Belated Apology, Firing Won't Erase Stain Left on the Astros Anytime Soon

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Few firings are as richly deserved as that of Brandon Taubman, the now-former assistant general manager of the Houston Astros.

Now: Who's next?

And if not the Astros' bumbling executives who mismanaged a crisis as badly as you can whiff it on the eve of Game 1 of this World Series, then here's hoping Taubman's axing will be accompanied by a heavy organizational fine from Major League Baseball that will be distributed to the National Domestic Violence Hotline or any number of other domestic violence services nationally or in the Houston area.

It is bad enough that a situation that should have been managed and handled Monday night has blown up to overshadow the World Series. But that is minuscule in comparison to the larger tragedy here: that in a day and age in which we all should be enlightened about any number of things—not the least of which is the life-and-death seriousness of domestic violence—a high-ranking executive from a ballclub that traded for a closer in the midst of a 75-game domestic violence suspension in 2018 would taunt three female reporters about the issue while celebrating a pennant.

In short, as the champagne flowed in the Houston clubhouse on Saturday night following the Astros' ALCS-clinching win over the New York Yankees, Taubman repeatedly shouted, "Thank God we got Osuna! I'm so f--king glad we got Osuna!" in the direction of the reporters.

As events unfolded, it was understood that he was targeting one in particular: a Houston-based reporter who wears a purple domestic violence awareness bracelet and has been outspoken on the issue—especially since the Astros acquired Osuna.

The initial news report was published on Sports Illustrated's web site Monday evening. Shortly afterward, the Astros released a statement calling the article "misleading and irresponsible" and explaining Taubman was "supporting the player during a difficult time." It said his remarks "had everything to do about the game situation that just occurred and nothing else" and went so far as to accuse SI of an "attempt to fabricate a story where one does not exist."

Taubman's firing is the club's clear repudiation of its very own initial statement.

So who's trafficking in fake news here? Not the media.

For nearly 48 hours after the Astros' initial high-and-mighty stance, team executives hid like rats on a sinking ship. The burden of speaking publicly fell solely into the lap of Astros manager AJ Hinch, who, by the way, is one of the most thoughtful and graceful men in the game.

Eric Gay/Associated Press/Associated Press

"I'm very disappointed for a lot of reasons," Hinch said before the start of Game 1 on Tuesday. "It's unfortunate. It's uncalled for. For me as a leader in this organization down here in this clubhouse, on the field, I take everything that happens in the clubhouse to heart.

"No one, it doesn't matter if it's a player, a coach, a manager, any of you members of the media, should ever feel like when you come into our clubhouse, that you're going to be uncomfortable or disrespected."

In essentially telling his own organization to stick their talking points where the sun don't shine, Hinch showed more humanity in one minute than the Astros, who should be led by Jeff Luhnow, given that he's the general manager, have displayed all week.

Traditionally, MLB has mandated a sort of news blackout during the World Series, discouraging clubs from making any sort of news until afterward so that the full spotlight could shine on the game's marquee event. This is the first time in recent memory that one of the World Series participants has directly soiled itself at its own event.

Shortly after Thursday's announcement of Taubman's axing, Luhnow, whose tepid apology on the club's flagship radio station Tuesday didn't go nearly far enough, finally became the first club official above Hinch to appear publicly and offer some kind of…something.

What, exactly, is still far more difficult to determine than it should be.

Asked directly who wrote, read and approved the club's initial ham-fisted and malicious statement—yes, malicious, as it not only was factually incorrect but at the same time smeared the integrity and work of a reporter who was in the right all along—Luhnow passed.

"His behavior was inappropriate and not representative of the Astros and our culture and what we stand for," said Luhnow while finally admitting—some 72 hours later—that the club's initial statement "was wrong."

He talked about how "a lot of people were involved" and about how the club "learned a lesson," but this is the big leagues. We're not talking Entry Level Baseball and Public Relations 101. How hard is it to be decent from the start?

Behind the scenes, according to multiple Bleacher Report sources, MLB officials worked to try and lead the Astros to a humble place they should have been able to locate themselves. MLB's tack is always that it's better for individual clubs to operate as separate entities—and thereby, theoretically, do the right thing on their own. This time, though, the Astros were so entrenched that they needed prodding from above.

Meanwhile, sources tell B/R that several Astros players are livid over the entire situation. That a rogue, out-of-control suit behaved that way in their clubhouse. That it makes it appear as if they don't treat people right, either. That it is overshadowing everything they've accomplished this year, as well as their World Series run.

Matt Slocum/Associated Press

Bottom line, beyond this being an enormous mess, it is a deep stain on the organization that isn't going away anytime soon.

There is still no good explanation for what the Astros possibly could have been thinking. Luhnow explained that the initial belief "was that it was one colleague talking to another colleague and having been overheard and it was not intended to be overheard."

Even then, why rush a statement out immediately on Monday night without making sure everything is in order?

"When a story comes out that is negative, you have two choices," Luhnow said. "You either respond immediately if you think it's potentially not true, or you wait and figure out what the facts are and then respond. And we made the wrong decision."

Furthermore, he said, "We as an organization have certainly learned our lesson about taking time to react and making sure that we don't do anything to make the situation worse. Because that's essentially what we did."

Taubman had to go. But that should not be the end of it. Have the Astros, victims of their own hubris, really learned their lesson?

That's doubtful with the same people in place. Even in trying to explain how upsetting the incident was, Luhnow couldn't help but reveal a stunning level of tone-deafness when he told reporters Thursday he "wouldn't wish [the incident] on anyone in this [media] room, just like I wouldn't wish it on anyone in this room to sit up here and answer these questions either."

Despite all that has happened, the worst thing of all remains: that we are left shouting at each other around the fringes of domestic violence when all of that energy should be directed at doing something about it in the first place.

Scott Miller covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report. Follow Scott on Twitter and talk baseball.