Ryan
Braun
The Major League
Baseball (MLB) is infamous for its professional athletes using sports enhancing
drugs. Some of the high profiled
all-stars that have been caught include the names of Alex Rodriguez and Barry
Bonds (Gilman, 2013). However, the
latest all-star that has been caught is Ryan Braun. Braun was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers
and has been with the club ever since (Baseball Reference, n.d.). He was picked fifth overall in the 2005
draft, and there were very high expectations for him (Baseball Reference, n.d.). As each year passed, he became a more
confident and frightened left fielder and slugger. By the year 2011, he won the National League
Most Valuable Player, and was rewarded with a contract extension worth 145
million dollars throughout the 2020 season (Gilman, 2013). Everything seemed to be going great for Braun
and the Milwaukee Brewers. The Brewers
had just come off one of their most successful seasons as of late. Unfortunately, this all came to a crashing
stop. The Brewers’ all-star, Ryan Braun
had been caught taking sports enhancing drugs.
This action of unethical play sent the next portion of Ryan’s life into
a whirlwind of deceit and lies, in hopes of clearing his name of any doping
accusations.
Ryan Braun was having a
stellar season in 2011, hitting between .315 and .330, smashing about 35
homeruns, and driving in around 115 runs (Watson, 2013). He was a crowd favourite in Milwaukee, and
even a favourite across America. His off
field presence with the media was very likeable (New York Daily News, 2013). He simply came across as a very easy going,
free spirit. Due to his good natured
attitude, it was a shock to the MLB world when it was revealed that he had been
caught doping in 2012 (Watson, 2013).
However, an interesting fact also surfaced at the end of 2011. Reports show that Braun had in fact failed a
doping test at the end of his MVP season (Watson, 2013)). Luckily for him though, he was let off on a
technicality that his sample was improperly handled and tainted with (Gilman,
2013). Nowadays though, one can infer
that Braun was in fact doping in his MVP season too. Therefore, when he was officially caught in
2012, further investigation took place to see if he had been doping for his
entire baseball career. As investigators
dug deeper, more and more information pointed towards the fact that Ryan had
been doping for a very long time. In
fact, a college friend from the University of Miami came forward and declared
that Ryan was also doping then (Grant, 2013).
Therefore, it can be speculated that Ryan has been doping for at minimum
of seven years now.
With all of the
speculation surrounding Ryan, the public wondered how he would react. Initially, Ryan went into defensive mode (USA
Today, 2013). He denied all of the
allegations. He denied them so
intensively that he in fact started to believe his own lies (USA Today, 2013). It was at this point that he realized that
enough was enough. It was time to come
clean and own up to his mistakes. Ryan’s
first move was to set up a meeting with the MLB board (USA Today, 2013). It was at this meeting that he revealed that
he had violated the drug policy, and was now willing to discuss an appropriate
suspension (USA Today, 2013). After a
long and strenuous meeting, the final results ended in a suspension of the rest
of the 2012 season. He missed a total of
65 games (Gilman, 2013).
Ryan did not only miss
out on 65 games, but he also lost more important things. First, Ryan had many high profile sponsors
(ie. Nike) that dropped him after the truth about his doping surfaced (Passikoff,
2013). Also, since Ryan had publically
denied all the doping rumors initially, his fans truly stood behind him. However, once the truth was out, he lost all
of their respect. Apparently, even
players of the Milwaukee Brewers lost respect for him too (Grant, 2013). It is evident that Ryan Braun has made some
massive mistakes in his career, which may never be fully repaired.
Ryan now officially
takes one hundred percent of the responsibility for his actions. He truly feels sorry for all of his fans,
family, teammates, and club that he has disappointed (USA Today, 2013). He also goes on to say how much admiration he
has for the game of baseball, and how embarrassed he is for disrespecting it (USA
Today, 2013). He knows that the mistakes
he has made are tremendous, but he hopes that he can eventually win back the
respect of most. To conclude, Ryan has
paid the price for his unethical actions.
He really has lost everything in the world of MLB. The burning question that everyone has is if
he will ever be able to recapture his magical 2011 season. Luckily, time will tell.
References
Baseball
Reference. (n.d.). Ryan Braun.
Baseball Reference. Retrieved
from http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/braunry02.shtml
Gilman A. (2013, July 13). Major League Baseball suspends Ryan Braun for
using steroids. WSWS. Retrieved from http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/07/30/brau-j30.html
Grant
E. (2013, August 16). Ryan Braun Releasing Statement Admitting PED
Use. Bleacher
Report. Retrieved from http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1741096-ryan-braun-reportedly-plans-to-admit-to-using-peds
New York Daily News. (2013, September 9). Ryan Braun helps build homes for veterans
with Habitat for Humanity during 65-game suspension. New York Daily News. Retrieved from http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/braun-lends-hand-vets-suspension-article-1.1449723
Passikoff
R. (2013, July 7). Nike Nixes Ryan Braun Sponsorship. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertpassikoff/2013/08/07/nike-nixes-ryan-braun-sponsorship/
USA
Today. (2013, August 22). Ryan Braun’s Statement Apologizing for
Doping. USA Today. Retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/brewers/2013/08/22/ryan-braun-statement-apology-steroids-suspension/2690041/
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