Braun Gets 65 Games For 'Roids

From "Hebrew Hammer" To "Jewish Juicer"

Yesterday, Major League Baseball dropped the hammer on Ryan Braun suspending him for the remainder of the season, which turns out to be 65 games, for his involvement with Biogenesis and his actions when he had his first positive test. Once again it's another black eye for baseball in which a player of star-status turns out to be a juicer. Now, you guys all know that hockey is my first sports love, but I do love me some baseball. There's something special about going to a game, drinking some beers, eating some hot dogs, and watching America's pastime. However, in the past decade or so, the luster is wearing off. You can blame the big-money contracts these players are getting causing loyalty to be thrown to the side and ticket prices to shoot up. The bigger problem is the steroid use. You become skeptical of every home run now. It's sad, because the home run is the best part of a baseball game. And when someone is having a great season power-wise, what's the first thing you say? "He's got to be on 'roids." I feel bad for Chris Davis this year. He's having a MONSTER year, but in this era of baseball, there will be skeptics. Me? I just pray that he's clean.

The face of a cheater. (Photo credit: Google Images)

Anyway, back to Braun. When are athletes going to stop saying that they made a mistake and just say that they knowing did something stupid/illegal? A mistake is forgetting an ingredient in a recipe. A mistake is missing your exit on the highway when you're going somewhere for the first time. A mistake is waking up late for work. A mistake is NOT willingly taking an illegal substance to perform better in professional sports. That's stupidity. Ryan Braun can apologize all he wants, but his image is tarnished forever. I don't think 65 games is enough. I think he should be suspended a full calendar year - no baseball activities until July 22nd, 2014. Especially since he tried to fight his first positive test in 2011. He never actually denied that it was positive, he just said the process of analyzing the sample was wrong. It's sad to see every slugger under scrutiny now, but that's era of baseball we live in now. Until MLB decides to start banning players from the game for tarnishing its image through steroids and banned substances, players will continue to use them because they know they can still get back to playing once they serve a long suspension.

A-Rod Next?

Real quickly on Alex Rodriguez. Apparently, the evidence against A-Rod is "far beyond" that of Ryan Braun, according to TJ Quinn of ESPN. If that is the case, I hope MLB does not offer A-Rod a plea deal. He's been implicated in numerous investigations, and it's about time MLB tell A-Rod that enough is enough. Allegedly, A-Rod also tampered with the Biogenesis inverstigation. If that is the case, he should be banned from baseball for life. That's way worse, in my opinion, than just about anything done before him. Pete Rose has to be sitting somewhere watching all of this happen wondering, "How the hell am I banned from baseball while these actual cheaters are allowed a second chance?!" It makes no sense to me either. I've read that MLB is not going to take action on A-Rod immediately. Now, we'll all just wait and see what MLB has in store for baseball's most disappointing person.