Ryan Braun's rational choice

Let me get this straight: Ryan Braun gets paid north of $20 million a year to be the aw-shucks kid turned Joe DiMaggio, the face of the Milwaukee Brewers, and the great white hope of a metro area that has never come to terms with its racial diversity. And we're supposed to be shocked and angry that he acts like a spoiled celebrity?

I guess. It's long been noted that economics are a major driver of performance-enhancing drug use in baseball. When you get paid $105 million over five years, as Braun is, you have quite an incentive to prove to your bosses that you're worth the money.

But the problem goes deeper than that, I think. Small-market MLB teams like the Brewers have a huge incentive to find a celebrity face. And Braun isn't just a star on the field; he's visible in the community, a restaurant investor and ad man and charity supporter. His record in the game is what makes all this possible, of course, but make no mistake: a local hero is what the system is designed to create, and that's what it got.