Houston Astros: Adding fuel to the fire with their domestic violence indecency

After Sports Illustrated reported initially about assistant GM Brandon Taubman, the Houston Astros had a chance to properly make up for their wrong-doing. Spoiler: they didn’t.

“Thank God we got Osuna! I’m so f—— glad we got Osuna!”

Seems like a harmless exclamation from a fan of the Houston Astros in support of closer Roberto Osuna right? It could have been, if it was handled properly.

This was the statement shouted several times by Astros assistant GM Brandon Taubman to a trio of female reporters in the clubhouse following the Astros’ walk-off game six victory in the ALCS over the New York Yankees.

The way the incident is described, Taubman’s action was clearly by design; given the recent controversy around even acquiring Osuna during the 2018 trade deadline.

Osuna was in the midst of serving a 75-game suspension for domestic violence after allegedly beating Román Cota, the mother of his then-three-year-old son.

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Osuna was acquired for the obvious reason of bolstering the then-reigning champions’ bullpen while pushing for the postseason once more. But it came with well-warranted backlash for bringing in a guy who many everyday citizens consider to be a detriment to any organization.

So fast-forward a year back to Taubman’s now infamous utterance. This is incredibly inappropriate, but that has already been established.

What hasn’t been established, apparently, is Taubman’s shallowness regarding domestic violence, and an idea illustrated in Sports Illustrated’s initial article: forgive and forget.

It is more or less common with PED users. For example, Alex Rodriguez‘s final season with the Yankees created a trend within the internet community – FORG1V3 – just a year after Derek Jeter‘s final season ended with RE2PECT.

It makes sense given the symmetry but it can’t possibly take away from the fact that A-Rod tried to gain a competitive advantage in a game that frowns upon it.

Here, the Astros are clearly trying to push aside the allegations against their closer, but not everyone forgets, and as a result it has been brought back into conversation.

If you want to read the original article published by SI’s Stephanie Apstein, here is the story.

The story has since gained a lot of traction in the baseball community. There was an initial response by the Astros organization after the article was published.

As a result of that initial statement, Sports Illustrated countered with one of their own and with the support of other national outlets.

This increased the so-called fire with the Houston Astros vehemently denying the reports of a trusted national outlet and then further making it worse, with statements released by both Taubman and Astros owner Jim Crane before World Series game one:

This is the fuel being dumped on the fire that is currently providing warmth to half the country at the moment. Apologies are tough, but if they are at the least part genuine, then people tend to at least give credence to the matter.

There is a shocking lack of ingenuity in the apology. “I am sorry if anyone was offended by my actions.” Uh yeah duh we were all offended but that doesn’t defend your values towards women and domestic violence.

Speaking of that, there was another report later in the day that may as well have dropped an atomic bomb on this out of control blaze:

Boom! The Houston Astros are officially under a microscope and it all has a hyperfocus on Taubman. It is out of the organization’s control now. The MLB reported earlier they are investigating the incident and it will likely lead to swift punishment for Taubman much like for San Francisco Giants CEO Larry Baer after he was reported to have abused his wife before the start of the 2019 season.

So it is very much a scorching hot mess in Astroworld at the moment, and not even a potential second World Series title will serve as a strong enough extinguisher to put out this horrendous fire.