Last week I told you that Major League Baseball would drop the hammer on some of the newest class of cheaters for using Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs). There was no surprise when Ryan Braun was the first to get clipped.
Just when you think you have them dead to rights, the punishment does not seem to be enough. Braun is suspended for the rest of the year, just over 60 games, without pay.
Has anyone looked at Braun’s numbers this year? He has dealt with an assortment of injuries and his team (the Milwaukee Brewers) is trying to stay out of last place, so it has really been a lost season. Maybe because he has not been able to stay on the PEDs, or maybe it’s just plain bad luck that comes from being a liar and a  cheater.
Braun has a chance to get started on an early vacation. Yes, he was suspended without pay, but he had already pocketed more than half of his $9.5 million salary for this year. Oh, by the way, Braun is still due over $100 million on his current contract. Welcome to the proverbial slap on the wrist.
I find it hard to believe that both the players’ association and Major League Baseball found it in their vocabulary to “commend” Braun for coming out and accepting his suspension. Braun was caught red-handed and everyone knows it, so why are they all but congratulating him for being a national embarrassment?
While Braun will have fewer friends in the game, he has enough millions to go out and find more friends if he chooses to. As time will tell, Braun is not alone here. More names will come out, and some may chose to fight this. Still others will find new methods to keep their dirty little secret alive.
Former pitcher Curt Shilling said it best recently: “PEDs make bad players good, it makes good players great and it makes great players Hall of Famers.” With that comes a financial reward. So what if you are scorned? You still got paid – that’s the approach some players have.
We hear players play the “family card” by saying they are doing it for their families. Really? What about all the players who do it the right way? They still feed their families.
As for being jilted, fans in the city of cheaters have come to grips with it before. St. Louis embraced Mark McGwire after his transgressions and apology. He has gone on to get a job back in the game and is reasonably successful.Â
McGwire never lied, he just never answered the question. In Braun’s case and others like him, they can look into the camera and flat out lie with no reservations.
It will be interesting to see how Milwaukee will deal with Braun upon his return. If he is productive and helps the Brewers win, it will be just like old times. If not, get rid of the bum. Owners who have cheaters on their teams love nothing more than to void the contracts and invest in other players who have not been caught (yet).
Are pro athletes who have marked success now presumed guilty of using something before they can prove their innocence? For me, I am looking at more players with a jaundiced eye, as there are still too many cheaters on the field, court and ice. No, this is not just a baseball problem.
Using PEDs is not just about how much bigger and stronger they make you. It is about dope helping you play through pain, fatigue and all of the other physical and mental challenges that come with being a high-performance elite athlete in today’s world. They now have something that helps take care of that, and it is illegal in the eyes of sport and, in some cases, the law.
There are those who stand to challenge it and are willing to take their chances on not getting caught. That mindset comes from the whole invincibility thing many athletes have in the first place.
Ryan Braun and other cheaters like him will continue to do what they do: cheat and still get paid. Baseball has taken drastic steps to curb this, but there is more to be done. I wonder if these multi-millionaires would would feel the same way if being caught would void some, if not all, of the fat contracts they continue to live on? It would certainly expedite cleaning up the game.Â
