Ryan Braun Allegedly Called Urine Sample Collector Anti-Semite, Cubs Fan

By Chuck Sudo in News on Aug 19, 2013 3:45PM

Photo credit: Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

Milwaukee Brewers third baseman Ryan Braun, who accepted a 65-game suspension from Major League Baseball for his involvement in the Biogenesis performance-enhancing drug scandal, is believed to have called other baseball stars in an attempt to discredit the man who collected his urine sample that tested positive for PEDs in 2011 as anti-Semitic and a fan of the Brewers division rivals, the Chicago Cubs, with the implication the tester may be working for the team.

ESPN reports Braun reached in February 2012 out to stars such as Cincinnati Reds first baseman Joey Votto, Colorado Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki and Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp, the runner-up to Braun in 2011 NL MVP voting, for support in the anticipation the appeal of his positive test would be rejected. An arbitration panel ruled in favor of Braun, whose attorneys argued the collector of his urine sample, Dino Laurenzi Jr., improperly handled and stored it before sending it to testers.

After Braun won his appeal, he would only refer to Laurenzi obliquely.

"When FedEx received the samples, it then creates a chain of custody at the FedEx location where he eventually brought my sample to," Braun said in the statement. "It would have been stored in a temperature-controlled environment, and FedEx is used to handling clinical packaging. But most importantly, you then would become a number and no longer a name. So when we provide our samples, there is a number and no longer a name associated with the sample. That way there can't be any bias -- whether it's with FedEx, while it's traveling, at the lab in Montreal, in any way -- based on somebody's race, religion, ethnicity, what team they play for, whatever the case may be. As players, the confidentiality of this process is extremely important. It's always been extremely important, because the only way for the process to succeed is for the confidentiality and the chain of custody to work.

"Why he didn't bring it in, I don't know. On the day that he did finally bring it in, FedEx opened at 7:30. Why didn't he bring it in until 1:30? I can't answer that question. Why was there zero documentation? What could have possibly happened to it during that 44-hour period? There were a lot of things that we learned about the collector, about the collection process, about the way that the entire thing worked that made us very concerned and very suspicious about what could have actually happened."

A rep for Braun told ESPN he had no comment to the report. “Ryan isn’t currently commenting on anything — rumor or reality — related to his arbitration process or his suspension. He has acknowledged his mistakes, accepted his punishment, and is beginning to make amends and will comment at an appropriate time.”