Yesterday marked two months to the day since we learned that Ryan Braun won the appeal of his 50-game PED suspension. The hope was that a written explanation from arbitrator Shyam Das would provide further illumination for why he made his decision, but it turns out we may never get that information.

According to the Associated Press, Das was asked by the players’ union and management to hold off giving his reasoning while they negotiate changes to their rules for collecting urine specimens.

If players and owners reach agreement on the changes, the Feb. 23 decision by arbitrator Shyam Das to overturn the penalty for the Milwaukee outfielder could be allowed to stand without any written explanation, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the process is designed to be confidential.

Didn’t we know it would end up like this?

Scarce details, a sample collector tossed under the bus by a guy who offered multiple, sometimes contradicting defenses for the fact he had insanely high amounts of testosterone in his system that couldn’t scientifically be attributed to a sample sitting in a cool, dark basement and the assurances that “you’ll see the arbitrator’s decision in due time” is now going to end without us hearing nary a peep from the guy.

I doubt anything in the report would have convinced Braun’s supporters he was anything other than vindicated by the decision, but I for one would have loved to see if the decision was purely based on legal mumbo jumbo, rather than, ya know, someone actually thinking he didn’t pony up a sample with more testo than one the Hulk might offer on a “bad temper day”.

Ryan Braun is off to a slow start, but you’d be hard pressed to find many around the game that think that he isn’t going to turn it around and be a fine damn baseball player again.

Braun hasn’t been playing in the Brewers‘ “road games” during spring training, and he’s got just one hit all spring. It’s reasonable to suspect that Braun’s limited playing time, and perhaps even his limited performance when he has played, is related to … well, you know.

Tyler Kepner of the New York Times had an interesting piece on the subject yesterday:

[Jonathan] Lucroy said there was more to the situation than Braun has said publicly, and his explanation to teammates, Lucroy said, has been convincing.

“I’m not going to get into the details, but if you knew what we knew, people would be like, ‘Wow,’ ” Lucroy said, adding that he understood why Braun has elaborated only in private. “You’ve got to do that because it’s his prerogative. It’s up to him, it’s his choice. And honestly, if some of the things came out, it would be a lot more negative than positive. There are reasons.”

I damn sure know that there are reasons why Braun failed his drug test, but I doubt my ideas on the subject line up with whatever cock-n-bull story he laid on his buddies.

I also get the fact that he felt comfortable sharing those reasons with his teammates but not the rest of us. In fact this little piece of info might lend some credence to rumors that were swirling around in December that he had failed the test due to complications relating to treatment for herpes.

Here’s the rub, though … If there were reasons for Braun failing the drug test, reasons that make us “be like Wow“, why did he stand before America and question the integrity of the guy who was hosting his urine for the weekend? Why throw him under the bus? To protect yourself and not have to go out and admit you were an idiot who didn’t use protection and got the herp?

Braun, my man…you can’t have it both ways.

I know you are a pro athlete and are used to getting it your way all of the damn time, but not on this. The public won’t let it slide this time, at least not outside of Wisconsin & more specifically the greater Milwaukee area.

Either your urine, fresh out of your pecker, was loaded with inhuman amounts of testosterone, but there were good reasons for that, or your urine was perfectly fine until something strange or nefarious happened to it.

This whole thing where your stories don’t line up doesn’t add up. And in life when someone’s stories do not add up we question their honesty & integrity, simple as that.

So if you want to be able to sit here and tell your teammates one story, the league office another and the public yet another, all the while tarnishing the reputation of a man who seemed to have handled everything both professionally and with integrity then go right ahead.

Just don’t expect us to take your explanations at face value and not come to the conclusion that you are a giant, lying, dishonest douche bag.

It just ain’t gonna happen.