Back in February, Ryan Braun's suspension for failing a PED test was overturned by Shyam Das, an arbitrator who has ruled in MLB cases for many years.
It was speculated at the time that MLB wouldn’t be happy with this and might fire Das. Today, that has, in fact, happened:
AP: baseball management has fired Shyam Das, the arbitrator who overturned Ryan Braun’s drug suspension in February.
— Aaron Saltzman (@CBCAaron) May 14, 2012
Unlike a player suspension, this firing cannot be appealed:
Das had been baseball’s permanent arbitrator since 1999. Baseball’s collective bargaining agreement says the arbitrator can be removed by players or management at any time with written notice.
Das, a graduate of Harvard and Yale University Law School, also has been an arbitrator for the NFL since 2004 and is scheduled to hear a grievance in the New Orleans Saints bounty case on Wednesday.
Given this firing, we might never find out what happened in the Braun case. Or perhaps Das would take this opportunity to make public his findings. It’s unlikely we’ve heard the last of this.