Ryan Braun's positive test for banned substances was caused by medication he's taking for a private medical issue -- NOT performance enhancing drugs ... this according to sources directly connected with Major League Baseball.

We're told the reigning National League MVP is adamant he has not taken drugs or steroids of any kind.

One source simply told us ... "The medication contained banned substances resulting in the positive test."  We're also told prior to taking the dirty test, Braun had always tested negative for banned substances.

The nature of Braun's medical ailment is unclear.

It's also unclear if the Milwaukee Brewers star knew the substances were in his medication before he took it -- though it seems highly unlikely.

The radio voice of Minnesota Twins baseball will be revealed this afternoon as Brewers announcer Cory Provus.

The choice of Provus will be announced on the team's flagship station, ESPN (1500 AM), at 2 p.m., according to people with knowledge of the selection.

The opening was created with the retirement of play-by-play announcer John Gordon after 25 years behind the microphone.

Provus just completed his third year calling Brewers games beside Bob Uecker.

It’s a few hours before game time, and the Milwaukee Brewers’ locker room looks just as you’d expect. There’s a steaming breakfast buffet, Major League on the flat-screen, a bunch of dudes in jockstraps chewing dip. And then there’s John Axford, carrying an Edible Arrangements.

Axford is the Brewers’ closer—a lanky 6'5" right-hander with floppy hair and a Fu Manchu. (He recently upgraded from a handlebar ’stache, à la Brewers great Rollie Fingers.) The Edible Arrangements—a cornucopia of fruit and chocolate—is a gift for the team’s coaching staff. “The bullpen says thank you,” he tells the room of grizzled old-timers as he places the centerpiece on a desk. “We appreciate everything you do.”

Axford is no stranger to quirky stuff like this. (As teammate Prince Fielder says, “He is a closer.”) But today these hijinks are Maxim-funded. Axford and his fellow Brewers have signed on to help us blow some hard-earned cash and provide a glimpse of life behind the big-league scenes. Mostly, though, it’s an excuse for him to have some fun at his teammates’ expense.

The UW-Whitewater baseball team will be making its fourth appearance in eight years in the NCAA III World Series after defeating the College of Saint Scholastica 6-3 Saturday, May 21 in the championship game of the Whitewater Regional of the NCAA III Championship Tournament. The Warhawks, 36-11, will face the winner of the Bloomington, Illinois Regional at 4:30 Friday at Fox Cities Stadium in Appleton (Grand Chute), Wisconsin. Buena Vista College, 31-16, is playing Carthage College, 32-11, for the Bloomington Regional title and the berth in the World Series. The Whitewater Regional is the first regional to complete play, but the World Series field will eventually include eight regional winners in a double elimination format that runs Friday, May 27 through Tuesday, May 31.

UW-W is making its fourteenth appearance in the NCAA III baseball tournament. The Warhawks first trip to the World Series came in Bristol, Connecticut in 1989, where the team tied for fifth place under head coach Jim Miller. John Vodenlich, a player and assistant coach for Miller, took over the team for the 2004 when Miller retired and has directed the Warhawks to a fourth place in 2004, the Division III title in 2005, and third in 2008.

But what about the coolest athletes from Wisconsin? Hmmm, almost sounds like trying to come up with the best ski resorts in Florida.

Many Hall of Famers have played this relatively staid scene, but few have passed the Dr. J exam for cool.

Henry Aaron was more regal than cool. Robin Yount and Paul Molitor? Great players, but hardly Fonzies in spikes. Reggie White? Not quite.

Few teams were cooler than those 1977 Marquette Warriors. I mean, how many group photos are taken in tuxedos and a '34 Packard? Al McGuire may have been the coolest coach ever.

And Don Nelson's fish ties? Definitely cool.

Granted, a sports writer should never be trusted with the subject, but here are one guy's top 10 coolest locals:

1. Paul Hornung: James Dean, the exemplar of cool, had achieved cult status two years after his death in 1957. Dean's big-screen successor, Steve McQueen, was just beginning his reign as the King of Cool. And in San Francisco, the Beat Generation was banging the bongos, daddy-o. But Green Bay was a different world when the Packers made the Golden Boy the No. 1 pick of the '57 draft. It was clear that the Heisman Trophy winner from Notre Dame could do just about anything on the football field, but few in northeastern Wisconsin quite knew what to make of this suave ladies' man who brought a Rat Pack vibe to Titletown. "Hornung," as Vince Lombardi yelled when he caught Mr. Night Life sneaking out of camp again, "what do you want to be, a playboy or a football player?" Do you have to ask Hornung's answer?

2. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: There may have been a sizable cultural gulf between The Captain and Milwaukee of the 1970s, but behind that aloof facade was the beat of John Coltrane and Miles Davis. To Kareem, jazz and basketball were played at the same tempo. And it wasn't the improvised riffs he was talking about, either. "A team of basketball soloists, without the structure of a common goal, may get TV endorsements for pimple cream, but it doesn't win championships," he wrote. And the only thing cooler than jazz is Kung Fu-ing it up with Bruce Lee, which Abdul-Jabbar did in "Enter the Dragon."

3. Eric Heiden: The first person to win five gold medals in a Winter Olympics was cool because he insisted he wasn't. Just try to be invisible to the world when you wrap speed skater's tights around a 32-inch waist and 27-inch thighs on the way to history, but that was Heiden's intent at Lake Placid. He genuinely thought he was a regular guy. "Heck, gold medals, what can you do with them?" Heiden said three decades ago. "When I get old, maybe I could sell them if I need the money." Not that he needs to now that he's a doctor in Utah.

4. Elroy Hirsch: OK, so he played just one season for the Badgers. But Crazylegs was able to parlay his incredibly cool running style all the way to the NFL and Hollywood, where he starred in his own biopic. Not bad for a kid from Wausau. In 1957, Hirsch played the role of the pilot in the airline disaster movie, "Zero Hour!" Twenty-three years later, three screenwriters from Milwaukee parodied the film with the megahit "Airplane!" And who played the co-pilot? Kareem-Abdul Jabbar. Now that's cool.

5. Gorman Thomas: If the '82 Brewers were the Beatles to this town, Stormin' Gorman was its Lennon, sideburns and all. If Thomas hadn't been born to hit a baseball 400 feet and crash into center-field walls, he could've been Eli Wallach opposite Clint Eastwood in "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly." If Thomas had played a rogue cop in an '80s action movie, you would've given up on the spot and handcuffed yourself.

6. Mickey Crowe: One of this state's greatest high school basketball players, Crowe had the ultracool Pete Maravich look down in the mid-'70s. He could score like Pistol Pete, too, 41 points a game as a senior without the three-pointer for St. Nazianz JFK Prep. Even the name of his school was cool. Plus, he had the proper relaxed perspective on defense. "People were coming to the games to see how many points I could score," Crowe once told insidewisconsinsports.com. "I couldn't do it on the bench with five fouls."

7. Maurice Lucas: Everything about those great '70s Marquette teams was cool, but Lucas majored in cool. He radiated cool. He was so cool that people called him "The Enforcer" and he didn't even like to fight. He'd just knock opponents out to be done with it. He played for the coolest pro team ever, the Spirits of St. Louis, and won a championship with the '77 Portland Trail Blazers. Lucas died a few months ago at the age of 58, may he rest in peace.

8. Sam Cassell: Cartoon-character cool. After getting ejected in Washington for punting the ball off the scoreboard, Cassell was on his way to a party 10 minutes later wearing a fur coat and a floppy hat. Sammy didn't care if the sun was shining. Didn't care if it came up, either, which is a cool way to live. He was terminally happy and could talk smack like nobody's business, yet there wasn't a malicious bone in his body.

9. Ted Simmons: He grew his hair in the late '60s and early '70s when a lot of baseball players had the Pete Rose flap-top thing going. He read books. He did crosswords in the clubhouse. He had that Cool Hand Luke kind of rugged individualism about him. That he's not in the Hall of Fame isn't cool.

10. Brett Favre: Recent events have caused No. 4 to tumble eight or nine spots. But even with all the big piles he has stepped into of late, you've got to admit the guy was pretty cool there for a while.

...I'm going to have to disagree with Michael Hunt on #8. I always thought Sam Cassell was smug and never saw him in the "cool" light. To be fair, I didn't live in Milwaukee, attend Bucks games on a regular basis or get to hang out with Sam...ever.

The more Ryan Braun traveled to various cities during his time in the majors, the more he recognized just how much he loved Milwaukee.

Braun signed a $105 million, five-year contract extension on Thursday that adds to a seven-year deal he signed in May 2008, meaning the Brewers are now committed to pay the young slugger $145.5 million through 2020.

"From here on out the only thing that really matters is winning," Braun said. "I'm proud of saying that I've been a part of a group of guys here who have come in here and tried to kind of change the culture and get back to having the perception of being a winning organization, when guys like Robin Yount played here, Gorman Thomas, Paul Molitor, Jim Gantner, when all those guys were here, it was a special place to play."

Yount played all 20 of his seasons for the Brewers, winning two MVP awards. The 27-year-old Braun said he expects to spend his entire career in Milwaukee, too, after getting picked by the Brewers in the first round of the 2005 amateur draft.

"There really aren't many guys that've spent their entire careers with one team," he said.

As the Brewers prepare for Opening Day 2011 in Cincinnati on Thursday, one Brewers fan who says he's been to more than 2,000 straight Brewers home games prepares for his 34th straight home opener on Monday. 

"Why do I keep doing it?  I just enjoy baseball," explained Bob Koehler.

He's been to every Brewers home opener since 1978 - from Paul Molitor's rookie season to today's era of a contending team with Braun, Fielder, Gallardo and Greinke.

Photo:Mark Hertzberg

In professional baseball, a catcher's hand takes a relentless pounding, as Caledonia brothers Lee and Jason Jaramillo know from experience.

They're in the process of doing something about it. Lee, 35, and Jason, 28, are developing a new product they hope to introduce to the baseball world by spring training next year.

Their creation, now in prototype form, is an inner glove designed primarily for catchers and first-basemen. It's called Forceout and, with any luck, could go into production about the time Major League Baseball teams are battling in the playoffs.

Jason, the third Jaramillo brother to play professional baseball, was brought up by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2009.

Forceout began last summer with a Pirates-Brewers series at Miller Park. Jason stays at home when the Pirates are playing in Milwaukee, and the two brothers were driving home after a game.