Boo Braun

Nancy Armour tries to rehabilitate Ryan Braun’s image, and whitewashes the real problem:

But on July 22, 2013, Braun tested positive for performance enhancing drugs and was banned for the rest of the season.

His reputation, his legacy – everything changed. He’s still booed in some ballparks. Some fans will never see him as anything more than a cheater, and believe he’s the last person who deserves a shot at baseball’s ultimate prize.

Fair enough. But say this for Braun: he stayed in the fish bowl that is Milwaukee when many other players — let’s be honest, most other players — would have fled.

He stayed through the criticism. He stayed through the questions. He even stayed through the rebuild that made him wonder if he’d ever get close to a postseason again.

Not noted here is that the original suspension was appealed won. In appealing Braun besmirched the reputation of an honest man. The actual suspension came about due to the Biogenesis scandal, which showed the original suspension was deserved. Braun is disliked because he cheated with drugs, then cheated to get off from the suspension. All he really had to say was, “I should have been more careful in my choice of supplements,” and most would have forgiven and forgotten. Bruan did something worse than that, and deserves to be booed.

from baseballmusings.com https://ift.tt/2yRwjc5