The hits just keep on coming for Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun in the wake of his 65-game suspension for involvement with a Miami Biogenesis clinic. Many of Braun’s current teammates have been questioned by the media, but it is a former teammate in Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Zack Greinke who is now making headlines.
According to Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times, Greinke is extremely disappointed by the entire situation. Greinke was Braun’s teammate in 2011 and part of 2012, and he was one of many who believed him when he said he was innocent of performance-enhancing drug allegations.
The main thing is, yeah, he lied to us. He forced us to lie for him, threw people under the bus in order to help himself out and didn’t care, blamed others for his mistakes and it’s just a lot of things you don’t expect from people.
Greinke could have been referencing Dino Laurenzi Jr., who took a drug-testing sample from Braun back in late 2011. The result of that test set the wheels in motion for Braun’s current suspension, as he was originally suspended for 50 games.
Braun got the suspension overturned due to a protocol breach in the handling of his sample, but he took the opportunity to bash Laurenzi publicly even though he had gotten away with something very serious.
According to Hernandez, Greinke said that Braun put up a very convincing front:
Oh, yeah, 100% believed him. Everything was so convincing. He had people to blame. He seemed like a really good guy. He was a good teammate at the time. You don’t know the guys that he was pinning it on. I’m not positive, but I think everyone 100% believed him at the time. Especially the next year, he looked just as good as the year before. His numbers his whole career, Hall of Fame numbers. How could you not believe him? He was so convincing.
While Braun’s history with performance-enhancing drugs calls into question the elite numbers he has put up over the course of his career, Greinke believes that the perception of Braun as a person is even more important.
Not even talking about the player. It’s just the person. Just the fact that he was willing to use anyone that got in his path. The closer you were to him, the more he would use you. It’s just disappointing that a human being could be like that.
Greinke believes Braun owes a lot of people an apology, saying, “The fact that even to this day he hasn’t had a real apology is really upsetting to me. I thought about it a bunch. He still hasn’t really apologized.”
Greinke‘s sentiments are likely shared by many of the players and fans who believed Braun over the past year.
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