Kings of Cork

Who’s sick of the ranting yet? This guy…

But here we are again and it will be the Kings of Corks mission to help clear Ryan Braun’s name from the tarnish and mud that covers it after Buster Olney broke the story from two leaky sources.

Sure Braun wasn’t proven innocent by arbitrators but Braun’s legal team also didn’t pursue that path knowing the most likely outcome of that defense would be ‘guilty’. No one will ever know what happened with test, but below are some articles which others have written with many more sources and time than this site owner has. Hopefully, the links below shed light on the fact that Braun didn’t get off on a ‘technicality’ but a great defense to prove that his test results were unusual.

• Chad Moriyama shows Braun’s doubters that this wasn’t a technicality but actual science could clear Ryan Braun’s reputation.
• Will Carroll, author of The Juice, is a sports writer specializing in stories regarding performance enhancing drugs. He offers his two-cents on Boston sports radio on the defense being able to duplicate Braun’s results with the same mishandling from the collector. Whether it was kept in a fridge, a basement, a car trunk, or in a Tupperware container on a desk.
• Will Carroll also posted an amazon ebook available for purchase about Braun’s appeal. How science could prove how Braun’s sample could come back as a false positive with all three security seals still intact. Don’t worry, if you want to save your 99-cents, The Commish will report back once he finishes reading.
• Braun isn’t the first baseball player to successfully appeal a positive test. In fact, he isn’t the first Brewer to successfully appeal the process. Brendan Katin tested positive for steroids in 2007 but became the first player to successfully appeal the test results (that we know of).
• Katin and Braun aren’t the first two athletes to successfully appeal either. Here is the most recent list of known overturned cases. One of the more interesting cases was that of UK sprinter Diane Modahl. She successfully proved that the Portugal heat and lack of refrigeration of her sample produced a false positive for elevated testosterone levels.

As mentioned in previous posts, Ryan Braun’s name will never be cleared unless he continues to preform and volunteer for drug tests. If at all in the next five seasons his numbers decline even slightly, all of the Braun doubters will pound their judicial hammer yelling “Guilty!” If its any consolation to Braun, his name and reputation has been cleared by most Brewer fans.

Edit: The collector released a press statement and it agrees with everything previously stated on this site. No one is going to claim any responsibility in the case. Hopefully, the arbitrator comes forward with all of the information provided that determined his verdict.

Were any interesting Braun articles missed in this post? Let us know in the comments section and they will be added to the list.

Right now around the world, Wisconsin sports fans are living their own version of the printer scene from Office Space. And I feel bad for that machine if Braun is the one swinging the bat.

Over the past few sport seasons, Wisconsin fans have had a lot to cheer for (at least more than they have had in the past 10-15 years). The Badgers have gone been back-to-back BigTen football champions and have appeared in back-to-back Rose Bowls (unfortunately, losing both). The Packers won the 2010 SuperBowl title and fell 1 game short of attempting to defend their title by losing to the 2011 champion Giants. In 2011, the Brewers won their first National League Division Title. They also won their first post season series since 1982 before losing to the 2011 champion Cardinals in their miracle post season run. Wisconsin even won the Miss America title in 2012. So Braun’s steroid verdict should come as no surprise to Wisconsin sport fans… when life is good, life is good.

The decision came down on Thursday February 23 while I was doing what Northern Midwesterners do best in cold weather… sitting on a frozen lake drinking beer catching fish (what else is there to do in the cold months?). I was in the middle of nowhere (this is why this post is delayed a few days) when my fishing partner and my phones wouldn’t stop making noises. The news came in via massive amounts of texts, Ryan Braun’s suspension was overturned and would be allowed the opportunity to play in every 2012 game. It’s only been 5 days since the decision and I’m already sick of all the comments.

That’s the main purpose of this post… the decision was made, deal with it and move on. No one will ever know what happened to Braun’s steroid sample for the 44 hours it sat in a fridge at the collectors house. I already feel bad for collector now that his name has been leaked to the media. Unless someone comes forward and says “Yes, I doped” or “Yes, I contaminated the sample”, no one should be blamed except for the MLB’s official statement about the results.

Braun didn’t find a loophole. Braun wasn’t proven innocent. Braun hasn’t cleared his name. Braun simply provided the facts and got his suspension lifted (see video below). Props to the young blogger who posted this news nine days before it went public.

The fact that the MLB used the sample after knowing the sample shipment was late is absurd. A starting pitcher can’t be late to their scheduled start and expect the game to wait for them. An umpire can’t delay the game because he has to stop and pick up his dry cleanings. The MLB made the testing policy guidelines and those were broken by one of their employees. The chain of custody was broken. Everything from when the news broke in December was broken. The samples should have just been discarded and new samples taken at a later date. Instead, they used a sample that sat in an unlocked fridge for 44 hours on a weekend. How many people come to visit on the weekend? How cool would it be to show a friend Ryan Braun’s sample that your father collected? What are the odds the collector went on vacation and a friend or relative who is a Cubs fan wanted revenge?

As I mentioned earlier, no one will ever know if Braun was actually doping or if someone tampered with the sample. The only things known are the facts. The fact that the sample sat unguarded for 44 hours. The fact that the MLB testing policy was neglected. The fact that Ryan Braun hadn’t gained an inch of muscle and remained consistent agility (both of which have been well documented since his minor league career) despite testing five times higher than the average testosterone levels. The fact that his test results were leaked prior to his appeal. The fact that Braun’s career is now tainted forever. He will never be a first year MLB Hall of Fame inductee. In fact if his numbers decline whatsoever over the next 3 seasons even if its due to injury or age decline, he will be accused of doping in 2011 by his critics. Braun had a lot to lose and he lost it. The MLB had a lot to lose and they lost it. No one won in this decision except Brewer fans. Their hope for the 2012 season has been restored and that’s what has some of the public upset. The fact that their team now has to contend against a fully rostered Brewer team. Because of the steroid era, it seems our generations have gone from being in awe of players’ abilities to being the ones to point fingers and yell cheater when the player doesn’t play for their team (see Jose Bautista’s recent power surge). Hopefully, some day the public goes back to admiring physical talent and not accusing of unfair advantage until the results are official.

In my opinion, the biggest problem with the Braun’s situation was that MLB took the wrong road by defending the tests results and disagreeing with the results of the appeal. That and the fact that the positive results were even leaked to the media (ESPN). But the physical competition in the media to be the first to report breaking news will always be a problem as long as people can’t keep their big mouths shut.

So people, let’s move on to baseball season and only bring up the Braun decision once there is evidence of what happened during that 44-hour period.