Isn’t Braun’s 65-Game Suspension a “Technicality”?

(Image: AP/Jeffrey Phelps) Ever since Ryan Braun’s drug test failure in 2011, it has become a common turn of phrase to say his original 50-game suspension was overturned on a “technicality.”  Just today, in a post about the origins of Braun’s relationship with Biogenesis, Brewers beat writer Tom Haudricourt includes the obligatory wording, “He had that drug test overturned on appeal on a chain-of-custody issue that MLB considered a technicality.” I don’t mean to be obvious, but “technicality” is almost always a ******** word in any context (especially in discussions of criminal justice issues).  Another way to say “technicality” in this case would be to say Braun’s suspension was overturned “based on the rules that everyone agreed to and thought were fair ahead of time.”  When a ground ball rolls to the right side of the first base bag, no one says it’s a foul ball on a technicality.  It’s just a foul ball.  Braun failed a PED test two years ago and the arbiter ove