On March 17th in Tempe Arizona, since his name was announced at the begging of the game, Ryan Braun (last year's league MVP) was rained down with boos from the inconsiderate, unjust Angels fans. Although the fans may have been acting like complete assholes at least the Angels players understood the situation and responded like responsible individuals, outfielder Vernon Wells told the press,
In this game — or in life — if anybody can find a negative, they love to take advantage of it -- In this society, we've gotten to the point where the negative is glorified. It's unfortunate. -- Any time your name is associated with it, you'll hear about it, -- You know that coming in. When something like that goes public, you'll hear about it the rest of your career. I think he'll be one of those guys that can deal with it.
The unfortunate thing about being accused of cheating in the MLB is that, whether guilty or not, the allegations will follow you for the rest of your career and could prevent you from attaining goals like the hall of fame. Why is this?
Because of the extreme reliance on myth in the MLB. The fact is that as far as we known Ryan Braun has never used steroids, there is no information that says otherwise, and therefore labeling him as a cheater and treating him as thus falls into the category of myth.
Braun told ESPN that, "don’t think anything of it. That’s a story for you guys.”, although he is currently being a good sport about the situation, will the boos and jeers ever end? And can a player put up with something like that for their entire career without it effecting their game? So far this spring pre-season Braun
is 1 for 15 at the plate, lets hope he's not going to pull a Tiger Woods on us.
There's something to be said about fans that go right for the jugular of an MVP player with so much more aggression than someone who may have tested positive for performance enhancing drugs but is significantly less of a commodity to the team than a Ryan Braun-esque figure. It's tough, but that seems to be what all-star players are forced to cope with when their names come under scrutiny. The only possible way of clearing his name would be to essentially have him retake the drug test and piss clean. Otherwise this might linger with him for the rest of his career.
ReplyDeleteIts unfortunate but I believe Braun's name will be tainted forever even though he was not found "guilty" of using steroids and cheating, and I also believe that many fans being the way they are, fanatics, will not stop harassing Braun for being accused of using steroids. I like the correlation of the public assuming he was using steroids is a myth, not fact as the fans are treating it.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree. When a player is accused of using performance enhancing drugs their name is attached to that assumption forever, whether they were proven guilty or not. It's an unfortunate case for Braun considering fans do not take that lightly and neither does the MLB.
ReplyDeleteI believe that fans will eventually get over Braun's alleged actions. You mentioned Tiger Woods, who went through a lot of scrutiny himself. Today, Tiger Woods has many loyal fans who continue to cheer him on, despite his awful actions. It will just take some time for Ryan Braun's naysayers to settle down.
ReplyDeleteI think you bring up a lot of good points here. It does not make sense that once someone is accused of something, we automatically label them guilty in our minds. Maybe it is human nature, or subconscious, but I feel like even if someone is proven innocent always associate them with the crime. Like Wells said, I hope he can handle it. Although fan taunting can probably get annoying, he is still a famous MLB player, so at least hes got that going.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it is human nature to prey on the negative aspects of someone so that they can beat them down. I never agreed with judging a professional athlete by his personal life decisions and basing your appreciation for their talent off that. Granted in this case that personal life decision would have effected his games, he was not declared guilty so fans should forget it and move on. Unfortunately, I don't see that happening. People like to have something to gossip about.
DeleteThe case was definitely an interesting one to follow. I think you're right that a lot of myths got created from it. When this was all going down, my friend kept bringing up how believable the story was that came from the guy who handled Braun's urine sample. On the other hand, as Braun's lawyer noted, the guy who handled his sample had a fair chance to present his argument in court. The jury voted that Braun was innocent, so that's how he got charged. Still though, the truth of whether or not he ever took steroids remains unseen. Any stories claiming the truth can only be viewed as myths.
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