Ryan Braun wins doping trial due to late delivery

Ryan Braun / Dishfunctional / Flickr

On February 23th 2012 there was a case to find out if Ryan Braun had taken drugs to enhance his performance. The sample was taken by Dino Laurenzi Jr. October 1st after a playoff game between Milwaukee Brewers and Arizona Diamondbacks at Miller Park. The case was overturned, because the sample wasn’t sent directly to the laboratory, but first 44 hours after it was taken.

Laurenzi was supposed to take the sample to a Fed Ex office to send it, but it was Saturday and he thought none were open. He said there was, “… no FedEx office located within 50 miles of Miller Park that would ship packages that day or Sunday,” to Suntimes.com. Instead, Laurenzi stored it in his basement in a cool place following protocol. He sent it the following Monday afternoon.

Braun won the three-person panel appeal with a two to one vote. Rob Manfred, the executive vice president for labor relations, voted to accuse him. Michael Weiner, who represented the players union, voted to let him off. The tiebreaker was Shyam Das, arbitrator between the management and the players union. He also voted to let Braun off.

Manfred and MLB management disagreed with Das’ decision. Baseball officials say it’s the first time a drug suspension has been overturned. "As a part of our drug testing program, the commissioner's office and the players' association agreed to a neutral third party review for instances that are under dispute. While we have always respected that process, Major League Baseball vehemently disagrees with the decision rendered today by arbitrator Shyam Das," said Manfred to ESPN.com

On Friday February 24th Braun tried to raise questions about the testing process. He called the process, “fatally flawed,” and said there was numerous Fed Ex offices nearby that were open after the game ended. “There were a lot of things that we learned about the collector, about the collection process, about the way the entire thing works, that made us very concerned and very suspicious about what could have actually happened,” Braun said to NYTimes.com

Maybe there was accident during the testing process as Gary Wadler, a former high-ranking official in the World Anti-Doping Agency, said, “It’s a highly scientific process, and no one is entirely perfect.” Or Braun had actually taken drugs to enhance his perfomance. Either way he is free to play for now.