The Houston Astros have what is widely considered to be the smartest front office in baseball. They鈥檝e built a near-perfect team, loaded at every position, with one title already in hand and reason to expect more to come.
And they鈥檝e undone all of the credit for that through the bizarre mishandling of an executive鈥檚 aggressive statement in what should have been a time of celebration, casting a pall over a World Series their team shockingly trails to the Washington Nationals two-games-to-none.
Let鈥檚 start at the beginning. , on the eve of the World Series, that more than an hour into the postgame celebration following the Astros clinching the AL pennant the prior Saturday, assistant GM Brandon Taubman directed an expletive-filled screed to a group of female reporters regarding the reliever his team had acquired in 2018.
鈥淭hank God we got Osuna! I鈥檓 so f—— glad we got Osuna!鈥� he reportedly yelled, repeatedly.
Osuna is Roberto Osuna, whom the Astros got on the cheap from the Toronto Blue Jays while he was serving a 75-game MLB suspension for allegedly assaulting the mother of his child. Notably, one of the reporters at whom Taubman shouted was not merely wearing a purple domestic violence awareness bracelet, but she has also repeatedly tweeted the domestic violence hotline number when Osuna has entered games. (This is, incidentally, when covering domestic violence issues; that number is 800-799-7233.)
Also notable is the fact that Osuna had just blown the save in that game, allowing a two-run, game-tying home run to D.J. LaMahieu in the top of the ninth, only to be bailed out by Jos茅 Altuve鈥檚 own two-run shot in the bottom half, to win the game and the American League Championship Series.
Despite some from in the clubhouse that night, the Astros鈥� official response Monday night was to refute the story wholesale, creating a subtext that nobody else present has agreed existed, denying its intent, and, generally, calling it fake news.
The Astros just released the following statement.
— Chandler Rome (@Chandler_Rome)
After a fierce backlash, the team entered step two of its failed damage control phase, offering a non-apology from Taubman (鈥渕y overexuberance in support of a player has been misinterpreted鈥�) and a reminder from team owner Jim Crane that the club has donated $300,000 to domestic violence initiatives, or less than they gave Osuna per nine days of MLB service time this season. As Jane McManus put it in the New York Daily 草莓传媒, .
The Astros have released the following statements from assistant GM Brandon Taubman and owner Jim Crane
— Kyle Glaser (@KyleAGlaser)
Taubman鈥檚 framing of the situation was, again, according to multiple people present, not accurate. Astros GM Jeff Luhnow, who reportedly was not in the clubhouse during the celebration, that 鈥渨e may never know鈥� Taubman鈥檚 intent, saying simply that Taubman and the reporters 鈥渉ave different perspectives.鈥� He was only asked one question about the incident.
Luhnow did apologize generally, promising to do better and saying that 鈥渢his situation should never have happened.鈥� But at no point did Taubman or anyone in the organization apologize for how they treated Apstein, for calling her reporting 鈥渕isleading and completely irresponsible,鈥� for charging SI with an 鈥渁ttempt to fabricate a story,鈥� as serious a professional accusation as you can make against a journalistic entity.
They also did not discipline Taubman, causing MLB to step in.
Here's MLB's statement on the Astros and Sports Illustrated:
— Lindsey Adler (@lindseyadler)
草莓传媒 reached out to the Astros public relations staff about whether or not they had already apologized to Apstein and SI or planned to do so publicly. We also asked whether they planned to discipline Taubman in any way, as general manager Jeff Luhnow had said upon trading for Osuna that 鈥渨e welcome being held accountable for all our personnel decisions.鈥� The questions were sent shortly before 1 p.m. Eastern on Thursday. Four hours later, Taubman had been fired.
In a statement announcing the firing of Brandon Taubman, the Astros admitted their initial accounting of the incident in the clubhouse was incorrect 鈥� 鈥淲e were wrong,鈥� it says 鈥� and offered an apology to , the reporter who first wrote about it.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan)
鈥淚f you drew up a playbook of how to screw it up, the Astros are following every rule,鈥� said San Francisco Chronicle sports writer and columnist Ann Killion, who spoke with 草莓传媒 Thursday afternoon before the firing. 鈥淚t鈥檚 about as ham-handed an attempt as I鈥檝e seen.鈥�
Killion covered the San Francisco 49ers during the successful years Jim Harbaugh was head coach and witnessed similar attempts to question reporters for bringing off-the-field issues up, like the team鈥檚 decision to let Aldon Smith practice just hours after his release from jail for a DUI, and to not rule out Ray McDonald from playing just days after his own domestic violence arrest.
鈥淚 think that there鈥檚 an arrogance that comes with successful teams,鈥� she said. 鈥淪ports organizations make decisions, and we know why they make the decisions, then they get very aggressive with people who question those decisions.鈥�
For Killion, sadly, that鈥檚 nothing new. But she was hoping incidents like these, especially involving a group of women trying to do their job, had been relegated to decades past.
鈥淭hat is also super loaded with sexism,鈥� she said. 鈥淭here can still be this implied message when a male sports executive takes issue with something a female writer has written that, 鈥榶ou don鈥檛 know what you鈥檙e doing.鈥欌��
As the media is painted increasingly as the enemy, rather than the public accountability protectors that they are, there has grown this idea that every relationship between journalists and the entities they cover must be contentious. John Maroon, who spent five seasons in public relations with the Cleveland Indians and five more with the Baltimore Orioles and who now runs his own PR shop, balks against that.
鈥淓verything doesn鈥檛 have to be lawyers and phone calls and strategy,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f you have a relationship with the media members and a respect for the press.鈥�
If the Astros had shown that respect, from the very first call for comment, the story might never have been written in the first place. Instead, as this debacle unfolded over the course of the week, they were left with no reasonable choice but to publicly fire one of their top baseball executives in the middle of the World Series.
鈥淚f the team doesn鈥檛 do anything and the league doesn鈥檛, what message does that send to every female journalist, every female employee, every female fan of the team?鈥� asked Maroon. 鈥淓ven if morally it doesn鈥檛 ring a bell, look at what it will do for your business moving forward.鈥�
Firing Taubman quells the immediate crisis, but it doesn鈥檛 solve the much bigger institutional issues this scandal exposed within the organization, both in terms of its treatment of the media and of women.
***UPDATE: Shortly after this column was published, Luhnow held a press conference at Nationals Park in which he not only , but acknowledged he still hadn’t apologized to Apstein, citing his busy schedule. .***
***UPDATE: On Sunday, finally, Crane sent Apstein a formal letter of apology, retracting the original statement.***
It doesn鈥檛 say much that the only person to get it right on the first try was the field manager, A.J. Hinch.
"It's uncalled for," said A.J. Hinch when asked about the actions of assistant GM Brandon Taubman.
No equivocation or misdirection from Hinch in his answer to the question.
Hinch shouldn't be be the only one to represent the Astros on this. Owner, GM should be, too.
— Pete Abraham (@PeteAbe)
鈥淚t was clear that the bizarre behavior by the AGM was inappropriate,鈥� said Maroon. 鈥淚鈥檓 stunned by the lack of a PR voice. It鈥檚 either ineffectual or neutered.鈥�
Killion agreed.
鈥淭o call the reporter a liar and just to trash the story like that is so embarrassing,鈥� said Killion. 鈥淎nd it feels like a page out of Trump鈥檚 playbook.鈥�
No matter your political persuasion, the tactics are undoubtedly Trumpian: When confronted with a damaging story, attack the credibility of the reporter, obfuscate the message, move on to the next news cycle and hope everyone forgets.
But the Astros are not the White House, and the only relevant news cycles they will be a part of for the next two to six days involve them being under the brightest spotlight in the sport. It鈥檚 simply not a story they could wish away.
Ironically, the Astros got themselves into this mess by thinking they鈥檇 struck gold, acquiring a 鈥渄istressed asset鈥� for pennies on the dollar. Now, they blew themselves up, grasping to protect another distressed asset 鈥� an assistant GM with an entirely unacceptable action who doubled down by lying about it. They devoted time and energy and resources to protecting and defending him, rather than simply apologizing and suspending him, allowing their team to focus on baseball and shine on the biggest stage in the sport.
By outthinking themselves and overvaluing their own judgment, they鈥檝e exposed themselves for all to see.
That title up there at the top, as some may remember, is a reference to Enron and the that was fueled by its own hubris until it collapsed. The company slogan to which those on the inside never paid enough attention? 鈥淎sk why.鈥�
If only the Astros had done so in the first place, they wouldn鈥檛 be in this mess.
