Why is Ryan Braun so hated?

[homer]

1) he cheated

2) he lied about it

3) he rubbed people's noses in it when he was exonerated on a technicality

 

I think most people could forgive 1 and even 2. It's #3 that really ticks people off. There was no need at all for that press conference. I will say that on the surface it appears as if he's been somewhat humbled (if not humiliated) by the whole experience. Maybe he is a better person for having been caught. Who knows. All I know is you should never think you know everything about an athlete/celebrity because you really know very little about them.

[Montezuma]

Convenient hate by opposing team fans. Either you fold under the pressure or you take the verbal abuse and motivate yourself. We have all heard unmentionable comments by fans from other teams and unfortunately, our own fans. WHY??? Does the price of a ticket give you the right to say crap that you would ground your children for saying. That is not a FAN... That is a ticket holding bully who most likely got cut off by the beer guy 2 innings before.

[superfly]

People need to get over it. Anyone that thinks PEDs are not rampant in pro sports is fooling themselves.

[502 to Right]

Who has more prominently declared his innocence (falsely) while blaming others than Braun? Lance Armstrong? I can't think of anyone other than Armstrong who was more of an ass gloating about his innocence only to be absolutely proven to be liar and a cheater.

 

They are both losers.

[Pugger]

Lets keep in mind, too, that had the results of the first failed test never been leaked to the public (leaked...*tee hee*), Braun never would have gone on the public defensive. He would've failed the test, it would have been secret, he would've appealed and won, and that would've been it. Obviously, he still would've been caught in the later investigation, but the whole ordeal with him lying about it never would've happened.

 

He did something against the rules, obviously, but he was also put in a position where he pretty much had to lie about it, ESPECIALLY because his lawyer(s) believed there was a great chance he could win the appeal. If one of us, say, broke the law and went to court, yet our legal team felt strongly that we could win the case by pleading not guilty, 99.5% would lie and say we didn't do it.

 

Did he protest too much, yeah, probably. But the thing that people are pissed off about (pissed....*tee hee*) - the lying - would never have happened had the test result not been publicized. Braun was backed into a corner and, aside from perhaps the volume of his protest, did exactly what anyone else would do. He fought.

 

I forgot all about how his results were leaked! Was that ever investigated?

[coolhandluke121]

Hey, I get that you've never sped on the freeway, played hooky from work, cheated on an exam, your taxes or a significant other. Unlike you and like 99.999% of human beings on earth, I admit guilt on some of the above. Holier than thou. Thanks, I feel much less "slimy" for coming clean like Ryan Braun did.

Absolutely fantastic post.

 

It misses the point completely. Several of those things aren't even remotely comparable, but more importantly, if the only reason someone even knew I existed was because of their interest in activities related to those behaviors, and those behaviors completely take a dump on a fundamental premise of said activities, how much of a moron would I have to be to expect anything but scorn from them? It's kind of a ridiculous question, because whom you like and dislike as an athlete is strictly a matter of personal preference, and get this - a lot of people have this crazy personal preference for honest people who don't cheat.

[BuckyBrewer61]

.Also Braun was never busted for "steroids" that I'm aware of. I believe it was elevated levels of testosterone which were found

 

Testosterone is a steroid

 

Are you sure about that?

 

Yes

[coolhandluke121]

People need to get over it. Anyone that thinks PEDs are not rampant in pro sports is fooling themselves.

 

So what? People can dislike all the cheaters. They don't "need to get over it". They have a right to like and dislike whomever they want, and that's a damn good reason to dislike them.

[coolhandluke121]

Implying that the collector was anti-semitic was beyond pathetic.

 

Was that ever substantiated?

 

I could swear it was said by him in a published interview. I might have even seen him say it. I guess I'm not 100% sure, but I think the exact quote was something like "why he would leave the sample sit so long, I don't know - maybe it's because he's a Cub fan, maybe he's an anti-semite, whatever - but it does appear pretty suspicious".

 

ETA: Could also be it was in a report of what people say he told them, as opposed to Braun saying it publicly himself. In any case, I vaguely remember a quote like that being attributed to Braun. There were lots of reports on that from mainstream sources:

 

https://www.si.com/si-wire/2013/08/19/ryan-braun-discredit-urine-collector

 

More ETA:

So he brought up race and religion, and then made the statement that I paraphrased above. The implication that Laurenzi was an anti-semite was not as direct as I made it out to be, at least in the sense that race and religion was in the previous paragraph of Braun's statement.

 

Pathetic.

[BuckyBrewer61]

I’d be surprised if the average Joe Padre fan remembers all the drama that followed Braun’s suspension, much less enough of a contingent to boo audibly across the stadium. I figure they just think of him as a steroid user and boo for that reason, which is why it confuses me when so many others have done the exact same.

 

But perhaps I’m not giving opposing fans enough credit.

[B-Train]

Booing takes very little effort and intelligence.

[JosephC]

Lets keep in mind, too, that had the results of the first failed test never been leaked to the public (leaked...*tee hee*), Braun never would have gone on the public defensive. He would've failed the test, it would have been secret, he would've appealed and won, and that would've been it. Obviously, he still would've been caught in the later investigation, but the whole ordeal with him lying about it never would've happened.

 

He did something against the rules, obviously, but he was also put in a position where he pretty much had to lie about it, ESPECIALLY because his lawyer(s) believed there was a great chance he could win the appeal. If one of us, say, broke the law and went to court, yet our legal team felt strongly that we could win the case by pleading not guilty, 99.5% would lie and say we didn't do it.

 

Did he protest too much, yeah, probably. But the thing that people are pissed off about (pissed....*tee hee*) - the lying - would never have happened had the test result not been publicized. Braun was backed into a corner and, aside from perhaps the volume of his protest, did exactly what anyone else would do. He fought.

 

I forgot all about how his results were leaked! Was that ever investigated?

 

Yes. Not leaked by MLB. Was leaked by someone that Braun's legal team consulted when trying to find a loophole.

[A Swing and A Drive]

I think Braun would still be disliked by every non-Brewer fan even if none of the steroid stuff happened.

 

And its not just because of how good he is at baseball,

 

He simply has a certain air about him.

 

Call it whatever you like but he just comes off as that type of guy that orders bottle service at a posh nightclub and sits in the VIP section, looking down at everyone else like he is more entitled,

 

In fact I strongly dislike Bryce Harper for the same reason.

 

Brewer fans know that if Braun was on the Cards or Cubs they would hate him more than their other players.

[pacopete4]

Both Votto and Tulo, two of the guys he supposedly called to get behind him with the anti Semitic remarks, came out and said the phone calls never happened. So if it wasn’t said to those guys, it’d be really interesting to know if it was ever said.

 

I’d also love to see the list of players guys like who go after Braun. I’d almost guarantee there are questionable human beings on just about anyone’s list. But to each their own. In my profession, mistakes are a teaching tool. So far, it seems as though by all his charitable work, calling and reaching out to fans, and being a good clubhouse guy that he’s lived and learned. I can get behind that because not everyone does that.

[homer]

Implying that the collector was anti-semitic was beyond pathetic.

 

Was that ever substantiated?

 

I could swear it was said by him in a published interview. I might have even seen him say it. I guess I'm not 100% sure, but I think the exact quote was something like "why he would leave the sample sit so long, I don't know - maybe it's because he's a Cub fan, maybe he's an anti-semite, whatever - but it does appear pretty suspicious".

 

ETA: Could also be it was in a report of what people say he told them, as opposed to Braun saying it publicly himself. In any case, I vaguely remember a quote like that being attributed to Braun. There were lots of reports on that from mainstream sources:

 

https://www.si.com/si-wire/2013/08/19/ryan-braun-discredit-urine-collector

 

More ETA:

So he brought up race and religion, and then made the statement that I paraphrased above. The implication that Laurenzi was an anti-semite was not as direct as I made it out to be, at least in the sense that race and religion was in the previous paragraph of Braun's statement.

 

Pathetic.

 

 

He never said it in an interview.

 

Here is where it originated:

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/9579944/ryan-braun-lobbied-veteran-players-support-appeal-sources-say

 

Tulowitzki denied that the disgraced Brewers star accused Laurenzi of being an anti-Semite or a Cubs fan during the appeals process.

 

"He never tried to change my opinion of the subject or anything like that," Tulowitzki told Yahoo! Sports. "It was more, 'Hey, how is this going? Is this taking a toll on you?'"

[coolhandluke121]

Both Votto and Tulo, two of the guys he supposedly called to get behind him, came out and said the phone calls never happened. So if it wasn’t said to those guys, it’d be really interesting to know if it was ever said.

 

Regardless of that, this very public interview is more than damning enough:

 

"When FedEx received the samples, it then creates a chain of custody at the FedEx location where he eventually brought my sample to," Braun said in the statement. "It would have been stored in a temperature-controlled environment, and FedEx is used to handling clinical packaging. But most importantly, you then would become a number and no longer a name. So when we provide our samples, there is a number and no longer a name associated with the sample. That way there can't be any bias -- whether it's with FedEx, while it's traveling, at the lab in Montreal, in any way -- based on somebody's race, religion, ethnicity, what team they play for, whatever the case may be. As players, the confidentiality of this process is extremely important. It's always been extremely important, because the only way for the process to succeed is for the confidentiality and the chain of custody to work.

 

"Why he didn't bring it in, I don't know. On the day that he did finally bring it in, FedEx opened at 7:30. Why didn't he bring it in until 1:30? I can't answer that question. Why was there zero documentation? What could have possibly happened to it during that 44-hour period? There were a lot of things that we learned about the collector, about the collection process, about the way that the entire thing worked that made us very concerned and very suspicious about what could have actually happened."

 

It should not be remotely hard to understand why people hate Ryan Braun. If you don't, fine, but don't expect others not to.

[MNBrew]

But not everybody else would have cheated in the first place, and people are totally justified in despising anyone who does. I'm glad some people still have a moral compass that's not made of Jell-o. Cheaters deserve all the scorn they get and then some.

I 100% agree with some of your points, both here and in some of your other posts. I also feel like there's something not so completely black-and-white floating in this post that points to a bigger philosophical point to consider.

 

The moral compass point is a good one. I agree big-time. However, there's a line somewhere in here and I'm not clear exactly where. Should we be hating/scorning every cheater. . . .or just those whose fallible ways have been publicly reported? How do we know someone's not a cheater vs. someone who just hasn't yet been exposed as one?

 

Should we hate/scorn Gaylord Perry? He cheated endlessly, denied it endlessly, finally got caught, and yet he's in the HOF. Greenies & amphetamines are earlier generations' steroid equivalent because they're "uppers" that helped players recover sooner to be ready for the next game. Plenty of HOFers took those. Should they be expelled for essentially compromising the game's competitive balance/integrity and numbers like any of these "steroid era" guys? Paul Molitor & Willie Stargell did cocaine & that's also an upper. Molitor's same-year HOF inductee, Dennis Eckersley, essentially stole teammate Rick Manning's wife out from under him.

 

A-Rod was nothing short of vilified -- and by many reports, seemingly rightly so -- for the type of person he was before, during, & after his suspension until he retired. And I could be wrong, but I don't recall him issuing the public apology that Braun did.

 

Since he was re-busted in the Biogenesis investigation, Braun admitted his wrong and apologized publicly, was admittedly publicly humbled to a degree I think any of us hope we'd never be, served his time, and has been nothing short of a model teammate and team ambassador. What more is he supposed to do? I'm not going to my grave thinking Braun is the best human being ever, but there's something to be said for people deserving a second chance, which he's rightly been given. . . . I still want him to end up the best-performing Brewers player ever because I believe his ability might just put him in that position -- not because I'm a Braun fanatic (which I'm not, though yes, I do like him a lot as a player) but because the Brewers would be a better team as a result. . . . One could also argue that whatever he took didn't necessarily impact his performance, as his 2012 was arguably better than his MVP 2011, yet in 2012 he was reported to be the most-tested guy in MLB.

 

The moral compass is certainly something that's eroded significantly in our society compared to past generations. But media-influenced knee-jerk reactions and holier-than-thou morality have gained a much bigger place, and I don't think we're better off for that.

[coolhandluke121]

 

 

He never said it in an interview.

 

 

But he listed it first among his reasons why it's important that a sample be delivered immediately to preserve confidentiality, and then goes on to immediately say there are things they learned about Laurenzi that made them very concerned. He's not dumb. He knew what he was implying.

[BrewersSuperCollector]

I can remember everyone one of the stories surrounding the players busted for PED’s. Many came clean and manned up. Braun lied about it and still to this day still never gave the whole story of what happened.

[LouisEly]

People lie every day.

Yep. There's even a book about it (a book that, in my industry, is a must-read at some companies).

 

The moral compass is certainly something that's eroded significantly in our society compared to past generations. But media-influenced knee-jerk reactions and holier-than-thou morality have gained a much bigger place, and I don't think we're better off for that.

+1000. Don't forget the "fueled by the anonymity of the internet & social media" component of that either.

[coolhandluke121]

I 100% agree with some of your points, both here and in some of your other posts. I also feel like there's something not so completely black-and-white floating in this post that points to a bigger philosophical point to consider.

 

The moral compass point is a good one. I agree big-time. However, there's a line somewhere in here and I'm not clear exactly where. Should we be hating/scorning every cheater. . . .or just those whose fallible ways have been publicly reported? How do we know someone's not a cheater vs. someone who just hasn't yet been exposed as one?

 

Should we hate/scorn Gaylord Perry? He cheated endlessly, denied it endlessly, finally got caught, and yet he's in the HOF. Greenies & amphetamines are earlier generations' steroid equivalent because they're "uppers" that helped players recover sooner to be ready for the next game. Plenty of HOFers took those. Should they be expelled for essentially compromising the game's competitive balance/integrity and numbers like any of these "steroid era" guys? Paul Molitor & Willie Stargell did cocaine & that's also an upper. Molitor's same-year HOF inductee, Dennis Eckersley, essentially stole teammate Rick Manning's wife out from under him.

 

A-Rod was nothing short of vilified -- and by many reports, seemingly rightly so -- for the type of person he was before, during, & after his suspension until he retired. And I could be wrong, but I don't recall him issuing the public apology that Braun did.

 

Since he was re-busted in the Biogenesis investigation, Braun admitted his wrong and apologized publicly, was admittedly publicly humbled to a degree I think any of us hope we'd never be, served his time, and has been nothing short of a model teammate and team ambassador. What more is he supposed to do? I'm not going to my grave thinking Braun is the best human being ever, but there's something to be said for people deserving a second chance, which he's rightly been given. . . . I still want him to end up the best-performing Brewers player ever because I believe his ability might just put him in that position -- not because I'm a Braun fanatic (which I'm not, though yes, I do like him a lot as a player) but because the Brewers would be a better team as a result. . . . One could also argue that whatever he took didn't necessarily impact his performance, as his 2012 was arguably better than his MVP 2011, yet in 2012 he was reported to be the most-tested guy in MLB.

 

The moral compass is certainly something that's eroded significantly in our society compared to past generations. But media-influenced knee-jerk reactions and holier-than-thou morality have gained a much bigger place, and I don't think we're better off for that.

 

Good post. However, it's not really holier-than-thou morality. It's not even saying anything about me, really. It's saying that my personal preference is players who haven't cheated, and that is my right. I despise him, and I would expect others to despise me if I cheated at something that basically ruins the spirit of something they care about. All I know or care to know about him is as a baseball player, and that's a permanent part of his identity now.

 

Shame plays an important role in society, like it or not. We've tilted too far towards making it a 4-letter word. People have a right to dislike cheaters. I don't see how that's even debatable. And I would argue that letting him play is that second chance. I don't think people are entitled to a second chance to win back people's hearts and minds at all. That's different. A criminal can be rehabilitated and given a second chance in society; that doesn't mean the people he or she wronged should EVER be told they should forgive him or stop hating him. Nobody has a right to tell them that or ask for an explanation; they can decide it on their own if they wish, but it's their business.

[pacopete4]

We really need to move past this idea that if you don’t agree with someone that they’re trying to tell you what you should think or how one should behave. People can have differing opinions and share them without that being what the conversation turns to. The whole point of the thread was to figure out why many years later that some fans hold such hatred for a baseball player. Nothing more than that. Some of this feels more like Custers last stand.

[82brewcrew82]

Absolutely shame plays an important role in society. So do humility, humbleness and forgiveness. Love him, hate him, want him gone or want him to retire a Brewer, it really doesn't matter. The minute he did what he did I lost interest in him as a person. I don't love him or hate him or particularly care what he does off the field. I don't feel it's my job to judge him in any way and he has to deal with the consequences of what he did. Hate is a very strong emotion and for anyone to hold on to hate for that amount of time is strange to me. I just hope he has a few more walk off dingers left in him.

[pacopete4]

I just hope he has a few more walk off dingers left in him.

The rest of your post was great too but this statement we can all get behind.

[coolhandluke121]

We really need to move past this idea that if you don’t agree with someone that they’re trying to tell you what you should think or how one should behave.

 

There are several posts in here basically telling people that they shouldn't hate Braun. Everyone who dislikes it has made it patently clear why they do. What's there to debate? It's not anyone's place to tell people they need to move on and forget about it, and pointing out other bad things that other people have done is completely irrelevant. His history is a good enough reason to dislike him. It's no mystery.