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.

Chris Washburn: The legend burning to be

    Chris Washburn was going to be a legend of his time. He was picked third overall of the 1986 NBA draft by the Golden State Warriors. Unfortunately his talent wouldn't make it far past college because like his fellow draft-mates, he fell victim to the lure of drugs and alcohol.

    Washburn was always told how much of a spectacular kid he was. Throughout his youth he could do anything he wanted without any sort of punishment. “Anything that I did that was wrong, someone would take care of it,” Washburn recalled in a Yahoo news report. “Not having brothers and sisters, everything I did, I had to learn on a first-hand basis. When I did something dumb, instead of me taking the fall for that, they would keep cleaning it up, allowing me to have more rope.”

    He was accepted to N.C. State University on a basketball scholarship, despite scoring a 420 on the SAT, 400 of which were just for writing his name. Hours before practice you could find Washburn smoking Marijuana and drinking alcohol. He would show up to practice drunk and high, yet he would still manage to succeed. He scored 26 points in a game against the draft’s number one pick that year, Brad Daughtery.

    Washburn announced to his fellow teammates that he would be leaving N.C. State two years early so that he would be eligible for the NBA draft. Bennie Bolton, a teammate of Washburn, said in an interview at the time, “I think he is ready physically. But I think a lot of things will be thrown at him in pro basketball and I think Chris is going to have to be strong mentally. Chris is the type of person that likes to experience a lot of things. I’m concerned about Chris.”

Chris Washburn after being accepted to the Warriors. Photo
from Bleacher Report.

    Despite his teammates concerns, he decided to stick with his decision. The Golden State Warriors would draft Washburn, but George Karl, the team’s new coach wasn’t entirely optimistic, "We looked at Ron Harper, we looked at the rest," said Karl. "We saw this 6'11" guy with talent. We had to take him. And I think he'll be a good player, maybe, in three years. If he works. If he changes. But sometimes I wonder if we drafted the kind of player who will always break your heart."

    Washburn's time at Golden State left the team heartbroken. He lasted three months with the Warriors before he ended up in a drug rehab facility for a cocaine addiction. The Warriors would trade him to the Atlanta Hawks the next season. He didn’t do any better, averaging a mere two points per game. The drug problems didn't stop there either, in the 1988-89 season he would be suspended for a year after failing his drug test. In June of 1989 he was kicked out of the NBA for life after failing yet again another drug test.

    Washburn would try to clean up his life, but he couldn’t. He was either homeless or in a rehab center for the next ten years. Washburn’s mother asked him to carry around the address of her house so that police would know where to ship his body when he was found dead. Eventually Washburn became, “sick and tired of being sick and tired,” and decided to clean up his act for real this time. He swore off drugs and alcohol, and decided to open up his own mortgage business in Dallas. He now speaks regularly at drug addiction centers across the United States.

    Let Washburn’s story be a cautionary one to anyone interested in playing professional sports. His tale shows how drugs can quickly take you from the top of your game to rock bottom, with no way to get out.

Darryl Strawberry's career of unfilled potential

Darryl Strawberry was one of baseball’s best power hitters, but still he had a lot of potential that he never fulfilled. "He can be the most exciting player in the game when he feels like it. The situation is whether or not he feels like it," teammate Mackey Sasser said to ESPN.com. The pressure and expectations he faced early in his career was too much for him. "The drinking and drugging, that was a way of punishing myself and the fans, too," he said.

Strawberry didn’t turn up for the Dodgers final exhibition game in 1994. He wasn’t found until the day after, where he admitted that he had a drug problem. He entered the Betty Ford Center, where he stayed for 28 days treatment. He was tested positive for cocaine and was suspended 60 days from the Major League Baseball.

In 1995, Strawberry signed a contract with the Yankees, but they made it clear that, they had an eye on him. In only a few years, Strawberry faced multiple setbacks, including that of cancer.

Before the World Series in 1999 he was suspended four months because of drug possession, but he came back in time to help the Yankees win it. Right after the series ended, he was again arrested for drug possession. This time he was suspended for a whole year. In that year he underwent a lot of surgeries because of his cancer. After four days of heavy drug abuse, Strawberry was sentenced to stay two years in a drug treatment center. After a year he was thrown out because he had repeatedly broken the center’s rules. He was sentenced to stay 18 months at Gainesville Correctional Institution. He rejoined the Yankees in 2003, but left only three months later.

Not only did he have problems with drugs and cancer, but his family life was also a mess. In 1985, he married Lisa Andrews, but only two years later she wanted a divorce, because she said he had broken her nose the previous year. In 1993, Strawberry was arrested for hitting Charisse Simons which ended with them marrying December that year. Even after he was arrested for a sexual relationship with another patient at the Gainesville Correctional Institution, his wife stayed with him.

Strawberry’s baseball career was problems after problems. After he retired though, he started the Darryl Strawberry Foundation, which works for raising autism awareness. Because of all the experiences he had with problems, he is doing all he can to help people with troubles in their lives.
“I do know that in my life, all my successes, failures and experiences have brought me to where I am today. My strength and the reason that I am here today is proven through the experiences and conditions I have endured. The bat is retired but the true passion and purpose for my life is just beginning,” said Darryl Strawberry.