Disgraced Milwaukee Brewers slugger Ryan Braun, who has been suspended for the remainder of the season for violating Major League Baseball’s drug policy, reportedly tried to claim the person who collected his urine, which had tested positive for a banned substance, was anti-Semitic and a Cubs fan.
ESPN first reported the news:
According to sources, Braun called veteran players around baseball privately at that time to lobby for their support. In the calls — confirmed by three sources — Braun told other players that in the preparation for his appeal, some information had become known about the collector of his urine sample, Dino Laurenzi Jr., including that he was a Cubs fan — with the implication he might work against Braun, who played for a division rival of the Cubs.
Braun, who is Jewish, also told the players that he had been told the collector was an anti-Semite.
Yahoo! sports also reported and independently verified Braun’s conversations.
Braun was initially given a 50-game suspension for using performance-enhancing drugs, but won his appeal before the 2012 season when an arbiter ruled that the urine collector made a “chain-of-custody” error by not taking Braun’s urine sample, which tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs, directly to FedEx because there was not one within a “reasonable distance” that would ship the urine sample.
The urine collector went to an appropriate FedEx the morning after the night in question, after he had stored the sample at his home for the evening. Braun is the only MLB player who has successfully appealed a performance-enhancing-drugs related suspension. Braun had said he would bet his life that he did not take any performance enhancing drugs then, but will now reportedly admit and apologize for using performance enhancing drugs after he was sued by a former friend who has alleged he took performance-enhancing drugs dating back to his days in college.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.