Every year, Major League Baseball (MLB) players provide urine samples for testing during their playoff runs. One such player, Milwaukee Brewers Outfielder Ryan Braun, triggered a positive result while being selected as the National League’s Most Valuable Player. Currently he is facing a 50-game suspension until the collapse of moral judgment for a flawed system and minor technicality. Every individual naturally produces testosterone and a substance called epitestosterone, typically at a ratio of 1-to-1. In MLB, if the ratio comes in at 4-to-1 or higher during testing, a player is deemed to have tested positive. The laboratory in Montreal where the league sends their specimens indicated that the testosterone was exogenous, meaning it came from outside his body.
The Brewers outfielder claimed that his positive test resulted from the medication he was taking for a “personal” ailment, rumored to be of the STD kind. However, MLB’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Policy calls for strict liability among players, meaning if a player tests positive, the league is “not required to otherwise establish intent, fault, negligence or knowing use of a Prohibited Substance on the Player’s part to establish such a violation.” When Braun was asked about his knowledge he said, “It’s B.S.”
Last week proved to millions of fans, players and staffers how weak and how flawed MLB’s drug testing policies and procedures are. Braun decided to take a second test at an independent laboratory to “prove” he was clean, and hired a legal team to fight the ordeal.
The findings concluded that the first sample was not handled correctly, since it sat for two days before it was sent to a testing lab in Montreal. Baseball’s drug agreement says that “absent unusual circumstances, the specimens should be sent by FedEx to the laboratory on the same day they are collected.” The sample was not brought to FedEx until that Monday afternoon, a delay on which the arbitrator apparently based his decision.
There should be a tombstone in Cooperstown, New York at the baseball Hall of Fame that states: “Here Lies the Drug Testing Policies of MLB.” There was no evidence, no burden of proof that the first sample was ever tampered with. Do you think the specimen handler of Comprehensive Drug Testing, Inc. was just going to run to the nearest GNC and pick up as much HGH or testosterone supplements he could get and run home, break the seal, tamper with the specimen and reseal it just to frame the Brewers outfielder? Not bloody likely.
So there you are. If you have enough money, Braun just showed you that if there is the slightest loophole you can do what you want. It also shows that MLB didn’t cover its side of the collective bargaining agreement by allowing any room for give in the testing process exposing weakness. In my opinion, this is a perfect model of baseball justice at work. Why do the right thing when you can just find a loophole? Just hire a legal team and the former General Manager of the Brewers and commissioner of baseball will take care of the rest. Prince Fielder is already out of town. We can’t have the MVP out 50 games now can we? Baseball thanks you, Bud Selig, on a job well done.
