Houston Astros’ embarrassing backflip on star’s offensive comment
The Houston Astros have had to come clean about the embarrassing truth behind one star’s offensive comment to female reporters.
MLB
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Major League Baseball announced that it will investigate an ugly incident involving Astros assistant general manager Brandon Taubman as the franchise scrambles to adjust its disastrous strategy to address the scandal.
On Monday night, Sports Illustrated reported Taubman shouted “Thank God we got [Roberto] Osuna! I’m so f***ing glad we got Osuna!” directly at a group of female reporters in the clubhouse following the Astros’ pennant-clinching win in Game 6 of the ALCS — sending them through to the World Series.
Osuna was traded to the Astros from the Blue Jays in July 2018, two months after he was arrested for allegedly assaulting the mother of his three-year-old son and while he was in the midst of a 75-game suspension for violating the league’s domestic violence policy.
The Astros initially denounced the first report of his comment, which featured in a Sports Illustrated article.
The team claimed the article was “misleading and completely irresponsible,” saying they were “extremely disappointed in Sports Illustrated’s attempt to fabricate a story where one does not exist.”
On Tuesday, the Astros changed their tune, releasing statements attributed to Taubman and owner Jim Crane. Taubman said he was “deeply sorry and embarrassed” for his “unprofessional and inappropriate” comments, and said his “overexuberance in support of a player has been misinterpreted as a demonstration of a regressive attitude about an important social issue.”
He concluded by saying, “I am sorry if anyone was offended by my actions.” Crane trumpeted the work the organisation does to ensure its employees are educated about domestic violence.
The Post’s Joel Sherman reported that MLB on Tuesday dispatched investigators to Houston, site of Game 1 of the World Series, hoping to speak to the reporters who witnessed what Taubman said. Two Houston Chronicle reporters and another reporter later corroborated Sports Illustrated’s account. Taubman faces potential discipline, including a suspension.
“Domestic violence is extraordinarily serious and everyone in baseball must use care to not engage in any behavior — whether intentional or not — that could be construed as minimising the egregiousness of an act of domestic violence,” MLB said in a statement.
Longtime Yankees broadcaster Suzyn Waldman — who was working a postgame show for WFAN in the Yankees clubhouse Saturday — expressed her disappointment over the incident.
“You think it’s changing,” Waldman told SNY on Tuesday.
“You work for decades to try to make things easier for the women coming along behind you. Can it really be all for nothing?
“There will always be someone without a moral compass enabling abusive behavior of those throwing a baseball or a football. But throwing it in a woman’s face? I know there are people at MLB that take this seriously. Hopefully they will act, and swiftly. This is totally unacceptable. I can’t remember being this angry nor this distraught in a long time.”
Originally published as Houston Astros’ embarrassing backflip on star’s offensive comment