Braun suspended but not for long enough

                                                                                                                               AP
Milwaukee Brewers' Ryan Braun speaks during a press conference
at spring training on Feb. 24, 2012, in Phoenix.

     Here we go again.
     Milwauee Brewers star Ryan Braun has been suspended without pay for the remainder of the 2013 season and postseason, Major League Baseball announced on Monday.
     Braun, the National League MVP in 2011, will miss at least 65 games for violating the league’s drug program and labor contract.
     It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.
     Braun’s suspension comes less than two years after the former University of Miami star reportedly tested positive for an elevated level of testosterone in his urine in October 2011. Braun appealed the 50-game suspension he was facing at the time and became the first MLB player to challenge a drug suspension and win, after questions were raised about how his sample was originally mishandled.
     Despite the fact that Braun won his appeal, his name was never truly cleared.
     Time after time, Braun denied any use of performance-enhancing drugs to the media and maintained his innocence throughout the entire process. Earlier this year, he claimed that his relationship with Tony Bosch, the operator of Biogenesis, the Florida clinic linked to providing PEDs to more than a dozen MLB players, was purely to use Bosch as a consultant during his appeal for the positive test in 2011.
     “We won, because the truth is on my side,” Braun said nearly two years ago. “The truth is always relevant, and at the end of the day, the truth prevailed.”
     Yet, as his 65-game suspension was announced Monday, the 29-year-old didn’t fight it. In fact, he publicly accepted his punishment, stating that he has “made some mistakes” and is “willing to accept the consequences of those actions.”
     It sounds like a much different tune than the one he was singing in 2011. What changed between two years ago and now?
     Presumably, the MLB had much more evidence on Braun this time around. So much so that instead of putting up the slightest fight, Braun caved and accepted his punishment. Odds are nobody will ever know the exact evidence MLB had against the 2007 NL Rookie of the Year, which will remain private as a part of the deal Braun struck with the league.
     The most troubling part of the ordeal isn’t that he was accused of taking PEDs in 2011 or that it occured during the season in which he won MVP. It isn’t that he was caught and suspended this year. And although sometimes the cover-up is worse than the crime, it isn’t that Braun lied about it, either.
     The most troubling part is the punishment levied by the MLB. 65 games. The rest of a season in which the Brewers sit in last place in the NL Central and have no hopes of making the playoffs.
     Essentially Braun gets the rest of the year off to go do whatever he wants. Sure, it’ll cost him about $3 million of his $8.5 million salary this season, but what’s that to a guy who has already made nearly $20 million in his career and is set to receive $105 million by 2020?
     It’s not much more than a slap on the wrist in the big scheme of things. An expensive one, but a slap nonetheless.
     If Major League Baseball really wanted to rid itself of performance-enhancing drug use, then the punishments must get serious. Even the players agree.
     “I talked to a lot of the guys and we think the penalties aren’t harsh enough, really. They should step up the penalties even more,” Mariners pitcher Joe Saunders told the Associated Press on Monday. “That will really set the tell-tale sign that if you cheat and do get caught, you’re going to lose a lot of money. Braun’s deal that he made or whatever, it’s going to last 65 games. To me, it’s not enough. Next year he’s making even more money. I think it should have been a year’s suspension, at least.”
     The MLB prides itself way too much on history and its legacy, so there’s no way commissioner Bud Selig or anyone else in charge will take away home run records or MVP awards, although they probably should.        Realistically, that probably wouldn’t help either.
     Consider Lance Armstrong, the former 7-time Tour de France winner, who later admitted to PED use and had his titles taken away. He still considers himself a champion.
     And many of the players in the MLB consider Barry Bonds as the all-time home run leader, despite Bonds lying to a grand jury about his alleged steroid use.
     For history’s sake, these marks should be made blank. For the sake of the sport, more drastic measures are required.
     The bottom line is the only punishment that will affect players in the future is simple: money.
     Sending Braun on a 65-game vacation during a lost season won’t change anything. Make him repay some of the contract money or bonuses he earned while using performance-enhancing drugs, or give him a longer suspension than what’s left in a lost season.
     If not, then the message the MLB is trying to send is clear: if you cheat, lie about it and later get caught, the worst that will happen is a short vacation.