Baseball star and Malibu resident Ryan Braun will soon fly to New York to accept his 2011 National League Most Valuable Player Award on Saturday. Braun then faces an arbitration panel, also in New York, to determine whether he should be suspended next season for banned substance use.
By Paul Sisolak / Special to The Malibu Times
A spokesman for Milwaukee Brewers standout Ryan Braun said the star left fielder will attend a ceremony in New York City on Saturday to receive his 2011 National League MVP award, but declined to comment on Braun’s arbitration hearing soon after, also in New York, over illegal substance accusations that could cost him a 50-game suspension.
Braun, 28, was named MVP on Nov. 22 after a big season in which he posted a .332 batting average, hit 33 home runs and drove in 111 RBIs. A little more than two weeks later, news leaked that Braun had failed a test for banned substances.
If Braun is found guilty by the 3-member arbiter panel, he would be allowed to take part in spring training next month, but then ordered to the dugout when the 2012 MLB season begins for a 50-game suspension.
While it has been established that the offending substance was not a steroid, reports ranging from TMZ, Sports Illustrated and the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel have all confirmed that Braun tested positive for taking an unnamed drug. Test results allegedly revealed that his testosterone levels were triple the normal level.
Braun has maintained he is innocent, and said the positive test was due to medication he was prescribed for a personal medical problem. Although Braun has contended that he didn’t deliberately take any performance-enhancing drugs, strict league rules still prohibit players from taking any banned drugs or substances, even if accidentally.
Braun spokesman Matthew Hiltzik, of New York City-based Hiltzik Strategies, stood by a statement released by his offices in Dec. 2011 denouncing the charges.
“There are highly unusual circumstances surrounding this case which will support Ryan’s complete innocence and demonstrate there was absolutely no intentional violation of the program,” Hiltzik wrote in an email to The Malibu Times. “While Ryan has impeccable character and no previous history, unfortunately, because of the process we have to maintain confidentiality and are not able to discuss it any further, but we are confident he will ultimately be exonerated.”
Hiltzik would not provide any further comment about Braun’s expected involvement in the arbitration hearings, nor what approach his attorneys might take pending a possible appeal of a guilty verdict.
Braun’s case is somewhat unique because he’s been hit with the drug charges even though the test results were leaked and obtained unofficially.
An appeal of the verdict could be a possibility, since the leaked results may violate MLB’s drug testing privacy policies.
Still, should Braun be found guilty, several reports have stated that it is unlikely the conviction will be overturned. At least a dozen MLB players have appealed positive drug tests since those regulations went into place nine years ago, without success.
In addition to receiving this year’s MVP title, Braun was named the MLB’s Rookie of the Year in 2007. He’s lived in Malibu since 2009, when he purchased a foreclosed home in Malibu for nearly $5 million. Braun appeared on the cover of the January/February issue of Malibu Times Magazine.