When the news came down on Monday evening about Ryan Braun's season-ending suspension by Major League Baseball for his connection to the Biogenesis Clinic investigation, nobody could say they were surprised by the news. Having a cloud of doubt over his head for a year and a half about his credibility and honesty as a "clean baseball player" made Braun a marked man for Commissioner Bud Selig, when a positive drug test for excess testosterone in his urine was eventually mishandled by a courier and ultimately thrown out due to a technicality in the rules of the process.
Selig, who has spent much of the last decade cracking down on steroids and performance-enhancing drug use in the game, is expected to retire after the 2014 season, and his legacy in baseball is seemingly of the utmost importance to him. Allowing Braun to exploit the hole in the system would not only undermine the game, but it could have potentially damaged his reputation as the man who cleaned up baseball after the explosive outburst of power & performance in the '90s and early 2000's, which brings me back to Braun.
Since he came up in 2006, Ryan Braun has been a perennial superstar. A career .312 hitter in his seven-year career, he has hit over 210 homeruns, he is a 5-time All-Star with 5 career Silver Slugger awards, a Rookie of the Year award, and he won the 2011 NL MVP in the same year he failed his drug test. He has not only been the undisputed face of the Milwaukee Brewers, but he has been one of the game's most productive and representative players since his arrival in the big leagues, which makes his story so disappointing.
For fantasy baseball fans, there is no denying how important he has been to the game, with his enormous offensive production throughout the years, but even for those who don't play the imaginary game, losing his talent is a big loss for baseball fans.
Alex Rodriguez, who is next in line to receive a ban from MLB for his connection in the Biogenesis investigation, is often looked at as the last remaining link to the steroid era, as his name and career just so happened to begin and peak during the days of Bonds', Sosa's, and McGwire's famous homerun frenzy. He has already admitted to having used performance-enhancing drugs, albeit only admitting to using them before the drug testing system was put into place in baseball, which not only taints the integrity of his numbers, but casts him as a liar and would deprive him of any potential for re-establishing himself without the speculation of doubt, as Andy Pettitte has done in the second half of his career after being named for using HGH in The Mitchell Report.
Having one of the greatest players in the history of baseball, and one of the most notorious PED users, finish his career with a laundry list of career-threatening injuries, but also a lifetime ban from the game would not only be the most outstanding accomplishment for Selig's anti-drug agenda, but would also be the final nail in the coffin for the steroid era as Major League Baseball, which makes Braun's situation so much more concerning.
Ryan Braun is 29 years old and will be 30 by the time the 2014 season begins. Unlike the 38 year old, hobbling Alex Rodriguez, Braun is in the prime of his career. He was the poster boy for baseball and will now have to carry that burden of being a PED-suspended superstar for the rest of his career. Much like Pettitte, he does have the opportunity for redemption, but that can only be achieved by continuing his career without any more scandals and by maintaining his performance without the use of drugs. Even after vehemently denying his drug use when he failed his drug test in 2012, only to come off as a liar and a cheater with his suspension this year, Braun has time left to overcome this. As long as he doesn't follow in the footsteps of the likes of Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez, another long-time superstar who was twice suspended for failing PED-testing, he can re-establish himself with a new reputation and avoid becoming the next link in the chain to the steroid era.
