Souhan: Braun's punishment is symbol of baseball's progress

I know, I know, you despise Ryan Braun. And you should.

He cheated, which Americans often forgive, but then he lied about it, which narrows his prospects for popularity. And while he lied, he looked us in the collective eye and threw an innocent man under the particular bus that tramples the innocent, so Braun is hereby sentenced to the complex of virtual solitary confinement cells that hold Lance Armstrong, Barry Bonds and the portion of Alex Rodriguez?s brain that once formed coherent thoughts.

You hate Ryan Braun, which is justified, even convenient, because he plays for a rival team in Minnesota?s rival state, but the hatred of fans and writers and even his peers obscures what?s important.

It?s not the crime. It?s the punishment.

Think of Braun the way you think of other white-collar criminals, like the crooks on Wall Street. You can?t erase their riches, can?t keep them from wiping the guilt sweat from their brows with thousand-dollar bills. The best that the powers-that-be can do is damage their reputations and use their stories to stump for harsher punishments for the next generation of cheaters.

Baseball is doing that, or at least trying, and that?s the real story here. There will always be cheaters in sports, just as there will always be cheaters and frauds on Wall Street and in Congress. Baseball is doing more to pursue and punish its drug cheats than our government did to punish the banks and financiers that destroyed our economy, and doing so at great risk to its own product.

Baseball is a business that relies on ratings, attendance and the health of its franchises. Punishing Braun, and exposing him as a user of performance-enhancing drugs, damages ratings, attendance and the health of the franchise baseball?s commissioner once owned.

What other major North American sport has so eagerly flogged itself, to its own detriment?

Source: http://www.startribune.com/sports/217259471.html

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