Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Braun and gone

Though many sports pundits are suggesting such an action, the Milwaukee Brewers’ Ryan Braun certainly does not owe an apology to the man that mishandled his drug sample two years ago. Braun issued a public apology yesterday for apparent PED use after a new suspension was handed down by the league. It was a suspension that came absent an explanation of process and one that makes little sense under any accepted part of the league’s collective bargaining agreement. Braun has still not failed a drug test that wasn't later thrown out, and he has risked starting a trend of submitting to evidence that couldn't stand up in a proper court.

The league failing to abide by the accepted terms of the CBA’s drug testing policy in regards to handling urine and blood samples is why an arbitrator (Shyam Das) struck down the previous suspension against Braun last year. It’s Major League Baseball that still owes the apology for what they’ve done to their own competitive integrity. They owe a sorry to said arbitrator for firing him after he overturned a second suspension on the same grounds that he overturned Braun’s first. How can be trust Big Baseball when, in regards to its "biggest challenge," it fires its “independent” judicial branch for the crime of exposing its negligence? And without information forthcoming from the commissioner’s office so far about the process and evidence that led to Braun’s latest suspension, I’m not sure why it’s not still Major League Baseball that should be on public trial.

If Braun has to play by the rules, why doesn’t the league also have to? That’s the hypocrisy that led us into this PED mess to begin with.

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A must-read is the text of Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now interview with Dr. Cornel West. The Obama hatchet team, fresh off its carvings of Edward Snowden and Glenn Greenwald, is already going to work on West so it’s best to get to take his words directly from him.

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