Arizona Diamondbacks manager Kirk Gibson has always been one of the most outspoken people in baseball when it comes to performance-enhancing drug use. He is an advocate for harsher penalties against steroid users, and, as you might expect, he is not a huge fan of Milwaukee Brewers slugger Ryan Braun.
Gibson is bothered not only by Braun’s decision to cheat, but also the way he has refused to take responsibility for his poor decisions.
“I said this a long time ago: I think that people should have an opportunity to ask him some questions and have him answer them unrehearsed,” Gibson said, via Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic. “Something tells me he’s getting really prepared for just about anything that they could throw at him.”
Gibson believes Braun owes it to the game of baseball to explain himself.
“I’m not surprised he hasn’t addressed people. He probably doesn’t give a (expletive) about me,” he said. “He’s got it really good. I was one of the guys who went through many things – work stoppages, etc. – so that he could do that. I would hope that he respects me and everybody who stood up for him before he played the game. Everybody looks at it differently, but if he thinks he’s giving back to the game, he has a different idea of how to give back than I do.”
In 2011, the year Braun tested positive for PEDs during his MVP run and consistently lied about it, the Brewers defeated the Diamondbacks in the NLDS. Braun was 9-for-18 with four doubles and a home run in the series, which obviously bothers Gibson.
“Everybody listened to his line of (expletive), so you take him at face value,” Gibson said. “All things considered, we should have won the game. All things considered, the last game, we tied it up and we had a chance to win it. There were other times in my career when I did overcome cheaters. We had our chance.”
Plenty of people feel the way Gibson feels about Braun, they just won’t share their thoughts. The former MLB All-Star has never been shy about speaking his mind, so his stance on Braun isn’t exactly a surprise.
