Will Ryan Braun Really Ever Be Innocent To The Public?

Recently, it has been discovered that Ryan Braun, the Milwaukee Brewers left fielder, could have been using steroids. Braun would have been facing a 50 game suspension if found guilty. Luckily for Braun, there was an error in the procedure of collecting his urine sample; Braun was found “innocent” not based on his negative drug test but by the mistake of the administrator, named Dino Laurenzi Jr. who went to a Fedex that was closed. Laurenzi was said to have kept it in his refrigerator for over 40 hours and then shipped it to a testing laboratory. This leaves a sufficient amount of time for someone to have tainted with Braun’s urine sample. (Brewer's Braun still trying to establish innocence). This leaves a lot of questions for the public, the fans, and many baseball writers. Is it immoral to allow a player who has been accused of using steroids to play without a suspension if he was found innocent based on an inconclusive drug test? Will people really view Braun as innocent? Will the fans view Braun differently because he was found innocent based on a procedural error in testing his urine sample? Why will they view him differently after this ordeal? 

            Baseball writers have addressed many of these questions. Bob Nightengale, in his article, Brewer’s Braun still trying to establish innocence, reports that a baseball official Rob Manfred, is appalled by the ruling the arbitrator gives Braun. The catcher of the Brewers, Jonathon Lucroy, expressed his concern on the question of whether people will view Braun differently, "Even though Braunie cleared this up, this will be attached to him the rest of his life. He'll be painted with a broad brush that he's a cheater. And that's sad (Brewer's Braun still trying to establish innocence)." Jonathon Lucroy is correct in the fact that people will view Braun differently; the reasoning to people viewing Braun differently goes back to the morality of baseball. Americans views baseball as the all American sport, it is romanticized and mythologized, it is held to higher standards than many other sports, and because of this Americans believe that major league baseball players cannot participate in anything immoral. So what would be one of the reasons people question and hold hatred toward Ryan Braun?

            In The Cambridge Companion to Baseball, David and Daniel Luban, discuss the issues of cheating in baseball. One of the reasons they believe people would view players differently that have been accused of using steroids like Ryan Braun is that if some players use steroids it will put unfair pressure on players that do not use steroids. “The real trouble is that once some players start muscling up and recovering more quickly, it pressures other players to join the arms race (and legs race, and chest race). That’s where the genuine worry about cheating comes in: users gain an unfair advantage over nonusers, and no player should be under pressure to become a user” (Luban and Luban, 191-2). Could this be one of the reasons the public view Braun differently from now on?

The Theo Epstein Ordeal

          

            About four months ago, the Boston Red Sox made a deal with the Chicago Cubs. The Chicago Cubs wanted to sign the Boston Red Sox, general manager, Theo Epstein, as their own. However, Theo Epstein’s contract with the Boston Red Sox was not up yet for another year. The Red Sox decided that the Chicago Cubs could have Epstein now if they worked out a deal. The deal would be that the Red Sox get a “significant compensation.” The definition of what their “significant compensation” is going to be is what has been stirring in the news lately. The Red Sox feel as if they are owed something for taking Theo Epstein when the contract was not up yet. The compensation that the Red Sox are supposed to be getting is a significant aggressive player.

            As mentioned before, this deal was made four months ago, and still no agreement has been made on what compensation the Red Sox will get for Theo Epstein.  Therefore, the Red Sox have still not been given their significant compensation because the Red Sox and Cubs cannot agree on what the Red Sox will get from them.

            The issue has been ongoing for so long now that the commissioner of Baseball, Bud Selig has taken the issue into his own hands and will decide the resolution. In Rob Kelley’s article called, Boston Red Sox to Receive Significant Player From Chicago Cubs As Compensation For Theo Epstein?,he believes that the Red Sox were first gunning for starting pitcher Matt Garza for compensation. However, he believes that this is too much to ask for. Bud Selig might however, want to give the Red Sox a very significant player from the Cubs maybe so that teams know if they try this ordeal themselves they could lose a key player. This is the issue that arises with the decision Bud Selig has to make is that if he decides to give the Red Sox a good player then other teams will want to get general managers while their contracts are still going because they have a good chance of getting a greater player (Kelley).

            This ordeal happening between the Red Sox and Chicago Cubs is something new in baseball, a conflict that probably many scouts and baseball fanatics would be angry over years ago. This conflict is a way of “new thinking” while the scouts in Moneyball, are trapped in their ways of “old thinking.” This situation arising and as well as whatever decision is made is a step forward into letting different circumstances happen in baseball unlike the scouts in Moneyball, who want to leave everything in Baseball the way it has been forever. The scouts’ problem in Moneyball and in baseball is that the world changes, people change, but the scouts’ wont change what they perceive as the game.

The other problem that comes into play for scouts and “old time thinkers” of Baseball is the morality of baseball. Unlike any other sport, people hold baseball to a certain standard. If the Chicago Cubs can take the Boston Red Sox general manager before his contract is up by trading one of their players, what will happen next that has never happened before? Probably, many things like this will happen, and they should because the world changes and baseball can change even if scouts and old time thinkers believe it shouldn’t.