"I'm not sure what it was like around here when Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was traded years ago, but at least there were early distant warning signs that howitzer blast of a news item would occur.

But this Ryan Braun blockbuster?

It is one of the biggest shockers to hit our corner of the sporting scene in a long, long time and potentially one of the most damaging to its reputation as a fairly clean repository of games if it is true.

It also came out of left field, figuratively.

A guy wins the National League MVP and, just a few weeks later, is charged with testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug? How potentially bad is that?

Very, very bad."