Major League Baseball’s investigation into the Astros will stretch beyond the World Series as the league looks into “aspects that go beyond” Brandon Taubman’s clubhouse incident.
Taubman was fired on Thursday, five days after he unleashed a profanity-filled tirade toward three female reporters in the Astros’ clubhouse following the American League Championship Series.
Commissioner Rob Manfred said Friday the Astros “reacted quickly and in an appropriate way” with their decision to terminate Taubman, the team’s 34-year-old assistant general manager. Manfred said results of the ongoing investigation “will be public.”
Manfred said his office began its current investigation because it was “concerned” about the Astros’ initial statement in response to the incident, one that falsely claimed Sports Illustrated reporter Stephanie Apstein “attempted to fabricate” Taubman’s actions.
[…]
After the two exchanged unreturned voicemails earlier in the day, Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow and Apstien met for about 15 minutes at Nationals Park on Friday night. Apstein requested a written retraction of the team’s first statement. It is unclear if the Astros will oblige.
On Thursday, Luhnow repeatedly declined to reveal who wrote or approved the statement. The general manager acknowledged he saw the 76-word writeup before it was released. The Athletic reported on Friday that Anita Sehgal, the team’s senior vice president of marketing and communication, oversaw it.
See here and here for the background. Let me remind you, that first statement by the Astros accused reporter Stephanie Apstein of making the whole thing up. If even a little bit of that were true, her career would be over. It’s not just that the Astros were completely wrong about that, it’s that they didn’t care enough to be concerned about it before going ahead and smearing her. The Astros did finally formally retract that statement, five whole days later. To say the least, we are here now because that statement was issued in the first place, then left to fester for the entire work week.
Let’s be clear: This wasn’t a slip-up committed by some underpaid low-level employee. General Manager Jeff Luhnow saw that statement before it was released. The senior vice president of marketing and communication, Anita Sehgal, oversaw and thus presumably approved it. Brandon Taubman is deservedly unemployed now, but he’s far from the only sinner here. The Astros didn’t have a Brandon Taubman problem. They have a whole-organization problem. That remains true even with that apology and retraction from Jim Crane to Stephanie Apstein. That’s MLB’s problem now, and I hope they are considering that as they do their investigation.
After I started writing this post, I came across this story, which notes the Crane letter to Apstein and moves things along a little bit.
How Houston’s original statement was crafted remains vague. Who wrote it remains a mystery. Senior vice president of marketing and communications Anita Sehgal refused to “name names” in a six-minute interview with three reporters prior to Game 5 of the World Series on Sunday.
“This statement really is owned by the entire organization,” Sehgal said. “This team needs to wear this statement. We screwed up. And we’re going to own it as a team. We’re going to share responsibility for it and we’re not going to point fingers at any one person. We’re going to own it as a team. And that’s the right decision.”
The Athletic reported this week that Sehgal, an Astros employee since 2015, had oversight of the statement. Asked if that report was true, Sehgal said “I oversee all of (public relations) and communications. Lots of people were involved.”
“Listen, this statement was wrong and it was wrong on a number of fronts,” Sehgal said. “It’s disappointing. It’s embarrassing for the organization and we are very, very sorry that it happens. But the team owns it. The entire organization owns the decision that that statement went out. We’ve apologized. We’ve recognized it. And we feel really, really bad.”
That’s better, and it’s good that she recognizes this is owned by the whole organization, but it doesn’t address the question of how the whole organization should be held accountable. Again: Jeff Luhnow and Anita Sehgal have responsibility for the original statement. Likely other senior executives do as well, not to mention Jim Crane. Firing Brandon Taubman doesn’t get all of them off the hook as well. What, if anything, are we going to do about that? I’ll be honest and admit I don’t know what a just outcome to all this should be, but the Astros and MLB need to figure it out. This will remain a stain on the Astros organization until they do.
The poop is still stuck on the shoe and it still stinks.
Remain a stain on the organization ? Poop on shoe still stinking ? GMAFB – everyone’s already moved on. It wasn’t the Astros organization, it was THIS guy. It wasn’t MLB, it was THIS guy… and he’s now gone. We now move on to the next crisis du jour… like whether or not Trump pre-alerted Pelosi to the ISIS raid or how awful the Ump was in Game 5 or how Chip and Joanna are thinking about having another child. As a Nation we, collectively, have attention deficit disorder.
I don’t remember the Astros ever saying the reporter completely fabricated the story – they stated the story was “misleading and completely irresponsible.”…not that the incident didn’t take place.
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sports/astros/article/Astros-executive-Brandon-Taubman-under-fire-for-14551952.php?utm_source=article&utm_campaign=AOA
“We are extremely disappointed in Sports Illustrated’s attempt to fabricate a story where one does not exist,” read the final sentence of the team’s 76-word statement.
C.L.,
Facts are pesky things.
And now the “Astros organization” is still deflecting about their lie.
Taubman was a knucklehead, to be sure, but he did not lie on behalf of the organization. It was the organization at the highest levels that approved the lie.
“Taubman was a knucklehead, to be sure, but he did not lie on behalf of the organization. It was the organization at the highest levels that approved the lie.”
we are talking about baseball, after all.
ever met a baseball person? they are ALL knuckleheads, all the way down. visit your local Little League if you don’t believe me.
“it was the organization at the highest level that approved the lie” ? WTF ! Do tell ! Who gave this marching order ?
CL, why don’t you just look this up yourself? It’s a widely reported story.