Braun's Mistake is Permanent to His Reputation

Baseball is a changed game. It's a changed culture. Sure, there are still those that embarrass themselves and disrespect the history of the game by using PEDs, but the game has changed in the sense that players are calling for harsher penalties and the tolerance is at a minimum around the league. Ryan Braun is finding out the hard way and it's assumed that Alex Rodriguez won't be far behind him. It doesn't matter what sport it is, a superstar standing at a podium spilling half-hearted apologies for using PEDs has become the norm for this generation. Braun fit right into that category yesterday as he gave a sad apology, if it could even be called that.Let's rewind the clock to February 2012 when Braun stood at a podium in Arizona and vehemently denied any wrongdoing after it was reported in December 2011 that he was being investigated for elevated levels of testosterone. At the time he was in such denial that he went to great lengths to profess his innocence. "I truly believe in my heart and I would bet my life that this substance never entered my body," he said.Now it's 2013 and Braun was in front of a microphone, but singing a much different tune. "As I have acknowledged in the past, I am not perfect. I realize now that I have made some mistakes. I am willing to accept the consequences for those actions. This situation has taken a toll on me and my entire family, and it has been a distraction to my teammates and the Brewers organization," he said.Hey guys, did you hear that??? Ryan Braun realized he's not perfect! Seriously? What a dumb thing to say. Did he think he was like the second coming of Jesus Christ or something? At any rate, we're all glad he realized he's not perfect. Oh, and he just now realizes that he made some mistakes. So when he was taking those substances he didn't realize it was a mistake? Ryan Braun is no fool and I wish he wouldn't act like he was so naive. He's a smart individual. He's smart enough to lead us on this trail of denial for more than a year and he almost got away with it.Of course, he couldn't get this far without crushing a few people along the way, namely the tester Dino Laurenzi Jr. Oh, and if you're wondering, Braun didn't even mention Laurenzi the other day when he was spewing his lame apologies. We may never know what Braun does in private, but I hope he apologizes to Laurenzi after completely ruining his reputation so that he could avoid a suspension in 2012.Braun had an excuse for everything, a reason for why his name popped up in investigations and he stepped all over those in his path to try and maintain his innocence and reputation. Like I said, he's a smart guy for leading us on this long. However, he had to know this would be the end eventually. He saw the Rafael Palmeiro finger wag, the Mark McGwire silence, the ballad of Floyd Landis and the Oprah interview with Lance Armstrong. He's seen Barry Bonds become the most hated man in baseball and he saw countless others admit and give a half-hearted apologies for taking PEDs. He had to know that eventually the truth would be revealed.But maybe all that lying went to his head and he actually believed it to be truth. Who knows. Here's what we do know: MLB players aren't forgiving him anytime soon and many have called for stiff penalties. Matt Kemp said he should be stripped of the 2011 MVP award and Skip Schumaker said Braun should be suspended for life and that "he makes me sick." There is no tolerance for this sort of thing in the MLB any longer and the commissioner should listen. No game will ever be 100 percent clean, but a stiff penalty to a star like Braun will certainly grab everyone's attention.Ryan Braun is a fraud and he is a cheater. He's not the first and he's not going to be the last. When he returns to the field in 2014 he may still hear the cheers in Milwaukee when he hits a home run, but on the road and among his peers his reputation will never recover from this. It's a mistake with permanent ramifications and it's unfortunate that Braun was the last one to realize that.
Source:http://theworldofwadley.blogspot.com/2013/07/brauns-mistake-is-permanent-to-his.html

Braun's Mistake is Permanent to His Reputation Images

Milwaukee slugger Ryan Brauns MVP season will always be under a cloud ...
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Tags: Ryan Braun Alex Rodriguez Baseball and Peds LA Dodgers and Tampa ...
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... Braun must do more than renounce any kind of PED use to restore his
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Ryan Braun and Alex Rodriguez have both seen their reputation ...
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