By now everyone has heard the news that Ryan Braun’s 50-game suspension has been thrown out by an arbitrator.  Every talk show around is going nuts over this topic, with most of them saying the same thing.  

Oh, they’re going at it from different angles, but they’re still implying the same thing…..Ryan Braun got away with cheating!  Don’t ask me how they are able to do this with such conviction, because I have no idea.  But hey, what do I know? 

I guess that’s a good question.  I’m scratching my head wondering how these guys can look in the mirror after some of the ridiculous comments I heard today, so obviously I don’t know that much. 

Let’s take a look at some of the arguments I heard thrown out there today.  Here’s one… “Major League Baseball decided to let him off the hook because he is the reigning NL MVP.”  That makes absolutely no sense, since it makes MLB look like a bunch of idiots.  Besides, they’re contemplating a law suit to overturn the overturning of the suspension, so I doubt they were behind this. 

Here’s another one… “I don’t care what the arbitrator says, until Ryan Braun explains why his testosterone level was so high, I won’t believe he’s innocent.”  I heard this one while I was in the car and nearly swerved off the road! 

Even as I’m writing this now, I can’t believe someone actually said this on the air.  Let’s think about it for a minute.  When the original test results first came out, Ryan immediately stood up and declared his innocence, requesting that his DNA be taken right then and there to be compared to the sample that was declared positive for steroids.  Now an arbitrator throws the case out, thereby declaring that the case doesn’t hold water and there is doubt as to his guilt.  And these guys want him to explain why the test showed such high levels of testosterone?  Really?  Look, I know these guys aren’t lawyers, but c’mon, they’re really making sports talk people look stupid! 

Here’s another fantastic train of thought, just filled with logic.  “He must be guilty because an innocent man would not have become so upset when he was falsely accused.”  This is one I’ve heard for years, but have never believed it to be true.  If someone accuses me of a crime that I did not commit, I’m not going to stand by and say nothing.  I’m going to challenge them to show their proof, and then proceed to tear the proof apart, since it is obviously flawed. 

How about this great one…  “He sounds just like Rafael Palmeiro did when he testified in front of Congress, and we all know that he was lying.”  Huh??  Talk about comparing apples to oranges!  Braun stood up immediately after being told that the results came back positive and requested that his DNA sample be taken right away, which MLB refused to do.  If the positive test results were accurate, he would have been exposed.  Palmeiro was sitting in front of Congress in March of 2005 with no threat of being tested on the spot, so there was no way he could be proven to be a liar in that particular setting. 

This next one was really well thought out… “The statement he read was obviously written by a lawyer.  If he was innocent, he wouldn’t have gotten ‘lawyered up’, so he must be guilty.”  Again, I had to get off the road after hearing that one because it was becoming too dangerous to be driving while listening to this work of geniuses.  This is in line with the ‘innocent man not becoming upset’ logic.  I wonder how many of these Einstein wannabes would have stood in front of a judge without a lawyer if they were falsely accused of murder, armed robbery or even a misdemeanor of some sort?! 

I could go on and on, as these weren’t the only arguments I heard today.  I had to keep checking to see if Nancy Grace had switched over to sports for the day.  But then I remembered she’s got a legal background, so she wouldn’t have been throwing such stupid statements out there. 

I do want to give props to ESPN’s Mike and Mike.  They were the only ones I heard today that kept their heads on this topic and didn’t go the route of all of the others that I described above.  Way to go guys…keep up the good work! 

Listen, I’m not standing up declaring that I necessarily think Ryan Braun is innocent.  I don’t know if he is or not, but in my humble opinion, there is a better chance that he is innocent than guilty.  I’m only basing that opinion on the facts that have been presented to us.  I know, what a concept! 

There are several key components to this story, but the main one that must be remembered  by all those who dare to discuss this topic is this…MLB knew exactly what the rules were related to the testing protocol and they did not make sure that the rules were followed to the letter.  This doesn’t mean that anyone believes that the carrier of the sample who chose to keep it in his refrigerator over the weekend instead of turning it over to Fed-Ex when he was supposed to necessarily tampered with the sample.  It simply means that there is no way to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the sample had not been tampered with, which he was legally obligated to do.  Once this situation was discovered, the arbitrator had no choice but to throw the case out.  MLB can sue all they want, but the arbitrator did exactly what he was supposed to do.  

This case is over and Ryan Braun’s name needs to be cleared, regardless of what the sports talk gurus want.  If he truly is a steroid user, he will be caught eventually, since they will most likely be performing ‘random’ drug tests on him on a weekly basis this season.  If he does not test positive over the next few years and his batting statistics don’t take a nose-dive, he should be exonerated once and for all.  Meanwhile, let’s back off.  I mean, this country is based upon “innocent until proven guilty”, not the other way around, no matter what kind of ratings are generated by that sensationalism!