Please Explain Taubman's Firing

[+ Gar1eth]

I don't really follow any sports-much less baseball. My understanding is the asst general manager let loose a few F-bombs. While not the smartest thing to yell in public, it doesn't seem to me to be a reason for firing. Please tell me what I'm missing.

 

Gman

[+ oldNbusted]

He was taunting three female reporters about how happy he was the Astros hired a player who was suspended for 75 games for domestic violence.

[+ Gar1eth]

He was taunting three female reporters about how happy he was the Astros hired a player who was suspended for 75 games for domestic violence.

 

Thank you. That makes things a lot clearer.

 

Gman

[510guy]

I don't really follow any sports-much less baseball. My understanding is the asst general manager let loose a few F-bombs. While not the smartest thing to yell in public, it doesn't seem to me to be a reason for firing. Please tell me what I'm missing.

 

Gman

 

Basically said to the three female reporters, "I'm so glad we have Osuna."

 

He was suspended previously 75 games for domestic violence. He claimed it was in reference to his playing abilities (though he just allowed the game tieing homerun that day.

[+ oldNbusted]

Astros Fire Brandon Taubman, Now Need To Fire Whoever Smeared Stephanie Apstein [update]

 

The Houston Astros

have fired

assistant GM

Brandon Taubman

for conduct that “does not reflect the values” of the organization, according to a team statement released on Thursday.

Stephanie Apstein of Sports Illustrated

published a report

on Monday revealing that Taubman had taunted three female reporters about the Astros signing closer Roberto Osuna, who was suspended for 75 games last season for violating Major League Baseball’s domestic violence policy, as the team

celebrated its ALCS victory over the Yankees

. According to the report, Taubman yelled, “Thank God we got Osuna! I’m so fucking glad we got Osuna!”

While the statement offers a meager apology to Apstein, and acknowledges that the organization was wrong with its initial response, noticeably absent is any explanation for why Houston released a

strongly worded comment

decrying the legitimacy of the Sports Illustrated report, allowed an employee to pull the

“as a father of daughters”

card while offering a non-apology of his own, and based these decisions on an investigation whose conclusion proved to be far from reality. Who were those “witnesses” who lied to smear Apstein and the other reporters present as fabulists? Who crafted that first statement? What consequences will they face?

This statement also does nothing to

address the strange comments

Astros GM Jeff Luhnow gave to local station SportsTalk790 about what Taubman did.

“Brandon has apologized from inappropriate behavior and I think, from my perspective, clearly something happened that he regrets,” Luhnow said.

“What we really don’t know is the intent behind the inappropriate comments he made. We may never know that because the person who said them and the people who heard them, at least up to this point, have different perspectives.”

 

Of course, the breadth of possibilities of with which Taubman’s intentions could have been based on couldn’t possibly extend beyond wanting to be snide towards women, especially one who was wearing a

purple domestic violence awareness bracelet

and had

tweeted about the subject

of domestic violence before—which, by all account, Taubman was aware of.

It would be great if this was a case of the Astros committing to an organizational overhaul in response to not just what Taubman did, but also what others around the ballclub did to protect this employee. But considering how much blowback had to occur before anything of substance happened, the Astros’ delay in acting responsibly should be remembered at least as much as the fact that they eventually did.

Update (7:12 p.m. ET)

: Dig up, stupid!

Astros GM Jeff Luhnow was asked whether he had personally reached out to @stephapstein to apologize.

Luhnow said he’s been busy and hasn’t had the time.

Stephanie was sitting in the room.

Go Nats!

[+ WilliamM]

I don't really follow any sports-much less baseball. My understanding is the asst general manager let loose a few F-bombs. While not the smartest thing to yell in public, it doesn't seem to me to be a reason for firing. Please tell me what I'm missing.

 

Gman

 

The Houston Astros general manager is a controversial figure. He once worked for the St. Louis Cardinals is a less important job.

 

 

The Cardinals won two world series while he was in St Louis.

Edited October 25, 2019 by WilliamM