This whole thing feels an awful lot like the Vick case. People losing their minds and demanding more punishment than is meted out to players that beat their wives, drive drunk or kill someone with their car.
Completely different. For me, there are two types of "crimes" when it comes to sports, and they are not just apples and oranges, but apples and elephants. There are crimes "against the game" - namely, those which call into account the very integrity of the sport. Cheating is among the worst of these, along with fixing games, betting on your own games, etc.
The second are crimes "outside of the sport" - anything from DUI to murder.
Now, usually, or dare I say, almost always, the crimes against the game do FAR less harm to SOCIETY than crimes within/against the game. However, crimes within the game are far more dangerous to the future of the sport itself than even the worst of crimes outside the lines.
So, while it's far worse to have dog fights, DUIs, beat your wife, murder people, those don't strike to the integrity of the game itself. So, if within the lines some of those crimes do not have "in game" repercussions, I can live with that.
Braun's saga is much more aligned with Pete Rose, who's actions called into the very basis of what sport is - a free and unfettered competition. When you mess with that, the existence and propogation of the game itself is called into question.
With that in mind, while Braun's crimes were nothing compared to most that occur outside the lines, within the context of the game they must be treated more harshly, lest the game no longer be valid in the mind of the spectator.