I don’t want to completely crap on an organization that starts to take the steps to make things right after a terrible series of mistakes, so I do think the Astros deserve *SOME* modest credit for trying to turn things around.
The first steps were determining that their Assistant GM had pretty clearly behaved in an unacceptable way, and then taking action:
The Astros just announced that they have terminated assistant GM Brandon Taubman's employment. Here's the full statement: pic.twitter.com/4TslyAeOW1
— Mark Feinsand (@Feinsand) October 24, 2019
Appropriate first steps there, and an apology to Stephani Apstein is a good start, too.
But there’s nothing in there about the Astros’ initial decision to try to smear Apstein and kill the story by suggesting she made things up. Moreover, there’s nothing about WHY Taubman was directing his comments at a particular reporter (it was apparently because she’d provided information about domestic violence online when Roberto Osuna was mentioned and that ticked Taubman off – that seems like a pretty important detail). And there’s nothing about how their “initial investigation” was so shitty that it concluded with them allowing Taubman to release a ridiculous statement.
I suspect this will be the end of things, even though it’s pretty clear the Astros organization did not get it for the first several days of this process, and it appears – from this event and others – that they do not see the value in any behavior that doesn’t translate directly to wins on the field. It’s an ugly episode, and one that doesn’t get right by firing one guy and apologizing to people who were offended by that employees conduct. It goes a little deeper than that.
The World Series, which the Astros are currently trailing 2-0, resumes tomorrow in Washington.