Kirk Gibson, a manager of a Major League Baseball team, has called out Ryan Braun. He's super pissed at Braun and went so far as to mention how his wife blames Braun personally for stealing a World Series appearance from the Diamondbacks. Do you see how crazy this PED scandal is making people?
This is what it has made a grown man—an adult!—most famous for hobbling around the bases thanks to a cortisone shot and painkillers, say about another adult:
"If I get a chance to see Braun, I've got a question for him right to his face, you know?" Gibson said Sunday before a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. "Is he about rehearsed (enough) by now, you think? About ready to come out? He's probably practicing at the theater school somewhere. Just you look at how things like that can influence people's opportunities and an opportunity to do something like that."
That's a pretty aggressive thing for a manager to say about an opposing player. So aggressive that his point, which is a fair one, is lost in the testosterone. Someone announced that Ryan Braun is going to apologize. Why not just apologize if you feel it's warranted? Why drag this thing out even more? It's just silly and feels disingenuous. Gibson's opinion is probably not far off from most others' around the league. A lot of people are angry for being lied to and angry for being cheated. Gibson is both.
Braun hit .500 during a five-game victory by the Brewers over Gibson's Diamondbacks. He went 2 for 3 with a walk and a run scored during a 3-2, 10-inning Milwaukee victory in the deciding Game 5. That month, Braun would test positive under Major League Baseball's drug program.
How mad was Gibson about Braun? He just started talking about it, unprompted. Reporters were asking him about his famous home run—a moment he feels is diminished by PED users like Braun—and he just started talking about it, unprompted. More than anything, most players and managers like Gibson want to win. It's not that PED use is necessarily morally offensive, it's just salt in the wound.
Photo credit: Getty
Kirk Gibson: 'Cheaters' rob others [AP, ESPN]