Antonetti, though, will never count him out.
BY TOM WITHERS | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
PHOENIX — His voice self-assured, Ryan Braun stood a few feet from the batter’s box and hit back at those who he feels tarnished his name and image.
The NL MVP insisted Friday that he always believed his 50-game suspension for a positive drug test would be overturned and that he would be able to suit up opening day along with Milwaukee teammates who never doubted him.
“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.”
Less than 24 hours after Braun’s suspension was overturned by an arbitrator, a decision that irritated Major League Baseball officials, the star outfielder was back with the Brewers. With many of his teammates, all in full uniform, sitting in the stands of Maryvale Baseball Park, Braun confidently professed his innocence while questioning the system that allowed him to be suspended for failing a test he took following a playoff game on Oct. 1.
Now he is the first major league player to successfully challenge a drug-related penalty in a grievance, ending a four-month personal “nightmare.”
“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. I wanted to come out and tell the entire story, but at the end of the day I recognize what is best for the game of baseball,” Braun said.
“I can’t ever get that time in my life back.”
INDIANS OUTFIELDER
SIZEMORE LIKELY
TO MISS OPENER
PHOENIX — Grady Sizemore’s latest comeback has already stalled.
The Indians’ oft-injured, hard-luck outfielder is hurt again.
Sizemore will likely miss opening day for Cleveland with a strained lower back, an injury the former All-Star sustained while fielding ground balls as he prepared for what he hoped would be a healthy season.
“I feel awful for the guy,” Indians general manager Chris Antonetti said Friday.
The Indians revealed Sizemore’s injury one day before they hold their first full-squad workout. The club re-signed Sizemore as a free agent in November after choosing not to exercise a $9 million option on him. But the Indians, perhaps out of some loyalty to Sizemore, decided to bring him back with a one-year, $5 million contract loaded with incentives that could have earned him an additional $4 million.
Now, there’s no telling when Sizemore will be ready.
Antonetti, though, will never count him out.