I saw this tweet yesterday from ESPN’s Buster Olney (whom I have a lot of respect for) and it created a fire storm from Diamondbacks fans.
Players will handle things in their own way. But on social media, fans are saying they feel cheated out of the series in which Braun hit 9 for 18 with 4 runs scored, 4 RBI and 1 home run while doing those stupid Monster’s Inc. posses to the Brewer dugout every time he reached base. Is it frustrating to think about? Absolutely.
But should you (the fan) feel cheated? Absolutely not.
Not unless you want to give a lie detector test to everyone in the Diamondback clubhouse that year and see if any of them took performance enhancing drugs as well. Not unless you want to do the same to everyone on the Diamondback roster from the 2001 World Series in the height of the steroid era.
While MLB has made great strides toward getting PED’s out of the game, the fight is still far from over. It is still very much part of the game and it takes examples like a Ryan Braun and whomever else is connected to this biogenesis deal to receive the ramifications to continue to move in a positive direction.
MLB may have won a battle in this with Braun but the war is still very much alive. Once all sports, and not just the MLB, can get ahead of the curve with PED testing and not the other way around, will there be a resolution. You would think it could be easier for them with all the money professional sports bring in. But the people creating the PED’s continue to be the creative ones in this war and remain a step ahead.
While MLB has made great strides toward getting PED’s out of the game, the fight is still far from over
Just because the magic of the 2011 season came to a screeching halt because of the Brewers, shouldn’t mean fans should go up in arms about it and feel like victims. A “sorry” from Braun doesn’t get the Diamondbacks a redo, doesn’t automatically give the Diamondbacks a free pass into the playoffs this year. I personally would love to see the 1993 Suns get a chance to redo their defensive rotation to prevent the Paxson shot but that’s not the way life works.
Be happy that baseball is still taking action to clean up the game and enjoy the present because a pennant race in baseball is a blast to be a part of. And your Diamondbacks, despite recent struggles, are very much in the thick of it.
