Yes and so poorly handled by the Astros organization which just made things worse. Are they that out of tune with sensitive social issues such as these or are they just blinded by their own ignorance and biases? Like why even pick up a player like that to begin with and then go out of your way to support him when he was arguably the least valuable Asto in the Pennant clinching game anyways?
https://www.vox.com/2019/10/23/20928466 ... -explainedQuote:
Instead of apologizing for Taubman’s behavior, the organization on Monday night released a statement attacking Apstein’s reporting — which was corroborated by multiple witnesses — as “misleading and completely irresponsible.”
Taubman’s comments “had everything to do about the game situation that just occurred and nothing else — they also were not directed toward any specific reporter,” the statement released on behalf of the organization said. “We are extremely disappointed in Sports Illustrated’s attempt to fabricate a story where one does not exist.”
As you’d expect, that statement did not go over well. So on Tuesday — right around the same time MLB announced it will conduct its own investigation of the situation — the team released new statements from Taubman and owner Jim Crane that, while striking a much more remorseful tone, also served as a tacit admission that the team’s initial statement was, at best, misleading. The organization suddenly apologized for an incident that they initially dismissed as a fabrication and acknowledged — albeit obliquely — the connection between the outburst and Osuna’s history of domestic assault.
In the new statement, Taubman apologized for using “inappropriate language,” not directly for making light of domestic violence, although he did acknowledge that “[m]y overexuberance in support of a player has been misinterpreted as a demonstration of a regressive attitude about an important social issue.” Crane, for his part, insisted that the Astros “continue to be committed to using our voice to create awareness and support on the issue of domestic violence.” (Domestic violence is a major problem baseball. Six players have been suspended for it since last July, which is more than in the two previous years combined.)
Still, no less an authority than one of the most prominent baseball reporters in the world, Buster Olney of ESPN, noted that the Astros’ new set of statements fell far short of a blanket apology for initially responding to reporting about the locker room incident by attacking the journalist who wrote about it.
as meant to spite the female reporter wearing a DV-awareness bracelet.
According to three eyewitnesses interviewed by NPR, Taubman appeared to be responding to the presence of a female reporter who was wearing a purple rubber bracelet to heighten awareness about domestic violence.
That reporter has tweeted repeatedly about the issue over the years. Taubman complained last year that some of the reporter’s informational tweets — promoting domestic violence hotline telephone numbers, for example — appeared moments after Osuna entered several Astros games in relief.
Of course, if the Astros were really as committed to taking a stand against domestic assault as Crane claims to be in his statement, they could’ve passed on trading for Osuna in the first place. That they hired him even as other teams thought better of it says something about management’s priorities. That much is clear. But what remains unexplained is why the organization initially responded to an incident that highlighted the tension his acquisition created by besmirching a reporter.
The frame of Apstein’s Sports Illustrated piece is about how Taubman’s outburst “illustrates MLB’s forgive-and-forget attitude toward domestic violence.” Fittingly, by Wednesday morning, the baseball world had largely moved on to talking about the Astros’ Game 1 loss to the Nationals. Meanwhile, the statement released by MLB on Tuesday, alluding to the Astros’ initial statement, notes that the organization has “disputed Sports Illustrated’s characterization of the incident.”