Braun learned of the result in late October and insisted

In a 2-1 vote, the panel that heard Braun’s appeal agreed that valid questions had been raised about the manner in which the test sample was handled. Braun was tested last October as his Milwaukee Brewers team was making its first appearance in the postseason in Burberry Bags three years and, according to people in baseball with knowledge of the case, the test collector first took the urine sample home and stored it in his refrigerator for two days before delivering it to a FedEx center so that it could be shipped to a laboratory in Montreal. Although Major League Baseball argued that there was no evidence that the sealed test had been tampered with, the 48-hour delay proved to be the deciding factor in the case. The ruling was a blow to Major League Baseball and Commissioner Bud Selig, who has repeatedly said that his sport now has a comprehensive testing system second to none and that it has fully addressed a drug problem that has plagued it for more than a decade. This was the first time that a major league player has successfully appealed a positive test result. The previous 12 appeals had all been denied, according to one of the people with knowledge of the testing procedures, although until now no player had challenged the manner in which the sample was sent to the laboratory. The integrity of test samples has long been a central concern of athletes in all sports in which testing occurs. Braun’s victory raises fresh questions about whether other positive drug tests might have been the result of tampering or negligence, and it could provide a road map for other players in the future as they seek to positive test results for performance-enhancing drugs. “This certainly casts doubt on the integrity of the process,” said William B. Gould IV, the former chairman of the National Labor Relations Board, which played a role in resolving the baseball strike in 1995.- The 28-year-old Braun, who last April signed a $105 million contract extension to stay in Milwaukee, hired a prominent sports lawyer and assembled a public relations team to aggressively argue his appeal. Braun is scheduled to report for spring training on Friday at the Brewers’ complex in Phoenix, and in a statement issued after the ruling was announced he said he was “pleased and relieved.” “It is the first step in restoring my good name and reputation,” he said. “We were able to get through this because I am innocent and the truth is on our side.” “I have been an open book, willing to share details from every aspect of my life as part of this investigation, because I have nothing to hide,” the statement added. “I have passed over 25 drug tests in my career, including at least three in the past year.” The three-man panel that heard Braun’s appeal consisted of baseball’s longtime arbitrator, Shyam Das; Michael Weiner, the head of the baseball players union, and Rob Manfred, the baseball official who has presided over the sport’s drug-testing program as it has evolved and been toughened. It was Das who cast the deciding vote in Braun’s cheap burberry bags favor. It was Manfred who angrily weighed in with his own statement shortly after the appeal was officially upheld, saying that Major League Baseball “vehemently” disagreed with Das’s decision to side with Braun. Braun’s victory is a big lift for the Brewers, who were already reeling from the loss of Prince Fielder, who recently signed a lavish free-agent deal with the Detroit Tigers. Braun has become the face of the Brewers in his five years in the major leagues and has become one of the most popular players in baseball. A first-round draft pick in 2005, he was rookie of the year in 2007, has made the All-Star team four times and has helped guide the Brewers to the playoffs twice. The test in question was given to Braun on Saturday, Oct. 1, after the Brewers’ first game of the 2011 postseason. In the game, Braun playing left field and batting third, got three hits in four at-bats for the Brewers beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 4-1. The tester claimed that by the time the test was completed early in the evening after the game there was no open FedEx center at which he could drop off the sample, the person with knowledge of the case said. Instead, he said the tester followed established protocol that when a sample cannot immediately be dropped off at a FedEx center it must be kept in a cold and secure place until it can be shipped. In this instance, the person said, the tester took the sample home and stored it in a refrigerator until he could bring it to an open FedEx center on Monday. Lawyers for Major League Baseball told the panel that the sample had been sealed in both a bag and then a box while Braun watched and that they showed no sign of tampering when the arrived at the Montreal laboratory. Nevertheless, the two-day delay allowed Braun’s lawyers to successfully raise sufficient doubts about the manner in which the sample was handled. And as a result of Thursday’s ruling, Major League Baseball will now instruct sample collectors to be sure that there are 24-hour FedEx centers available for drop-offs when a test is taken. The test sample at issue revealed that Braun had unusually high levels of testosterone in his body compared with other positive tests , another issue that Braun’s lawyer cited in raising questions about the sample’s validity. The test showed a prohibited substance in Braun’s body, but not a steroid, according to the second person familiar with the appeals process. Braun learned of the result in late October and insisted that the test was flawed. He took a second test done by an independent laboratory that showed he had normal levels of testosterone, the person said. Until now, it has proved impossible to have a positive test in baseball overturned, in part because of the steps taken in handling the samples. Numerous technicians analyze and verify the urine samples that are received. Specimens that are sent to laboratories have numbers on them, but not the athletes’ names. Lawyers hired by players can sometimes find small mistakes in the procedures followed by technicians, but rarely find enough evidence to warrant overturning a positive result, testing experts said. “Everything is going to be double-checked because the stakes are so high,” said Don Catlin, the founder and former director of the U.C.L.A. Olympic Analytical Laboratory, which handled testing for baseball’s minor leagues. “But the problem is things are burberry purse so complex now that it’s very hard to make it perfect.” The mistakes, he added, “are usually minor.” In Braun’s case, Das concluded it was more than that. And now Braun, who would have been allowed to participate in spring training and play in exhibition games before beginning his suspension, can proceed as if the test had never occurred.