Standing O for Braun, Opening Day Drama

[RobDeer 45]

Wow, this is getting a lot of pub in the national media. At the time it happened, I was just excited he was back in the lineup. The more I thought about it, the more I wondered what should the crowd have done. I'm not saying they should have booed him, that wouldn't have happened. I just don't know if giving him a standing O sends the right message. It's ok to cheat and lie, we love you. Or was it like I was feeling at the moment, glad to have you back. I know he paid the penalty and most of us made our peace over the off season. Just curious what all the rest of you homers (me included) think.

 

For the record, most of the national media said it was to be expected from a home crowd.

[DoubleSwitch]

I would have cheered him too if I were there. He'll catch his share of abuse over it on the road. Like it or not he's our guy for the foreseeable future, so I think it's good the fans have shown they're still behind him. The whole moral panic over steroids is so overblown that I think it's natural for home fans to respond to that over reaction. People stood and cheered for Yovani the drunk driver and Francisco the woman beater yesterday as well. Those are both undoubtedly far worse than anything Braun has done, but for some reason that doesn't seem to register.

[JimH5]

I ripped Braun for months and was ready to move him to the highest bidder. But he has been consistently apologetic, and has done more than most PED guys (perhaps ANY PED guy) to get back in good graces with the fans.

 

Whether that was his doing or not, I don't much care. . .and I understand that he's never going to come totally clean about his life's history with PEDs, he's not going to give back the MVP award, etc.

 

Still, he served his suspension, he apologized, he's forever marked as a cheater. And still, he's our guy. My ire has run out. I don't get any pleasure by being conflicted at the ballpark on whether I should cheer or not cheer, or stand or sit, or check in with Bob Costas on how I should behave.

 

The prodigal son has returned. And after 6 months of crap weather in this freezer of a climate, it's finally baseball season, and I want to cheer for my team.

 

If that is met with Bob Nightengale's displeasure, then I'll live with that.

[fondybrewfan]

He is the best player on the team; he served his suspension, and its opening day. What did people expect. The standing ovation wasn't condoning his lying and whatnot; people are just excited to have him back.

 

The national media that was so taken aback by the cheering just needs to get over Braun already. Move on. I mean did they cover how all the other suspended guys were cheered/booed? I know Braun gets extra attention and all but jeez the media needs to get off of their moral high horses and stop trying to tell fans how they are supposed to feel.

[liveforoctober]

Braun is family still. I was hurt and upset when it happened too. But if my brother lied and cheated to me... We would probably get into a shoving match, we would both have black eyes, and then i would pick him up/dust him off and go buy him a beer while we figure out how to make it better. Braun is the same. In my eyes, we have taken our swings.. Now it is time to move forward and support him because that is what human beings do.

 

Are we a little hypocritical because we wouldn't be exactly the same towards an opponent... Probably. But like I said, he is Brewers family and family is allowed different treatment. Im pulling for the kid.

[PrinceFielderx1]

Brewers fans know just how good of a hitter Braun is and how important he is to this team regardless of PEDS or not, which is why they cheered. Brewers fans are the best fans in baseball and they proved it yesterday.

[RobDeer 45]

Great responses! I don't think we are hypocritical, as long as we aren't acting like Braun's cheating was some how not as bad as some other player's. These are the types of responses I was hoping to hear from Brewer fans. I think we were mostly cheering for the right reasons. It was my instinct, without any thought being put in to it, to say, glad to have you back in the lineup. I agree, I forgive, I won't ever forget really, but I'm good with cheering him on. He has plenty of people that will always be against him.

 

Can anyone shed some light on the whole story about the tester guy he went after and supposedly "ruined his life?" I feel like people out there make a lot bigger story out of that than it was, but I really don't know much about what all has gone down since the news first came out.

[Mike2k33]

I gave up hoping that my favorite players were decent people a long time ago. I probably wouldn't have given Braun a standing ovation but I don't mind that others did.

 

My point is, I hope he mashes this year and for years to come. Why? So the Brewers can win baseball games. I couldn't possibly care less about what the national media thinks about that or Brewer fans in general. They don't care if the Brewers win 60 games or 100.

[valpocrewsader]

What percentage of the crowd has to be standing for it to qualify as a standing ovation? Being at the game, I thought he got a very good reception, but I don't think I would have called it a standing O. I felt it was something like 20% of the crowd standing and cheering enthusiastically, 30% sitting and cheering enthusiastically, 30% cheering casually, and 20% not cheering. Wish I could go back and pay closer attention. Being there in person, it didn't seem to be the same level of "standing o" the media made it out to be by calling it that and only using shots of the crowd in which many were standing.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

I agree with most here.

 

I think the question really is, what are fans supposed to do? A lot of people were extremely frustrated with Braun, and I think it's easy for the national media to forget that the suspension was, in many ways, the end of a LONG, difficult period of Brewer fandom. That was nearly a two year story, and a big part of taking the suspension was to allow the team some room to recover and get Braun the distraction away from the ballpark for a while. Once that happened, I think the road to starting new began. Is Braun really going to hear some cheers and think, "Gee, that wasn't so bad, and they still love me so what can't I get away with?" I just don't see that as a rational response given what he cost himself, even if it was only some significant $$$.

 

So, yeah. It's baseball season. The Brewers are back, and they need a lot to go right to have a shot at the playoffs. Braun is a huge part of that, so what's the point of booing, really? How much more public shaming is going to be enough? If he messes up again, maybe we need to approach it differently, but I don't see any reason not to cheer for the guy.

[Thurston Fluff]

I ripped Braun for months and was ready to move him to the highest bidder. But he has been consistently apologetic, and has done more than most PED guys (perhaps ANY PED guy) to get back in good graces with the fans.

 

Whether that was his doing or not, I don't much care. . .and I understand that he's never going to come totally clean about his life's history with PEDs, he's not going to give back the MVP award, etc.

 

Still, he served his suspension, he apologized, he's forever marked as a cheater. And still, he's our guy. My ire has run out. I don't get any pleasure by being conflicted at the ballpark on whether I should cheer or not cheer, or stand or sit, or check in with Bob Costas on how I should behave.

 

The prodigal son has returned. And after 6 months of crap weather in this freezer of a climate, it's finally baseball season, and I want to cheer for my team.

 

If that is met with Bob Nightengale's displeasure, then I'll live with that.

 

This is the single best response I have read so far anywhere. I have never been the type to idolize or worship players in general. But I don't want to have to hate any of them either. I just want to cheer my team and the players on it.

[Fear The Chorizo]

Pro athletes have done far worse to themselves and to others, and have received much less scrutiny than Braun has after getting caught using PEDs and then lying about it.

 

As for the media's self-righteous indignation toward Braun, and how offended they are while trying to tell fans of a team how to react to their team's best player's first at bat, they can shove it. I'm hopeful Braun will be able to repeatedly stir them up by tearing the cover off the ball this season.

 

I think the ovation for Braun's first regular season AB after this suspension had just as much to do with Brewer nation's collective exhaustion over having to deal with this crap since November 2011, and suddenly gaining a sense of relief by moving forward with just playing baseball.

 

And hey, he sure as hell handled things much better than ARod...

[Yaz]

I still like Braun. But I do feel some resentment for him lying as long as he did. I honestly believe whatever he took was for the groin injury he had in August and September of 2011. Why the heck doesn't he come out and at least tell us fans what he used and why? It's pretty obvious by his 2012 numbers that PED's had nothing to do with his ability to play the game.

 

Now maybe he won't divulge the details as it may be of a sensitive health nature. But geez, at least give us fans who feel some betrayal something. Man is it that hard? How much money is he being paid to play a kids game?

 

I would have been on my feet cheering yesterday had I been at the Park as wel

[brewcrewdue80]

Yeah, I seen the video replays of the "Standing O" but it wasn't like I watching fans cheer and clap with authority. Some of it was just grudgingly clapping with the moment. I don't get what the media expects from the Home crowd, opening day in Milwaukee. After the winter there, the tailgating, a promising team, it's called enthusiasm. Braun is the best player on the team with or without PEDs and he's not going anywhere anytime soon. So Damn right we stood up and cheered him welcoming him back! Forgive, and Forget and move on. He's been here too long and been the face of this franchise for 6+years and we have another 7years to continue being the face of the franchise. He's like a son to this fan base, and he made a mistake. He apologized, and I'm over it, there's too many more games left in his career here to not forgive him and continue to back him as a fan. He's broken my trust though forever, any kind of wrong doing he's accused of in the future, I'm not going to believe his explanation of non-guilt. Before he was innocent to proven guilty, now, I'll assume he's guilty til proven innocent but I'll always wonder.

Anyway, the media certainly didn't toss blame to fans of Baltimore with Cruz nor did I see a single word about Peralta on St Louis. It's as if only Braun and ARod exist in their eyes of wrongdoing with PeDs. All those other names, they weren't MVPs so it doesn't matter to them.

[jerichoholicninja]

Apparently there aren't more important sports news stories to cover than the fan reaction to one player.

[gregmag]

Great thread. The media are making the same mistake (in part) that Braun himself did. They're making it all about Braun. Welcoming him back into the fold is about us, about what kind of fans we want to be. It's like SI said last year: people in Milwaukee tend to be pretty kind, forgiving, inclined to look for and at the best in people. I think that's a pretty god way to be. Plus what everybody else said beautifully above.

[The stache]

Ryan Braun was my favorite player in 2011 before the whole positive test debacle started. And he's my favorite player still. Why? Because as has already been stated, he has gone out of his way to try and make amends for the terrible mistakes he made. Yes, what he did was stupid, both the taking of something not approved by MLB, and the lying to cover it up. And while I can certainly understand why he did what he did, trying to accelerate the healing of an injury that had been dogging him for the entire season, he still broke the rules. Once that is established, nothing else matters.

 

But Ryan Braun is human like the rest of us. He's not a role model. He's a professional athlete who's paid a lot of money to entertain baseball fans. That's all. I didn't hold him to a higher moral standard before the positive test, and I certainly won't now. He accepted and served the suspension levied by Major League Baseball. His reputation has been tarnished. And, he's lost endorsement money. He also has another season of being booed on the road to look forward to. Yet on top of all of that, he picked up the phone, and called Brewer season ticket holders, and apologized for the mistakes he made. I don't know what more people want. It seems they won't be satisfied until Ryan Braun breaks down on national television crying.

 

Yet, baseball fans around the country are trying to paint Brewer fans as "idiots", or somehow condoning what Ryan Bran did with our standing ovation. They completely miss the point. We are not in any way excusing what he did. We are, however, willing to forgive him. Ryan Braun deserves a chance at redemption.

 

So, excuse me if I don't feel too terrible if I cheer for Ryan Braun. If Tiger fans can cheer for Miguel Cabrera, a man who beat his wife, and was arrested for drunk driving with a blood alcohol level 2.5 x the legal limit, then I can cheer for a man who rubbed a little cream on his calf and lied about it.

[logan82]

What percentage of the crowd has to be standing for it to qualify as a standing ovation? Being at the game, I thought he got a very good reception, but I don't think I would have called it a standing O. I felt it was something like 20% of the crowd standing and cheering enthusiastically, 30% sitting and cheering enthusiastically, 30% cheering casually, and 20% not cheering. Wish I could go back and pay closer attention. Being there in person, it didn't seem to be the same level of "standing o" the media made it out to be by calling it that and only using shots of the crowd in which many were standing.

I bet it was more like 20% standing cheering, 20% sitting cheering, 40% half passed out, 20% completely passed out or puking.

[Eddiehitsthefoulpole]

Ryan is on my team so I will support him. With A-Rod suspended for the season, it seems that Ryan is the face of the PED violators. St. Louis will rip Ryan but the Cardinals would have quickly tried to sign him had the Brewers released him for his indiscretions, and the Cardinal fans would have loved it. I will be amused when Braun gets booed in St.Louis and Jhonny Peralta gets cheered loudly.

[Invader3K]

I was at the game, and of course I stood and cheered for Braun. Like JimH pointed out above, Braun has gone well above and beyond what most found out cheaters have to make amends. I mean, the guy was calling season ticket holders and personally apologizing. Who else has ever done anything like that?

 

One fact people forget: I have heard Braun is facing some sort of court date in the future. Someone more knowledgeable than me can probably confirm that. He probably can't talk about his case in public, which is why we may never get the "full story", at least any time in the near future.

 

Braun is on our team, and as long as he is, I'm going to cheer for him. He served his punishment and it's time to move on.

[torts]

this all happened roughly an hour and a half after Barry Bonds was greeted to boo's (before being overtaken by cheers) in Pittsburgh, I think thats what the national media was hoping would have happened in milwaukee to Braun, and when it didnt, suddenly Brewers fans are "idiots". What will be the response next year when Arod returns to NY? What was the response Peralta got in St Louis? What about Cruz in Baltimore?

[RobDeer 45]

I think most of the national media did not peg Brewers fans as being idiots. Most were understanding, stating, that's their guy. I'm sure there were plenty that ripped Brewer fans, but overall I'd say it was more just a discussion. A Rod is a different animal and so are NY fans. He will get booed and cheered, depending on the situation.

 

I think the fairest discussion was on the Herd. Colin said, all of us fans are the same, no matter where we live. He just doesn't want to see Brewer fans, or fans from the Midwest (who can tend to dislike big market teams or teams on the coast) to point fingers at other team's players when they screw up. Then when one of our guys gets busted, try to blindly stand up for him and say they are different. As long as you can admit he messed up, all is well in most people's eyes.

[pretendastronaut]

What percentage of the crowd has to be standing for it to qualify as a standing ovation? Being at the game, I thought he got a very good reception, but I don't think I would have called it a standing O. I felt it was something like 20% of the crowd standing and cheering enthusiastically, 30% sitting and cheering enthusiastically, 30% cheering casually, and 20% not cheering. Wish I could go back and pay closer attention. Being there in person, it didn't seem to be the same level of "standing o" the media made it out to be by calling it that and only using shots of the crowd in which many were standing.

 

I don't agree with those breakdowns in the least. Braun coming up to bat was unlike anyone's first AB of the season, nobody got even close to the same reception. I was on the 200 level, so maybe the higher levels those numbers ring more true, but the 200 and 100 level a solid majority were on their feet.

 

I will say the reception caught me by surprise. I hadn't honestly thought about how people would react when he came up to bat, but I wouldn't have guessed he'd get the response he got. During team introductions he also got the largest reception I felt. I really only heard a smattering of boos for him, and that was only during his first AB. There were also plenty of people still wearing Braun jerseys.

[hawing]

From TB 417, it sounded like about a 90/10 cheer-boo ratio. I definitely heard some of the latter. Some around us stood but not everyone. I was taking photos so I didn't have hands free to applaud.

 

Roster-wise, I'm glad Ryan's back. Personality-wise, he has never been my most favorite or least favorite, so I decided months ago that I would neither put him on a pedestal nor damn him to hell.

 

I was surprised (for some reason; probably shouldn't have been) that FSWI chose Ryan for the first post-game interview, the one that made it on the videoboard. I'd rather have heard from Aramis, as he drove in the runs. I was more surprised to discover later that ESPN and MLBN cut live to Ryan's first at-bat. But media narrative, I guess.

 

This Twitter retort from the unofficial Hank the Dog account was special, at least:

You go, fake dog representative.

Pretty sure I have no desire to meet Sarah Spain, though the "sarcastic smartass" part of her Twitter bio does appear to be accurate.

[Thurston Fluff]

As for the media's self-righteous indignation toward Braun, and how offended they are while trying to tell fans of a team how to react to their team's best player's first at bat, they can shove it.

 

What bothers me about the media self righteousness is they are complicit in the damage done to the very same people they seem to damn Braun for. It was the media that leaked Braun's supposedly confidential appeal. It was the media who made public the name of the person who took the sample. It was the media who put Braun in the situation where he felt he had to lie. While that does not excuse Braun for choosing to lie it does not leave the media blameless for the victims of that lie.

The fact that Braun won the appeal shows there were problems with the process. Had Braun's appeal been kept confidential the process would have been fixed and nobody would have known who the sample taker was. So if they want to bash Braun maybe it's time they took a long look in the mirror and realize they are as much to blame for anyone thrown under the bus as Braun is. While what they did is not banned the reason they did what they did was for far less noble a reason than wanting to get back on the field or help the team win. Nor was it to make sure the public was kept informed on as important issue like Watergate or something. They did it for ratings. IF that is who is damning us for cheering Braun then I think we should wear their condemnation as a badge of honor.