I want to let the whole Ryan Braun thing go. I really do.

But I can't.

There is just so much we know about this that you would think I could wash my hands of it and move on. But no such luck. Somebody here is lying and they ought to be called on it. The big problem is whether we can ever figure out who is telling the big lie.

Let's look at the side of Major League Baseball first. That includes everyone involved in the drug test.

We start with the guy who collected the sample. He was pretty seriously slammed by Braun and his team. I think the innuendo leveled by Braun was unfair. I believe the collector. As I wrote last week, I am sure this kind of delay in shipping is common. I would much rather have this package in the collector's home than sit for untold hours in some I uncontrolled FedEx facility.

Add to all this confirmation from the testing lab about the sanctity of the sample packaging and I am totally convinced that no one tampered with the urine that was tested.

Now, I'm not a scientist nor do I play one on TV, but from everything I've been told the actual testing is not a difficult science. Some people say you could do the test with that science kit you got your kid on her last birthday.

So, let's say everything on that side was true. That takes us to Braun.

I do not believe Braun was juicing. I have no proof. It's hard to prove a negative, but I just don't think that's in his wheelhouse. Call me naive if you want but I don't see him as a druggie. Plus the fact is he's Jewish. We Jews don't do drugs because it interferes with the joy we get out of guilt.

I said it before and I will repeat it now. I don't believe Braun when he claimed there was no extra testosterone in his urine. He may well have not known it was there or how it got there if it was. I don't doubt him on that.

We will probably never know how that crap got into his body. We don't have to know.

Braun's lawyer, David Conwell, did what a good defense lawyer does. He found a weak spot and drove his innocence truck through that hole. And he won his case. But I don't think he did his client any real favors by making him go defensive and forceful during his news conference.

I also think he Braun team made a serious error by blasting the collector after releasing a detailed statement about how he handled the specimen. That was clearly a case of methinks thou doth protest too much. It also made a number of ball players rally to the collector's defense.

I support the drug testing program in baseball and I think a terrible error occurred here. But I also think Braun had that junk in his body. As much as I hate to say it he should have gotten a 50 game suspension.

Unless they release a transcript of the appeal, I am going to be forced to believe that the big lie in this thing came from my favorite left fielder.