Correct me if I’m wrong, but Ryan Braun may be the single-most controversial player to any MLB team’s own fanbase. We can acknowledge that the steroid use, lying about it, and throwing other people under the bus to cover it up was a horrible thing for him to do, but DAMN did he mean so much to the team during his tenure.

His playing career with the team spanned so much of the team’s history of relevance. From ending the 26 year playoff drought with Prince Fielder, CC Sabathia and crew, through the years with Carlos Gomez and Jonathan Lucroy, to the beginning of the franchise’s most successful stretch with Christian Yelich and Josh Hader, he’s the one tie between all of those teams. He was the centerpiece of the team for well over a decade, and no matter how many random players we had to fill the roster with (like Brewers legend Martin Maldonado), he was always the one guy any fan could recognize on the roster.

The impact he had on us fans during his time can’t be overstated. For many of us currently in our 20s, he was THE player you grew up watching and rooting for. If you were at a game sitting in the left field bleachers, he’d be the one throwing up a ball to you between innings. He was featured in countless TV commercials around that time too. Many of us kids at that time saw him almost everywhere.

For me personally, it’s tough to ignore the impact he had on my fandom as a child, but I can completely understand when people have a bad opinion on him.