An Opportunity to Right a Wrong.

This is my first baseball related post since resuming my blog, and because I think the topic of performance enhancing drugs in baseball is vitally important, this post offers three suggestions: one to Ryan Braun, one to the Baseball Writers Association of America, and one to professional athletes at large.

Last week it was reported that Ryan Braun, the National League MVP and one of the true young stars of the game tested positive for a performance enhancing drug.  The reports don't indicate that it was an anabolic steroid, but I don't think it really matters what he tested positive for.  What matters is that it was a banned substance that MLB and the players' union have agreed enhances performance to such a degree that the player will be suspended if it's found to be in their system.  In my opinion (and the opinion of baseball), it doesn't matter if the player knowingly took the substance, what's important is that it enhanced his performance.

Is this performance enhanced?

Now, like every other player that has ever tested positive, Braun is maintaining his innocence.  It's nearly impossible for him to deny that his testosterone levels were nearly four times higher than normal or that it was a synthetic substance that caused the increase, so Braun's only hope is to prove that he took something that was tainted or that someone tampered with something that he took.  Neither of these defenses have ever succeeded in the past, so I don't expect them to work this time around.

Operating under the assumption that Braun's appeal will fail and he will be forced to serve a 50 game suspension I have a suggestion for the slugging Brewer: admit that your performance was enhanced, maintain your innocence if you wish, and relinquish your MVP if you want to try to salvage even a sliver of your clean-cut image.  I know it would be unprecedented, and I know he has every agent, publicist, and union rep telling him that he absolutely should not give up the award, but that's exactly the point.  Nobody expects him to do it, which is why it might, just might, give him a bit of credibility with fans that are certainly ready to write him off like they've done to so many before him.

Whether he did it or not, his performance was enhanced and his numbers were inflated.  Even if it gave him the edge on one home run, one stolen base, or one RBI, his performance was aided by a synthetic substance that other players (as far as we know) did not have in their systems.  Odds are, however, that it gave him an edge on more than one of each of those statistics.  Braun should come to terms with this fact and admit to the baseball world that he doesn't deserve the most valuable player honor because of this substance that gave him an advantage.  In a sport like baseball where statistics and history are of such significance, Braun has to acknowledge that he has skewed both the stats and the history.  I'm not, however, asking that Braun acknowledge that he cheated.  He really doesn't have to.  Unless, of course, he did.

This brings me to my second suggestion: if he won't give back the award, the Baseball Writers Association of America should conduct a revote.  There is no denying that I'm a diehard Dodger fan and that Matt Kemp would likely be the primary beneficiary of a revote, but this suggestion has more to do with precedent that fanhood.  Unfortunately, precedent seems to be why most baseball writers don't think a revote is warranted.  I've heard the argument that "they" didn't take away any of Bonds's 7 MVPs, Roger Clemens's 7 Cy Young awards, or Alex Rodriguez's MVP from Texas.  With all due respect, that's a terrible argument.  The link to performance enhancing drugs, or the proof of such use, didn't come until well after some or all of those awards were won.  In Braun's case, not a single game has been played since the news broke.  Precedent only applies to facts and circumstances substantially similar to the precedential case, and this is a prime opportunity to set such precedent.  It would let award winners know that the BBWAA can and will strip you of your honor if evidence that your statistics were artificially enhanced comes to light before another game is played.  The BBWAA is not the MLB, it is its own separate entity with the power to operate as it chooses.  This second suggestion is not a cry to strip every player linked to performance enhancers of their awards, it is a call to set narrow precedent that I believe is greatly needed and leads to my third and final suggestion.

Celebrating his massive payday, or the idea of an MVP award with his name inscribed?

So here it is, my last suggestion for all baseball players and professional athletes: start paying closer attention to what you put in your body.  You are an elite athlete for a reason.  You are genetically predisposed to perform at the highest level possible.  Pop your Flinstone vitamin in the morning and hit the gym extra hard if that's what you need to do to compete.  But please, stop taking every supplement that your trainer puts in front of you.  Substances not called steroids are banned for a reason and you shouldn't be putting them into your body, not even accidentally.  The court of public opinion does not care if you maintain your innocence.  The fans want to know that the game is clean.  If you are linked to performance enhancing drugs you will be written off.  The price is too high to not pay careful attention to the powders and pills you're ingesting.  But then again, maybe the price isn't too high.  Maybe these players are willing to roll the dice, knowing that a massive contract and financial security for generations to come is worth the risk that they're legacies will be tarnished and the history of baseball will be re-written.  However, if the BBWAA heeds my advice and takes Braun's MVP award away, maybe that thought will enter some small number of players' heads as they take the next great supplement that is supposed to give them an edge.  Maybe they'll think, "the slight advantage that this may give me isn't worth the fallout that could result.  Instead, maybe I'll spend 15 extra minutes in the gym and take an extra 25 cuts in batting practice today."  Maybe thoughts like that, in conjunction with the understanding that your individual honors can and will be taken away will be enough for just a few guys to think twice.  

Cheating will always be a part of baseball and every other sport.  The stakes are too high and there is too much money on the line.  But the BBWAA has an opportunity to make a small impact on the use of performance enhancing drugs.  Take away this MVP award and conduct a revote, and I can almost guarantee that someone, maybe a few someones, will think twice about the next substance they put in their body.