dispute the test results; he disputed the way in which his urine sample was handled afterwards. The appeal process itself was internal and hardly transparent, and both the process and the decision were controversial. This NYT column does a good job of explaining what happened and the various problems that came up.
To my knowledge, Braun has never publicly explained how synthetic testosterone ended up in his urine, and no evidence was ever found that his sample had been tampered with.
He won his appeal, but he still tested positive in the first place, and regardless of whether he faced any consequences from the league he still counts as an example of why the sport needs better testing procedures, more severe punishment, and much greater accountability from players and the league. Also, regarding the response of other players to Braun winning his appeal, Buster Olney wrote on that back in March (paywalled):
[Players I've spoken with] are furious that a player who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs won by challenging the administration of his test rather than contesting the presence of synthetic testosterone in the urine. (Although we haven't seen the official written decision from the arbitrator.)
I'm guessing I've had 30 to 40 conversations with different folks around the sport, a small sample for sure. But a decade ago you might have found three or four players among those 40 who criticized a fellow player. Rather, the vast majority would've recited the strong words from their union meetings about their privacy rights, about the pitfalls of testing, about how any suggestion of drug testing by the owners was really designed to undermine their livelihood. But if this recent straw poll of players is a proper reflection of the union as a whole, there has been a dramatic shift of thought among the brethren. I'm guessing 80 to 90 percent of the players I spoke with expressed dissatisfaction with the outcome of last week's case, in varying degrees. Some agents and executives say they've drawn the same responses in their conversations with players.
Another reader takes Olney to task:
Thanks for sharing Buster Olney's latest reactionary moralizing about PEDs with your readers. He is one of many writers who selectively equate certain drugs with "cheating". While technically Cabrera was stupid for violating an existing policy, he is only guilty of cheating with an unpopular drug. If a player injures his pitching arm, he can get Tommy John surgery to replace a damaged ligament. If his eyesight is not perfect, he can get lasik. If he is sore, they give him a cortisone shot. None of this is considered cheating. Neither were the decades of amphetamine use. Taking a banned substance is wrong, but it is not even close to gambling on baseball. Not even in the same ball park.
On a more positive note, another reader puts the focus back on yesterday's perfect game:
I am from the Seattle area, and on a team that has had something like 90 losses 3 out of the last 4 years, Felix Hernandez is our shining star, our treasure. To top off his on the field talents, he appears to be a genuinely likeable and amiable guy. A couple of years back he had the chance to go into free agency and have a team like the Yankees or Red Sox swell his bank account rightfully, for his merits. Instead he chose to extend his contract with the lowly Mariners for less money and stick around for a while. Having been with the Mariner's organization since he was 16, we've all watched him work his way through the ranks. He is one of ours, and I don't think any city has swelled more with pride, and thankfulness, than Seattle did yesterday watching Felix pitch perfection. My office exploded when he struck out the final batter, I wasn't even aware what was going on. It was the most sports excitement we've had around here since the Seahawks went to the Super Bowl.
One more reader:
"Baseball's Bipolar Day" – I see that Mr. Sullivan is still off the grid.
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