Braun declares victory

PHOENIX -- Ryan Braun stood a few feet from the batter's box and hit back at those he believes tarnished his name and image. The 2011 NL MVP insisted Friday that he always believed his 50-game suspension for a positive drug test would be overturned. "We won," he said with conviction, "because the truth is on my side. The truth is always relevant, and at the end of the day, the truth prevailed."

Braun's suspension was overturned Thursday by an arbitrator. He is the first major-leaguer to successfully challenge a drug-related penalty in a grievance.

"There were a lot of times where I wanted to come out and tell the entire story, attack everybody as I've been attacked, as my name has been dragged through the mud, as everything in my entire life has been called into question," Braun said.

Braun, 28, expressed disappointment that the confidentiality of his urine test was broken. ESPN first reported his failed test for a high testosterone level in October. Braun, who batted .332 with 33 homers and 111 RBIs last year, learned Oct. 19 that his sample tested "three times" the level of any previous specimen, a fact that he said both startled and confused him. He said he began "a humanistic" defense by showing documentation that he never gained a pound, his running times did not improve and he didn't get any stronger.

"I truly believe in my heart and I would bet my life that this substance never entered my body at any point," he said.

Braun cited a possible "chain of custody" problem with his sample, which was collected Oct. 1 but not delivered to Federal Express until Oct. 3. Baseball's drug agreement calls for samples to be delivered to FedEx on the same day they are collected.

"I honestly don't know what happened to it [the urine sample] for that 44-hour period," he said. "There are a lot of different things that could have possibly happened. There are a lot of things that we heard about the collection process, the collector and some other people involved in the process that have been concerning to us. But as I've dealt with the situation, I know what it's like to be wrongly accused of something, so for me to wrongly accuse somebody wouldn't help."

Braun said he was a "victim" of a "fatally flawed" testing system and that there is an inherent presumed guilt within the process.

"As players, we're held to a standard of 100 percent perfection regarding the program, and everybody else associated with that program should be held to the same standard," he said. "We're a part of a process where you're 100 percent guilty until proven innocent. It's the opposite of the American judicial system.

"This is my livelihood. This is my integrity. This is my character. This is everything I have ever worked for in my life being called into question. We need to make sure we get it right. If you're going to be in a position where you're 100 percent guilty until innocent, you can't mess up."

Braun said he was a "victim" of a "fatally flawed" testing system and that there is an inherent presumed guilt within the process. He did not rule out the chance that someone may have tampered with his sample.

And the head of the World Anti-Doping Agency, David Howman, said that under his agency's rules, Braun still would have had to show that the departure from the rules was related to the test result.

"Our program is not 'fatally flawed,' " MLB executive vice president Rob Manfred said. "Changes will be made promptly to clarify the instructions provided to collectors."-- AP

Arbitrator Shyam Das threw out Braun's ban Thursday. Das, who has been baseball's independent arbitrator since 2000, informed the sides of his decision but did not give them a written opinion. He has 30 days to do so.