Shame on You, Ryan Braun! The Fans and The Game Deserve Better

With the suspension of Ryan Braun this week by Major League Baseball, get ready for the shoe, or should I say cleats, to fall on several other big stars of the game. The list behind Braun is long and it included Alex Rodriguez, as well. Baseball has a big problem and they have had it since the home run chase of Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa back in 1998.

What baseball wants are guys belting long home runs and often, but they want them to do it clean without the use of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs). Finding guys who can do that and staying clean is difficult. Oh, it looks great to see a ball blasted nearly 500 feet but thanks to a decade of PED use by players the question will always arise, "Is he on something?" It's a very unfair question for those guys who are clean but it now comes with the territory.

What Braun got this week is nowhere near what he should have gotten. This guy flat out lied about using the stuff a year ago and got away with it then and he is getting a hand slap now with only a suspension for the rest of the season.

What baseball needs to do is suspend these guys for two years without pay, terminate their contracts immediately, and let them become free agents in two years. I guarantee you teams will be reluctant to sign them simply because of their baggage and also because of their two year layoff from the game. Anyone who has played the game knows two years away from the game will diminish your skills immensely.

Major League Baseball must clean up their act or this great game will end up suspending itself.  The slap on the hand needs to be a punch in the face because that's what the fans just got again with Braun's "short" suspension.