Brewers slugger Ryan Braun was suspended for the final 65 games of the 2013 season over his involvement with the infamous Biogenesis clinic.
Braun had previously flunked a drug test, yet avoided suspension by having his lawyers exploit a technicality in the rules for handling urine samples. Along the way, he defiantly, repeatedly proclaimed his innocence and attempted to smear sample collector Dino Laurenzi Jr. as not just an anti-Semite — Braun is Jewish — but an anti-Semitic Cubs fan.
After serving his ban, he fessed up, playing the “remorseful” card in a vague apology last fall. On Monday, he returned to play Opening Day before the home crowd in Milwaukee.
And was greeted with a standing ovation.
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Opening Day brought other disgraced baseball luminaries back to the site of former glories. Barry Bonds attended Opening Day in Pittsburgh, a town he bolted as a free agent in the early 1990s before becoming the all-time home run leader and a PED poster boy in San Francisco.
And Reds great Pete Rose, the sport’s ultimate pariah, was on hand in Cincinnati.
The lesson here? There is no villain in the home uniform. Unless he goes 0-for-4Â or blows the save.