Ryan Braun, through it all, is playing like an innocent man

Ryan Braun has his home run swing back. How many more bombs will it take for him to get his good name back?

Instead of Ryan Braun the Cheater, it’s time to restore him as Ryan Braun the Phenomenon. I still halfway cringe at the thought, but Braun is not leaving us much choice.

Milwaukee’s left fielder hit two more home runs on Sunday, giving him 40 for the season and 201 for his career. That’s pretty compelling proof he’s innocent as he proclaimed of taking performance-enhancing drugs last season.

Either that, or Braun is the most defiant cheater in baseball history. Not only did he juice his way to an MVP award last year. He’s still taking PEDs despite the suffocating scrutiny brought on by last year’s failed drug test.

If you think that, nothing Braun does or say is going to change your mind. But I just can’t believe he is that audacious or stupid. And I wanted him to turn into Ryan Seacrest this season.

I wanted him to hit four home runs and get thrown out every time he tried to steal a base. That would enough circumstantial evidence to convict him of what most of us suspected.

You remember the O.J.-like tale. Braun was the first post-Steroid Era super slugger. Then he failed a drug test with what a source said was an “insanely high” level of testosterone.

Braun said the procedure was flawed. The collector didn’t send the urine sample to the lab within 24 hours because the FedEx outlets were closed for the weekend.

When they made it to the lab, the samples were still sealed. There was no indication of tampering. An objective juror would still consider such evidence.
Braun lawyered up and became the first player to have a testing conviction overturned. But the whole thing felt like O.J. or Casey Anthony.

He wasn’t innocent. He just beat the rap.

“I am innocent,” Braun insisted after being cleared.

Yeah, right.

Braun was baseball’s version of Ray Donovan. He was the Labor Secretary in the Reagan Administration who was indicted on larceny and fraud charges.
He resigned in 1985 and spent the next two years in legal battles. Donovan was eventually acquitted of all charges, but the damage was done. He stood outside a Bronx courtroom and famously said, “Which office do I go to get my reputation back?”

In February, an arbitration panel voted 2-1 to clear Braun. Laughter and derision could be heard all over spring training. Major League Baseball was so incensed it fired longtime arbitrator Shyan Das.

“It is the first step in restoring my good name and reputation,” Braun said.

He knew what the next step had to be. He had to go to his old office and conduct business as usual. In 2011, that meant 33 home runs, 113 RBI and a .332 batting average.

A drop-off would be more incriminating than a drug test. It would fail the smell test, the same one that had us holding our noses over guys like Brady Anderson, Bret Boone, Pudge Rodriguez, Jose Guillen and Jason Giambi.

They weren’t all suspended or even directly linked to PEDs. But their statistics were just too fishy. Clean players simply aren’t supposed to turn into Hank Aaron overnight, and then revert to Tommie Aaron after the PED police pay a visit.

Clean players are consistent, and Braun has remained Hank. He’s actually slugging better than 2011 despite not having Prince Fielder batting behind him.
His stats after Sunday: 40 homers, 103 RBI, a .312 batting average and a couple million skeptics.

There’s still suspicion, so much that last year’s MVP might not even finish in the top five this season. But at this point, what more can Braun do?
He was cleared by the system. The whole thing was supposed to be confidential to begin with, but Braun’s name was leaked.

That was the first step in a good name going bad. The only way to get it back was to play like the Braun of old.

Players may lie, but numbers don’t. Braun not only sounds like an innocent man, he’s hitting like one.


(sportingnews.com)