Did not expect this, but welcome news to Brewer's fans.

http://content.usatoday.com/communit...ension-drugs/1
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Big for the Brew Crew
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Heard it was because a courier didn't take positive test to fed ex building thought it was closed Saturday night. Huge win for Braun and the Brewers.
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This is HUGE for the Brew Crew. I must admit, I didn't think he had a chance in hell to win this appeal.
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Wow, didn't see that coming.
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I wonder how much Braun paid the courier to mess up the delivery :-)

Braun will always be a cheater in my book. Test positive, you are guilty. Stupid technicalities.
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The test administrator followed protocol, kept the specimen sealed and put it in the mail the next business day. Somehow, because protocol told him to wait until he can send it FedEx, Braun gets to walk because the sample stayed sealed for 2 days. :-)

I wonder if your attitude would be the same if he played for the Reds. :-)
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Yep. I don't like cheaters.
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Unfortunately, you like a lot of cheaters, just some of them haven't/won't be caught. :-)
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I watch Cheaters on TV all the time, and I've never seen Ryan Braun on it.

Good news for the Brew Crew.
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More power to him for finding a hole in the system. Now it can be fixed for future potential offenders.
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Pretty pathetic that a loophole like that allows him to get off. As for a 20:1 ratio in the sample (as stated in the article), it's pretty damning. The likelihood that it was tampered with is slim to none. If any of you have taken a drug test, you'd know that the sample is supposed to be sealed in front of you, and you have forms to sign which match up with the seal tag on the vial. Overnight storage in a refrigerator will NOT affect the results. The metabolites won't be created, nor destroyed in the sample. As I'm sure most of you know, samples are preserved in refrigeration for years, so overnight before shipping to the testing facility is not an issue at all.

Hopefully the loophole is closed and other cheaters like Braun get the punishment they deserve. Look for a lot of backlash if he has a poor season. As I've seen others state, I'd bet that he'll come up a lot in the "random" testing throughout the year. :-)
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There are reports coming out today that the only way to challenge a positive test is to challenge the process.
You cannot challenge the results.
It has to be done this way per the collective bargaining agreement between MLB and the Players association.
Braun was administered a second test immediately after he tested positive and that test came up clean.
Truth be told, his results should've never been leaked, we should all be none the wiser, and have nothing to quibble over!
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This is what chain of custody is all about, right?
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Aaron Rodgers says he's innocent so that's good enough for me.:-)
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I'm with Braun on this one, for one reason.
The rules are in place to handle the specimen.
The rules were broken.
A man's livelihood, career, and good name are riding in this sample. That's worth following technicalities to a tee. At least my life is worth that, and I feel that way about anyone else's life.
If someone in that chain is so flippant that they can't follow simple instructions, it shows to me that they're equally careless enough to let a sample be tainted, tampered with, misplaced, mislabeled, you name it.
If the system is broke, fix it.
If humans are too stupid to follow a few rules when a man's life is riding on it, then do away with the system lest even a single man be punished unjustly.
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Exactly. The end result is Braun appealed, based on a bargained procedure that was not followed, and won his appeal based on that lack of procedure being followed. If you want to ban based on the rules you have to follow the rules. :-)

Of course, Scott said it much more eloquently above. What can I say. I'm at work and I don't like to think that hard here. :-)
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Great post, Dom.:-)
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There is a possibility that Braun paid off the collector because he knew he would test positive. There's many things that could have happened. Braun gave a great speach today too. His attorneys groomed the hell out of him before today.
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Image
Like the three he passed during the regular season, or the one he passed immediately after the, "positive" test?
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