Drug Test Hits MVP Braun, Major League Baseball and Sponsors

The stakes for Ryan Braun, last season's National League Most Valuable Player in Major League Baseball, couldn't be higher after word has leaked out that he tested positive for a substance the game has banned. Not only his reputation is at stake but also a 57-game suspension and about one-third of his 2012 salary, should he not be able to overturn MLB's finding on appeal.

Braun, the left fielder for the Milwaukee Brewers, apparently is pleading that the tests somehow have been mishandled or misinterpreted amid the league's complex process, but no player ever tested positive has won on appeal. In any event, the league's final ruling isn't likely to come until January.

Meanwhile, the brands behind Braun's increasingly significant commercial endorsements are bound to be none too happy about any of this. Nike, AirTran Airways, and Cytosport, makers of Muscle Milk, had ties with Braun before he was bestowed the MVP award in November. Presumably, a number of other brands have been exploring the rising endorsement potential of the young star who is telegenic and, until now, has had a squeaky-clean reputation.

Cytosport took Braun's name off the company's website at some point, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. It might be more difficult for another Braun-associated company, the startup Limelite Fusion energy drink, to distance itself given that he has an equity position in the Wisconsin-based company.

Major League Baseball itself might end up being the most aggrieved brand in the wake of the Braun scandal. The game seemed to have put the steroid era behind it, finally, and a new system of drug testing — the one that apparently ensnared Braun — was supposed to keep professional baseball players on the straight and narrow in a new day of accountability and untainted play. Next season also begins a test for human growth hormone.

But now MLB and one of its biggest stars are creating headlines reminiscent of those bad old days. Not the kind of grist the league wants for this winter's Stovetop Leagues.

Image VIA