Milwaukee Brewers’ Ryan Braun accepted his National League Most Valuable Player Award at the annual Baseball Writers Association of America awards dinner in spite of the fact that he faces a 50-game suspension for using anabolic steroids. He has positioned himself as a victim of a false positive and claims the steroid test result is “B.S.” Braun is fighting the results in arbitration.
The BBWAA has endlessly debated whether steroid users should be in Baseball’s Hall of Fame but they have no policy to taken away MVPs from players caught using steroids. In fact, they have a precedent of allowing admitted steroid users to keep their MVP awards.
Jack O’Connell, BBWAA awards administrator, has gone on record saying they would allow Ryan Braun to receive the MVP award since they have previously allowed Ken Caminiti to keep the 1996 MVP award and Alex Rodriguez to to keep the 2003 MVP award. Caminiti and Rodriguez both admitted using steroids.
Braun was caught with an elevated testosterone:epitestosterone (T:E) ratio in a urine sample collected in October 2011. The T:E ratio was purportedly “twice the level of the highest test ever taken”. While the T:E ratio is a putative indicator of exogenous testosterone use, it has no relationship to the actual amount of steroids taken.
A confirmatory analysis conducted by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) accredited laboratory in Montreal used carbon isotope ratio testing (CIR). It allegedly returned a normal T:E ratio but the CIR confirmed that exogenous testosterone was involved.
Many sportswriters felt that Braun should have given up his MVP given the circumstances surrounding the positive steroid result. But Braun decided to accept the award and deliver a speech about coping with the adversity of being falsely accused of using steroids.
“I always believed that a person’s character is revealed in those moments of adversity,” said Braun. “I have so much respect for the game of baseball. Everything I’ve done in my career has been done with that appreciation in mind.”
Dave Stewart, the agent for MVP runner-up Matt Kemp of the Los Angeles Dodger, thinks that the MVP award should be given to his client if Braun used steroids. Then again, Stewart thought Kemp should have received the award in the first place.
Braun had been branded as one of the young, new league of baseball players who didn’t need steroids to excel in baseball. He told MLB.com that he wasn’t surprised that Alex Rodriguez was outed using steroids since steroid use was so rampant in the period before he enter the MLB.
“The best thing he can do is come out, admit to everything and be completely honest. The situation will die a lot faster if he tells the whole truth,” said at the time.
Braun has vowed to fight the steroid test results and has claimed that “highly unusual circumstances surrounding the case” will complete explain the test results and prove his innocence.
Photo credit: Wikipedia
Source:
Albanese, L. (January 22, 2012). Brewers’ Braun accepts MVP, rejects all steroid allegations. Retrieved from http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports/baseball/brewers-braun-accepts-mvp-rejects-all-steroid-allegations-137844078.html
NYDN. (December 10, 2012). Braun busted! NL MVP tests positive for PED. Retrieved from Braun busted! NL MVP tests positive for PED
