WHY I HOPE RYAN BRAUN IS NOT A FOOL

There is a story coming out of Milwaukee that could severely cripple a bright spot in baseball, if it turns out to be true. These days though, anything's possible, but we will hold judgement until the official word comes out. It involves Ryan Braun, the current National League MVP and PEDs. I know, I know, you're as shocked as me. I read it late last night and felt sick and I immediately said to myself, "What has happened to my sport?" Read the full story HERE.

Michael Hunt of the Boston Herald has a great piece, witty actually and he still hits home the major point of this whole mess. He asks "If Braun knowingly cheated, a 2012 season, which had much promise with essentially everyone back from a NLCS team except for Prince Fielder, could be devastated with a 50-game suspension for the Brewers’ marquee player.

How good or smart would that make anyone look now if Braun cannot prove he did nothing wrong?" Read his full piece HERE.

You also have to start to think, if in fact this is true, who else was doing it on the Brewers? Is this a shocking, isolated incident, or did they do it as a team? People will start to point fingers at Prince Fielder and Corey Hart and that's terrible to think this way. All of this "guilt by association" started because of Jose Canseco's accusations, some true, some not, about what he allegedly did in the Rangers clubhouse years ago with Juan Gonzalez and Rafael Palmiero and before that, with Mark McGwire.

I guess Yankees fans could almost be happy that Alex Rodriguez was only thinking about himself when he dabbled, because that would be devastating to a Yankee clubhouse if many players were involved. Luckily for Alex, it was just him, he "didn't know" what he was taking, and he turned his life around.

Ryan Braun is a role model. I know my oldest son and his friends impersonate him on the wiffle ball field. I will be sure to shield this story from them and hope to God it's not true. Braun is talented, many of these players are and I just don't understand what their thinking is when they "allegedly" get involved with these performance enhancing drugs. It may give you strength, but it won't make you hit the ball, you still need the talent to do that.

It's funny, I'm reading dozens of reports this morning about this incident, all the reports are being very careful:

Los Angeles Times: BBWAA won't strip Ryan Braun of MVP

USA Today: Ryan Braun tests positive for PED, says 'It's BS'

CNN What we know and what we don't know about Braun's positive test

The one that really caught my eye was the LA Times headline. The BBWAA won't strip Braun of the MVP, and yes, if this is appealed by Braun and it turns out to be false, he shouldn't be stripped. But if it's true, Matt Kemp of course needs to be breathing down their neck saying "Yoo Hoo, over here, look at me! I did it clean!"

Look, it's too early to get freaked out about this, we need to wait and see what happens with Ryan Braun. I hope to God that it's not true. No question though, this shocking report is a black eye on baseball... again... and it's getting pretty hard to defend these guys year after year to my 9 year old son who looks up to these guys like they're Gods. Fix it boys, or some of the old school jersey's of true baseball greats will replace the new guys... Don Mattingly, Robin Yount and Ron Guidry. Those guys did it with what they had, talent and pure guts. Hopefully Braun does too and this is all a misunderstanding. I hope so.

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