This Ryan Braun *Nonsense* And MLB’s Epic Fail
I would have said *Ryan Braun Fiasco* but I can’t use the word *Fiasco* over and over in all my headlines. But the more that I think about this story the more it starts sounding utterly stupid and almost unbelievable……..
Lemme get this straight:
They left the transportation of this sample to a flunky courier?
This is from the mlb link that Chico (State) posted earlier:
http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/7608360/ryan-braun-wins-appeal-50-game-suspension
“According to one of the sources, the collector, after getting Braun’s sample, was supposed to take the sample to a FedEx Office for shipping.
But the source said the collector thought the FedEx Office was closed because it was late on a Saturday and felt the sample wouldn’t get shipped until Monday.
As has occurred in some other instances, the collector took the sample home and kept it in a cool place, in his basement at his residence in Wisconsin, according to the source.
Policy states that the sample is supposed to get to FedEx as soon as possible.”
If this source is correct and this is how it all went down, then i completely agree with Snarkk. This system is fucking broken. We’re talking about the MVP of the league. Now remember, there wasn’t any urgency at the time, this was just a regular *Braun test*. It was only after he tested positive that the vial became so *famous*…….
But still, this is RYAN BRAUN not some single-A wannabe……
We’re now forced to go with what the flunky courier said happened? He thought it was too late to get it to FedEx on a Saturday? Maybe he wanted to go bang his girlfriend and this was the excuse he made for not dropping it off at FedEx. Maybe he decided to go fire back a few beers with his bros. Who knows what this courier was doing or thinking at the time? Who knows what happened to the vial in this dude’s fridge? Think about it, if this is actually how this went down, Braun has a pretty good case to challenge. Of course the idea that the vial was altered or contaminated from an exterior source is almost impossible to believe. But if you’re telling me that the vial sat in *Basement Guy’s* basement for a night, in frickin’ Wisconsin, then anything and everything COULD have happened to it. Maybe he dropped it off in the basement and had a keg party that night. During some beer bongs some of the drunker party patrons decided to mess with Ryan Braun’s urine. Of course it sounds ridiculous, but if this is the way they keep track of the samples then I would think any half-smart lawyer could beat this case in arbitration. How could you lose with all the unknowns that are created by some dumbass courier flipping the vile into his basement for the night before he goes and rails away on his chick upstairs and the roommates decide to go play *fuck with Ryan Braun’s Pee*. Exactly. Anything could have happened to that vile……
Let’s say the flunky courier is telling the truth. Now I’m thinking….huh?…..this happens all the time?????
WHAT??!?!?!?!! How could this happen *on other occasions*? Urine sits in courier flunky refrigerator’s across the country because they look at their watches and realize FedEx is closed? And there is actually an mlb policy (according to the link) that says if FedEx is closed you’re supposed to “get the sample to the lab as soon as possible?” I don’t care is this is mlb’s policy or this esteemed, revered and trusted drug testing company’s policy— THAT is the freaking back up plan? Did I just pass out in a time machine and wake up in 1974? Because this simplistic, casual approach to getting these samples tested sounds like something you’d see done 30-40 years ago…..
Except it’s not 30-40 years ago. It’s 2012 and if this is how mlb is handling the samples and the testing process then It blows my mind that anyone EVER gets busted for steroids…………
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
I don’t really care about Braun and his supposed guilt or innocence. Obviously the result of this now very public mess is that there will be changes a’comin’ in the whole testing process. Or *should* be, anyway… It’s embarrassing for MLB the way this went down and they know it.
I could care less too. I’m slightly interested because I now have to wonder how this affects my opinion of him and where i draft him, if at all. But otherwise, I don’t give a rip about Braun winning this case.
I’m concerned with what sounds like an antiquated, easily beatable test that is ABSURDLY winnable in court if the fucking samples are just chillin’ in *Courier Guy’s* basement simply because he missed the FedEx pick up on a Saturday………..
Flav, you or any other of our Flap fantasy players best not draft his ass. In fact, I’m going to ask you politely, no, I’m going to implore you to make him ineligible to be drafted. But if you don’t, and if someone drafts him…
FAIR WARNING TO FLAP FANTASY PLAYERS: I am going to remind you on a daily basis in our Flap fantasy message board that both you and your mother are a worthless, cocksucking, motherless son of a fuck for drafting that POS cheater Ryan Braun. If you think our good friend Bozo got reamed a new asshole in our first message board with the “FUCK YOU” comments. You ain’t seen nothing yet.
Don’t draft Ryan Braun.
Shut up.
Dennis, if you can chastise everyone else for picking Braun for their fantasy league then we can all chastise you for essentially saying the other day that the D-backs are a better team than the Giants.
If any of you are interested, I have responded to San Dawg’s 7:17pm post with a story from my past that may make for a good laugh…….
no, not interested. but thanks for sharing.
it did, however, remind me that one of my sons was in the bathroom tonight for a considerable amount of time. when he came out he said “dad, i was in there a long time because i had the SI swim suit edition.” all i could say was i hoped he enjoyed a little quiet time. they grow up so fast. and that natalie gulbis . . .
Now I understand why Braun was so publicly confident in proclaiming his innocence (even though he obviously juiced) – MLB’s handling procedures are a joke, and he knew that the laughably amateurish way his sample was transported practically guaranteed him absolution on appeal. Dropping samples off at FedEx? Storing them in the basement of someones house? Who the hell is running their screening process – the Keystone Cops?
After all of the slow progress baseball has made in climbing out of the steroid-era mud, one idiot staffer brings it tumbling back, Selig is never going to live this down.
Braun’s sample being delivered.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWMVpjxYJgg
Nice analysis, BF, If this is what happened, and it’s happened before, I don’t see why popped minor leaguers (they always get hammered on the drug tests) don’t object en masse and say THEIR procedures were F’d up, and their “convictions” should all be tossed. MLB gets ripped a new one about steroids at Congressional hearings (I don’t want to talk about the past), and then through the collective bargaining process over a coupla years, and the Budster chortles about how a breakthrough on testing has been achieved — THIS totally horsemanure procedure in the result? No wonder these world drug control bodies are constantly skewering MLB as FOS. A guy’s career and reputation is at play with these drug tests, and you have some tool courier having the discretion to put the sample in HIS own refrigerator? Why would they even do a test on a Saturday if in doing so, you can’t follow the required timing or process to get the sample to the lab? In a real court, the judge would laugh his ass off at this chain of custody, THEN yell at the prosecutor for wasting his judgie wudgie time, and then throw the case out the window. I’ll still wait for more details, but if true, it is beyond unbelievable after all the ruckus of the steroid era….
Snarkk using a breathalyzer? Was that you weaving down the street the other night?
Chain of custody in the courier’s basement…
http://tinyurl.com/7wwez4h
GOOD for Braun. Grab all the drugs you can. MLB is just another monoply pushing around millionaires.
Nipper, the only thing MLB players should grab is another cold one. Speaking of which…go grab me some goddamn ice.
Yes sir!
Getting a little chippy in the van, guys?
If braun passed all of his other urine samples last year and this was the one and only he failed while we find out that this idiot totally mishandled the sample, then there is good cause to believe Braun was innocent and the sample was tainted.
Moving on, Flav brought up the idea of signing Oswalt in the off-season and I did not think we had the money and I questioned his health and effectiveness.
Now that Oswalt is thinking about not signing until mid-season, this may be ideal for us. If Zito flounders or one of the other four get injured, Oswalt may be still sitting there. We would only have to pay him roughly just half of what he would have made, probably don’t need to sign him for more than just the remainder of the year and his back issues will more than likely be better.
Not a bad idea….the only real downside is that it means a full half-season of SophNinerguy spewing more redundant bullshit about signing Oswalt.
I’m not even sure if I care about PEDs use at this point. Braun prevailing at arbitration and MLBs handling of Ramirez suspension are laughable. If there is no meaningful process or consequence then just do away with the charade.
Dennis— your wrath should be reserved for the flunky courier as well as major league baseball for developing these *policies* that seem to come from the 1970’s (or earlier)
Braun did what any cheater might do: find a loophole and try to beat it. It’s infuriating, but he did it. If he’s drafted in fantasy baseball, which he obviously will be, the his owner will just be owning another steroid abuser. I bet every owner in the league will own at least a few. Get over it………
GH….Giants have said their not interested in Oswalt.Especially since Wellemeyer is still avalable.(frown)
Most businesses who have mandatory random drug testing have a van or bus like the Blood bank has for donating blood. The company takes the sample from the person and delivers it to there lab sometime that day. So from the way BF presents it MLB has a contract with a specific drug testing service and they have only 1, one, lab?? LMAO. Only MLB can FUBR a drug test.
After the sham of a report by Mitchell, which didn’t mention anyone from the team that he was part owner of and was teaching players how to use, I’m surprised that anyone would be shocked over this.
The only thing MLB drug testing has done is provide job security for Gwen Knapp and that right there shows how flawed the whole thing is.
The lack of any transparency really winds up hurting the players instead of protecting them. Braun isn’t vindicated here; this shit goes all the way back to october 1. supposedly he demanded another piss test and that one came up within acceptable range, but again no one is supposed to know about any part of this or the story that espn broke. I’d be really interested to hear the mlb exec Manfred’s (who “vehemntly disagrees” with the decison) side of the story.
Selig is such a pompous and ridiculous ass…would you buy a used drug testing program from this guy?
The point is, is why does MLB make this process so error prone? Thousands of companies acoss the country outsource this kind of stuff to local testing sites that are reputable and easy to deal with. Braun’s sample has to go to Canada? Does the sample sit in a fridge on the flight? What are the contingencies around THAT process?
From what it sounds like, the sample gets a tour of Old Montreal and a trip to the Jazz festival before being processed.
As far as Braun’s other ‘clean’ tests go, maybe he was warned about those and not this test. There’s no creedence lent to either side of this problem. This all just makes MLB look like a bunch of fucking clueless amateurs running a co-ed softball beer league.
“Vial”, Flav. Vial. I can imagine this scenario between the current Brewski’s owner and their former one, the Commish:
“Bud, old bud, we lost Prince to Free Agency and now Ryan gets hit with this shit? C’mon now. Give us a break. Milwaukee will tank and we will all get a case of the galloping blatzes if we lose our MVP for a third of the season.”
“Okeeedoke. I’ll get my people on this and see if they can’t come up with some kinda escape clause. Yes, the Brewers tanking would really be the schlitz.”
I don’t give a rat’s ass if he used or not.In fact, I hope everyone who’s been caught sues MLB and gets their “convictions” overturned.
Release all the names of those caught, give them all amnesty, and get with playing Roidball. The steroid era is just beginning. Only when guys like Bonds are dead at 55 will this be be treated as it should be- a public health issue, not a crime.
Public health issue? Do you think the majority of MLB fans give a rat’s ass about a player’s long-term health issues? Get over yourself.
What “fans” like you think is irrevelant.
Sammy Sosa might have early kidney failure because he took steroids. I’m heartbroken.
I know, he deserves it. Much like an end stage alcoholic deserves his fate. How were this morning’s strained peas?
Come on Dennis, that is like saying you don’t give sh*t about the Football player who can’t remember his own name due to concussions. When/if baseball takes a good hard look at the health issues for using steroids like football is seriously looking into concussions maybe just maybe MLB will look smarter than they are. right now MLB just looks plain stupid. But I defer to Ron White, “you just can’t fix stupid”
Here’s your sign . . .
Chuck, it is “Here is your sign Bud”
It was implied . . .
Ray Ratto has a piece on the Braun story, Ratto can be pretty funny at times. There is also an article on the Giants talking to Renteria to return. This is all over on Comcast sports net.
oh the Renteria talks went no where
I think we can establish that players are going to try and cheat. That has only been going on for, oh, 100 years. Whether it shortens their lives or not isn’t a worry to the players during their playing days. They need an edge to make the cut/get their payday? Sure. Go for it. And, no, they won’t get a lot of sympathy from fans who feel they cheated to get what they got if their health fails them later in life.
Where it gets messed up is when you have the league stepping in to mask the problem, disavow any tesing for years, and supposedly teach the players HOW to correctly get through the process without getting caught once testing was implemented. When they actively condone steroids, and help the players maintain their supposed clean test results all the while juicing, they set themselves up to come under fire as (or if) these guys start breaking down and dying.
It’s hardly just a baseball issue. If this had been taken on early with the emphasis in the health ramifications rather than as a crime issue, we’d have far less users, IMO. The only reason it was addressed at all was because it became a PR nightmare. How stupid is Selig to think it would end with his Summer of Love?
Young people never think they are going die. Forget that, if you must- steroid use should not a crime any more than taking Bayer aspirin should be a crime.
Okay so the term illegal to use. so if sports should use this as a health issue, then the way they should handle it is for them to send atheletes to rehab? and that would be during the season and not be able to play while they are in rehab. That works for me. 30 days at the Betty Ford clinic for the first offense, 60 the second time and so on. All during the season.
PEDs aren’t the issue- presumably better PEDs than those of the past are the issue.
Well, that was my two cents. I’ll leave it to those who want offenders executed. Maybe I’ll check in later or tomorrow…
As Baggs pointed out, this may have ramifications for the early part of the schedule: “The Giants play all six of their games against the Milwaukee Brewers on or before May 23. Braun would have been ineligible for all of them. Now the Brewers will enjoy the full services of the reigning NL MVP.”
I’m not saying it’s merely a baseball issue, Twin. The way baseball is dealing with it is the issue. MLB avoided testing at every turn through the 90s. Once they started testing (WAY after the cat was out of the bag), the league was apparently schooling players on how to avoid detection. Positives were way down, but to say players have stopped is Bud’s naive attempt at calling the problem solved.
What pisses me off is the ones who are getting penalized (the players) are the ones in the end that are damaging themselves. The league? They plead ignorance for years, then act horrified when shit gets leaked. Now they call it solved. Then the reigning NL MVP gets popped? Hmmm, let’s throw a technicality at it and hope everyone forgets.
Chuck pissed? I don’t believe it!
I’m hearing that the procedure the courier followed (keeping the sample at home in supposedly secure place) pending shipping it out when FedEx is next available has been done before with other MLB players’ samples, and has not been questioned. Nor is the procedure uncommon when testing other athletes in other sports. This is due to the surprise timing nature of the testing programs that sometimes generates a forced wait before the shipment can go out. Braun’s lawyers were smart enough to really look at the procedures outlined in the MLB protocol and put the facts against that protocol and assert that the courier failed to follow it, hence the test was voided. They never addressed the issue of the test itself, or the science behind it, as apparently that would have been a sure loser argument. Purely a procedural failure was the argument, and it won…
A smart guy like you Snarkk would have done just the same!
Braun’s statement today on video. http://espn.go.com/mlb/spring2012/story/_/id/7611600/2012-spring-training-ryan-braun-milwaukee-brewers-says-test-system-failed
He carefully never flat denies he never took anything or goes into any detail to tell the “entire story” — supposedly to protect baseball. Huh? Whatever. When you boil it down, though he does not say it directly, he’s accusing the courier of tainting the sample, or somebody else that had access to the courier’s house of tainting the sample while it sat in his house for 40+ hours. He didn’t say the delay itself could have caused the sample to go bad. So, there is no other explanation for what Braun’s saying about the failed procedure. Because FedEx can’t have tampered with it after the mailing package was sealed, and they have procedures to deal with medical test packages, including refrigeration. Braun can’t seriously allege there was tampering at the lab itself in Montreal, that would be an insane accusation. So, if I’m the courier guy, what do I say? I would be out this afternoon saying I never did squat to that sample. I’ve read where there are multiple seals on those samples, once taken. No seals were alleged to have been broken before getting to the lab, as far as I’ve seen. So, if I’m the courier guy and his employer, I’m not letting Braun destroy my reputation for doing what I do…
I haven’t read about this except here so sorry for asking a dumb question. Did Braun know about the handling issue before he went to the Arbitrator? If he did, did he say how he knew? I mean I doubt the tester told Braun “oh it’s too late for FedEx I’m just going to store this next to my paint cans in my basement until Monday”.
The lying by these people is worse than the use. No one is spared: teammates, family, now a FedEx courier with zero way to defend himself.
Well for people with common sense know that this falls squarely on Bud S, MLB, and the Players union. who hell came up with these procedures anyway. lets see collecting a specimen late Saturday, so the guy collecting the speciman interupted the BBQ, where Braun was drinking beer. Nice clean sample. and then it is FEDEX to god knows where? yeah this makes perfect sense.
Obviously someone got to the Arbiter with a envelope full of cash.
Enough of the media bullshit.
Here’s the MLB drug testing document and procedures. http://mlbplayers.mlb.com/pa/pdf/jda.pdf
It’s not that hard, you guys decide for yourselves. Everybody here is as smart or smarter than the media dudes I’ve been reading and hearing. Many of them are friggin worthless…
Take a look at these:
Page 37, sections “U” and “V.7”.
Page 38, section “D.3”
Page 39. section “E” and “F”
I would bet Braun’s lawyers are relying on “V.7” to kick this one, i.e., there were no “unusual circumstances” to prevent immediate shipping. That is why Braun took pains to say FedEx places were still open that Sat night. I’ve read other things today saying there were NO FedEx service centers open in Milwaukee that night after the game, only box locations, which is NOT OK for a courier to use, under “F” on page 39. We need the arbitrator’s written decision to see what he’s using as support to toss the procedure used. Until then, the media is just flapping its gums. MLB trashed Braun’s statement today, and said the courier did exactly what he was supposed to do, and the same procedure has been used before. This is getting ugly where MLB is trashing an MVP….
Why are you giving homework on weekends?
You too? That’s Braun’s excuse…
Coincidentally, there is a suburb of Milwaukee called Peewaukee…
Note to MLB network:
Less Eric Byrnes please.
It would be greatly appreciated.
No, he needs to be on it MORE.
Then he’ll be OFF the Giants post-game radio show. He is horrible, I can’t listen to him, even though I may want to hear replays of the radio calls of the highlights of the game. He’s so bad, sometimes I’m forced to listen to sportsradio on 95.7 FM, and at night that is barely tolerable itself (Chris Townsend, ugh)….
Which is duller: an MLB network’s all-day All-star homerun contest marathon; or an NBA network all-day All-Star slam-dunk contest marathon?
Trick question. They’re both off-the-charts dull.
Baseball’s All-Star Game has become the best of these little celebrations, however. IMO
It was always the best, don’t you think? I have never given a rats ass about football All Pro Game. This last one was hilarious— pretty much every player on the field was playing 2 hand touch.
And the NBA game, while quite interesting in the mid to late 80’s, still was never as interesting as the baseball all star games in the same time period.
And I’m in the minority, I actually like the HR derby. If Berman ever stopped announcing it I’d like it even more……..
One of my favorites things about camp are all the items to report and both Henry and Alex come through today.Most of this stuff won’t mean a darn thing when the bell rings but the miscellania about camp is very interesting to me. Sometimes these litlle nuggets do add up tp something of import..
To me, baseball’s All Star game has always had more meaning and significance than the NFL or NBA games, mainly because baseball, while of course being a team sport, relies more on individual performance. Obviously a basketball or football player can individually affect a game with an outstanding performance, but those two games are much more dependent on good team play, which is difficult to have by a bunch of “all stars” practicing together once or twice before a game. In baseball, it still always comes down to an individual player, standing up there at the plate, alone, with a bat in his hand, facing another individual player standing out there on the mound, alone, with the ball in his hand ready to fling it at ungodly speeds, while other individual players stand out in the field, alone, waiting to play the ball if it comes to them. Some baseball teams win as a team because of good chemistry (or not) among the individuals, others not. It’s still the individualism wrapped inside the collectivism of the team that is exciting, unpredictable, and momentary in truly the only major sport (I don’t count golf or bowling) that is not run by a clock but rather that thrills its fans in its timelessness and individualism.
Doesn’t seem like too many guys win jobs in ST anymore. I guess the economics of the sport have made that almost obselete…
Yeah, and also the often dismal longer term results of such players as Ort-Rod, Bowker, etc….
The NBA used to have some hugely entertaing All-Star games-
Vungo win a job in ST 2009, even I bitched.
Who can forget Adrian Smith upstaging his teammate the Big O a few decades ago?
I remember quite clearly (without check box scores) how badly he started 2010. He was like 1 for his first 15 or something like that. I couldn’t wait for Sabean to waive him as I talked up his shit contact rate…. He went on to be the MVP of our team that year.
He had to have been close to being DFAed. At the time he was getting Bowker’s starts aganst lefties ( Torres hit LHers well that year) . But those first games he wasn’t hitting shit. I thought I was in for a year of grief as Andres tore the cover off the ball- in Fresno.
“Sabermetricians argue that teams overvalue saves and a closer’s makeup, and by extension overpay for the position when any number of relievers on a staff can close. Sabean disagreed.
‘It’s like a placekicker with the game on the line,” he said. “A lot of guys can make kicks at any point during a game that might contribute to a win. The big difference is when you have to make it to absolutely decide the game.'”
Depressing . . . .