Diamondbacks manager Gibson on Ryan Braun, cheaters: ‘You have to ask why they do it’

The news that Milwaukee Brewers slugger Ryan Braun will be suspended for the rest of the 2013 season due to violations of baseball’s drug program is not as surprising as it is frustrating for Valley baseball fans.

Braun, you may recall, was the catalyst for the Brewers knocking the Diamondbacks out of the 2011 postseason. The NL MVP that season, Braun hammered the D-backs to the tune of a .500 average with one home run and four RBI. He doubled four times and had an OPS of 1.460 for the series, which Milwaukee won three games to two.

So to learn, with certainty, that Braun was not “clean” during that time has to sting, but D-backs manager Kirk Gibson was not willing delve into the idea that perhaps things would have been different for his team had Braun not been cheating.

Instead, the skipper shared his thoughts on what baseball needs to do to rid itself of scandals like this.

“We all know the history of it, where it all started,” he said prior to Monday’s game against the Chicago Cubs. “I think the good news is it appears that MLB is making progress to clean up the sport.

“It seems that the deterrents are going to be greater, and they should be.”

Gibson added he believes baseball should come down even harder on players than it is, to the point where the league makes “people not want to do it because the penalties are so severe.”

What those penalties may be, who knows. The skipper said, along with being banned from the All-Star Game as well as the Baseball Hall of Fame, baseball should perhaps look to institute financial ramifications.

“I think you have to ask why they do it,” he said.

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