#NerdsUnite: Play on playa! (Breaking down the world of sports so you don't have to!)
<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Derek - I met him when I was professor for a day at CSUF. Really rad dude, and he wants to come on board to help explain to us nerdy folk the wild world of sports. Smart dude, and knows his shizzy shiznat. I only have one more thing left to say ... HIT IT DEREK!!!</editorsnote>
#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @DerekJ_AllDay
Hello everyone! Welcome back to my sports corner, and thanks for reading! Good luck to everyone participating in their fantasy football championship games over these next two weeks. I lost my league and my bragging rights against all my friends, but I am also playing to win the title for a pay league on ESPN.com. So all is not lost!
The shit has hit the fan for Major League Baseball. The iconic Milwaukee Brewer, Ryan Braun, recently tested positive for the use of illegal performance enhancing drugs. Braun won the Nation League Most Valuable Player award last year and lead his team to an NL Central division win. He brings everything to the table as a player and is one of the best in all of baseball.
This isn't the first time that baseball has had an issue with the use of steroids. Most think of Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa battling it out for the home run crown in 1998. McGwire eventually won putting up 70 home runs and setting the single season record. Later we all found out that McGwire set the record while using performance enhancing steroids. Barry Bonds came around a few years after McGwire and again set the single season home run record; all under the use of steroids. Since then the league has greatly increased their drug testing program, and many players have been given 50 game suspensions when testing positive. More importantly, when you test positive you are put under more scrutiny than most people are capable of handling.
Steroids have been a serious stigma in baseball since I became a fan, and quite frankly nothing really surprises me anymore. Although, I will say that this is probably the most surprising positive test we have dealt with. Since Braun came into the league he has always been a poster boy of good behavior for the league. He put up phenomenal numbers and the fans in Milwaukee go absolutely bat shit crazy for this guy. He had that charm, and that seemingly good nature that told you he would never betray the game or his fans by using steroids.
There is a slight glimmer of hope revolving around the Ryan Braun situation, and that is because he is appealing his positive test and the 50 game suspension the subsequently follows. There is a slight possibility that his test was a false positive, or that the test could have shown a positive result due to the use of certain medications; which is what Braun claims. Rumors have spread on the internet that the positive test was due to increased testosterone caused by herpes medication, but this has not been proven and likely came from a source as reliable as TMZ. No player has ever had a successful appeal so it is hard to really take him seriously, but there is a first time for everything.
As a fan of the game of baseball I hate seeing these clowns ruin the integrity of the league for all of the other athletes who are competing under fair circumstances. Although, there is no doubt at all that the league has cleaned up its act quite a bit more since 1998 when I first became a fan so there is most certainly hope for MLB to completely clean up the game. A lot less people are using steroids, and if they are using they seem to all be getting caught. Steroids in sports, and especially baseball, is an extremely hot button issue and has really been one of the longer controversies in sports of my generation.
We can all take consolation in the fact that mega superstars like Albert Pujols, Jim Thome, Jose Reyes, Justin Verlander, Jered Weaver and so on have never turned up with a positive steroid test and many other super stars can be added to the list with them. Is the game really as tainted as the media makes it appear?
Tweet your thoughts @DerekJ_AllDay and give me your opinion on the steroids situation in baseball. Brewers fans I'm looking at you!!