Ryan Braun Finally Succumbs to Steroid Suspension

Well, the baseball police can breath a sigh of relief tonight.  They got him.  Ryan Braun will be suspended for the remainder of the season after getting essentially a plea deal for 65 games instead of the 100 a 2nd offense would get him.  It is breaking news, so the info is still rolling in, but it just seems like a good day for everyone involved.  MLB finally gets a guy who got off on a technicality.  The investigators now have confirmation that the Biogenesis information is factual and solid.  Even Braun should be OK with this, because we have seen that those who admit to use and take their punishment are easily forgiven by the masses (see Pettite, Giambi, McGwire as a coach), and those who choose to insist they are clean when people have proof that they are dirty (Clemens, Bonds, Sosa, and Palmeiro, which still breaks my heart) are hated.  Furthermore, Braun will not lose 100 games worth of paychecks.

It makes us as fans happy to know that Braun has been caught because of how mean and unapologetic he was when he got off on a technicality a few years ago.  He was, as ESPN's Tim Kurkjian called him, baseball's Lance Armstrong.  He was so vicious towards the man who supposedly mishandled his urine sample that we began to dislike him just for that.  Now that MLB has proven he is a liar, and now that Braun has admitted it, we can dislike him even more.

Yet at the same time, Braun is only 29 years old.  He still has a solid 5 to 10 years left in his career.  He can come back as a humbled man who has come to terms with his past mistakes.  He can be baseball's spokesman for the dangers of steroids.  He clearly has the ability to be an All Star player, but his decision to take steroid has sullied his name, damaged his reputation, and will cost him around $3 million in salary.  He should learn from Ray Lewis in the NFL.  The man did something wrong and then became the ultimate good soldier for his league.  This is the opportunity that Braun has before him.  If he can put together a decade of baseball with solid numbers when we know he is clean, as he should be after today, then he can return to the good graces of the baseball universe.