Okay, it's an easy joke, but I can't resist a good pun. Major League Baseball did a piss poor job of handling Ryan Braun's drug test.
According to press reports, the guy who took the sample couldn't find a Fed Ex drop box so he kept it in his basement over the weekend.
Major League Baseball (read: the owners) are now all bent out of shape that their flawed system is being called into question. But the whole mess lands squarely in the sample cup of the owners.
They ignored the drug problem for years while fabricated performances were boosting attendance and bolstering television and other revenues. Then when it tarnished the game and threatened revenues, the owners overreacted with a draconian system that requires accused players to prove their own innocence.
Baseball went from Haight-Ashbury in the 1960s to Salem, Mass. in the 1690s.
Little things like chain of evidence are "technicalities" to the owners while destroying a player's reputation and costing him millions in fines and potential revenue from endorsements matters little to them as long as they can look tough on performance-enhancing drugs.
The lax standards for caring for samples are only part of the problem. Another is that the presence of a performance-enhancing drug is all the league needs to fine and suspend the player. No explanation or extenuating circumstances are entertained. If the drug is present, it's presumed that it is to enhance performance on the field.
If you're going to have a system that can mete out penalties costing a player his reputation and millions in lost income, then that system should contain all the protections available under our constitution, as if the player is being charged in a real court of law.
Performance-enhancing drugs are cheating, and they're bad for any sport. But trampling on the rights of the accused is worse.
