Ryan Braun wins appeal
- Thread starter shawn555
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Braun Wins Appeal on Positive Drug Test and Avoids Suspension
By KEN BELSON
Ryan Braun, the reigning most valuable player in the National League, has successfully appealed his positive drug test and will not be suspended for the first 50 games of the 2012 season.
A three-man panel that heard Braun?s appeal upheld his argument by a vote of 2-1. Until now, no player is known to have successfully appealed a positive test result.
The test that has now been overturned was taken during the 2011 postseason, in which Braun played left field and batted cleanup for the Milwaukee Brewers, who beat the Arizona Diamondbacks in the first round and then lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Championship Series.
The first test result revealed that Braun had elevated levels of testosterone in his body. The test showed a prohibited substance in Braun?s body, but not a steroid, according to a person familiar with the results.
Braun learned of the result in late October and insisted that the test was flawed. He took a second test done by an independent laboratory that showed he had normal levels of testosterone, the person said. Braun?s lawyers argued that the first sample was improperly handled and the results were therefore flawed.
Under Major League Baseball?s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program, the testing service, Comprehensive Drug Testing, Inc., ?absent unusual circumstance? is supposed to send specimens to the testing laboratory in Montreal on the same day they are collected.
Braun?s lawyers argued that his sample was not sent for roughly 48 hours.
The panel that heard those arguments consisted of Shyam Das, baseball?s independent arbitrator; Rob Manfred, the head of labor relations for Major League Baseball; and Michael Weiner, the head of the players union.
In his five years in the major leagues, the 28-year-old Braun has become one of the most popular players in baseball. A first-round draft pick in 2005, he was rookie of the year in 2007, has made the All-Star team four times and has helped guide the Brewers to the playoffs twice.
He also signed a five-year contract extension worth $105 million last year, solidifying his status as the face of the Brewers, particularly with the loss of Prince Fielder, who recently signed a lavish free-agent deal with the Detroit Tigers.
Over the last decade, baseball has introduced testing for performance enhancers and then repeatedly toughened those measures and those actions have apparently had the desired effect of cutting down on drug use in the sport. But the disclosure in December that Braun had teated positive was seen as a significant setback for Commissioner Bud Selig, who has argued that the steroid era, which tarnished the achievements of countless players, was clearly a thing of the past.
Players routinely question positive tests, but it has been difficult to overturn them, in part because of the steps taken to insure that the results are correct and confidential.
Numerous technicians analyze and verify the urine samples that are received. Specimens that are sent to laboratories have numbers on them, but not the athletes? names. Lawyers hired by players can sometimes find small mistakes in the procedures followed by technicians, but rarely find enough evidence to warrant overturning a positive result, testing experts said.
?Everything is going to be double-checked because the stakes are so high,? said Don Catlin, the founder and former director of the U.C.L.A. Olympic Analytical Laboratory, which handled testing for baseball?s minor leagues. ?But the problem is things are so complex now that it?s very hard to make it perfect.? However, he added, the mistakes ?are usually minor.?
By KEN BELSON
Ryan Braun, the reigning most valuable player in the National League, has successfully appealed his positive drug test and will not be suspended for the first 50 games of the 2012 season.
A three-man panel that heard Braun?s appeal upheld his argument by a vote of 2-1. Until now, no player is known to have successfully appealed a positive test result.
The test that has now been overturned was taken during the 2011 postseason, in which Braun played left field and batted cleanup for the Milwaukee Brewers, who beat the Arizona Diamondbacks in the first round and then lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Championship Series.
The first test result revealed that Braun had elevated levels of testosterone in his body. The test showed a prohibited substance in Braun?s body, but not a steroid, according to a person familiar with the results.
Braun learned of the result in late October and insisted that the test was flawed. He took a second test done by an independent laboratory that showed he had normal levels of testosterone, the person said. Braun?s lawyers argued that the first sample was improperly handled and the results were therefore flawed.
Under Major League Baseball?s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program, the testing service, Comprehensive Drug Testing, Inc., ?absent unusual circumstance? is supposed to send specimens to the testing laboratory in Montreal on the same day they are collected.
Braun?s lawyers argued that his sample was not sent for roughly 48 hours.
The panel that heard those arguments consisted of Shyam Das, baseball?s independent arbitrator; Rob Manfred, the head of labor relations for Major League Baseball; and Michael Weiner, the head of the players union.
In his five years in the major leagues, the 28-year-old Braun has become one of the most popular players in baseball. A first-round draft pick in 2005, he was rookie of the year in 2007, has made the All-Star team four times and has helped guide the Brewers to the playoffs twice.
He also signed a five-year contract extension worth $105 million last year, solidifying his status as the face of the Brewers, particularly with the loss of Prince Fielder, who recently signed a lavish free-agent deal with the Detroit Tigers.
Over the last decade, baseball has introduced testing for performance enhancers and then repeatedly toughened those measures and those actions have apparently had the desired effect of cutting down on drug use in the sport. But the disclosure in December that Braun had teated positive was seen as a significant setback for Commissioner Bud Selig, who has argued that the steroid era, which tarnished the achievements of countless players, was clearly a thing of the past.
Players routinely question positive tests, but it has been difficult to overturn them, in part because of the steps taken to insure that the results are correct and confidential.
Numerous technicians analyze and verify the urine samples that are received. Specimens that are sent to laboratories have numbers on them, but not the athletes? names. Lawyers hired by players can sometimes find small mistakes in the procedures followed by technicians, but rarely find enough evidence to warrant overturning a positive result, testing experts said.
?Everything is going to be double-checked because the stakes are so high,? said Don Catlin, the founder and former director of the U.C.L.A. Olympic Analytical Laboratory, which handled testing for baseball?s minor leagues. ?But the problem is things are so complex now that it?s very hard to make it perfect.? However, he added, the mistakes ?are usually minor.?
Braun won on a technicality. The official who obtained the spec did not send it to the lab right away, kept it overnight and then sent it, spec was ruled tainted,
- Mar 19, 2006
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from Sammy to Mark..to no World Series..to Barry....and Jose...and tie game..to "Oh We didn't send it in right away...
Bud...ya haven't had a fvckin' clue since the day ya took the job..
it should surprise noone that the once great game of baseball is an afterthought in the American Sports conscious the last 15 years.
and lets be sure to continue to have World Series games end at 1 in the friggin' morning..
the children of today have no sense of what the game is thanks to the backward ass thinking of Bud and his yes yaks.
gotta go work on my football fantasy team..
Bud...ya haven't had a fvckin' clue since the day ya took the job..
it should surprise noone that the once great game of baseball is an afterthought in the American Sports conscious the last 15 years.
and lets be sure to continue to have World Series games end at 1 in the friggin' morning..
the children of today have no sense of what the game is thanks to the backward ass thinking of Bud and his yes yaks.
gotta go work on my football fantasy team..
