National League MVP Ryan Braun's 50-game suspension was overturned Thursday by baseball arbitrator Shyam Das, the first time a baseball player successfully challenged a drug-related penalty in a grievance...
During the hearing, Braun's side challenged the chain of custody from the time the urine sample was collected by Comprehensive Drug Testing Inc. to when it was sent, nearly 48 hours later, to a World Anti-Doping Agency-certified laboratory in Montreal, two people familiar with the case said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because what took place in the hearing is supposed to be confidential.
The sample was collected on Oct. 1, a Saturday and the day the Brewers opened the NL playoffs. The collector did not send the sample to the laboratory until Monday, thinking it would be more secure at home than at a Federal Express office during the weekend.
Yep. You read that right. Braun is getting off because the sample was taken on a Saturday and there was no way to get it to a CLOSED lab on Sunday. In other words, he is still guilty as sin but will pay absolutely no price for his cheating. This makes a total mockery of baseball's drug control efforts. Cynics of all strips now get to chime in to remind us that:
A) Braun plays for a team with close ties to the Commissioner of Baseball. How convenient.
B) Braun is the highest profile baseball player to get caught (while they are actively playing), and now its like it never happened. How convenient.
C) Braun is white. (If you think no one is gonna notice you are crazy. Do *I* think it played a role? Highly unlikely. It won't matter.)
Braun is never gonna hear the end of this. Had he taken his just punishment (and stayed clean) it would have been over for him. Now? He's not going to be so lucky.
He's a cheater.
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