Astros second baseman José Altuve watches the ball fly after making contact on a swing. Altuve made his MLB debut for Houston in 2011 after spending four years developing (Courtesy of creative commons).
Amidst a year of Antonio Brown’s antics, massive college basketball bribing scandals, ongoing tension between the NBA and its players with China and MLB umpires calling for civil war, comes another example of the toxicity of professional sports as seen in the recent outburst of Houston Astros Assistant General Manager, Brandon Taubman, directed towards three female reporters.
Taubman’s rant toward the reporters centered around Astros’ closer Roberto Osuna, who was suspended by the league for 75 games for assaulting the mother of his three-year-old son, Alejandra Roman Cota, leaving her visibly bruised and battered.
Taubman turned to the reporters after the Astros closed out the Yankees in Game 6 of the American League MLB playoffs and yelled at the women, “Thank God we got Osuna! I’m so [expletive] glad we got Osuna!” Taubman visibly disturbed the three reporters who left the office they were sharing with Taubman and other Astros officials in order to file a report against Taubman and the Astros.
Following Taubman’s harassment, a Sports Illustrated article by reporter Stephanie Apstein, who witnessed the situation in the Astros’ press box, was published essentially confirming the reports of Taubman’s violent outburst.
Astros General Manager Jeff Luhnow claimed that Taubman lied to the Astros’ officials upon being asked if the rumors of his actions towards the women were true. Believing Taubman and contradicting eyewitness reports confirming the rumors, Luhnow decided to release a public statement openly claiming the accusations against Taubman were false.
The statement called the report of misdeeds against the women reporters “misleading,” “completely irresponsible” and stated that the article by Apstein was her attempt to “fabricate” a story.
Luhnow eventually realized the mistake he and his team had made but refused to admit that it was his writing alone, calling the statement a work of “many” while admitting he had seen it before it came out. Eventually, Luhnow fully took blame for the statement saying that it never should have been sent and the Astros own it collectively as an organization.
Two days after the incident came the official report of the Taubman incident and investigation’s misdoings and the subsequent firing of Taubman.
The fact that the Astros took two days to fire a man whose poisonous attitude nearly ruined what should have been a celebration for the team in the face of a mountain of evidence against Taubman is telling of the reprehensible culture constantly seen in professional sports.
Domestic violence is not a rarity in the MLB, or any other professional sports league as seen with the actions of Yankees pitcher Aroldis Chapman against his girlfriend leading to his suspension in 2015 or the horrifying abuse committed by former NFL running back Ray Rice, seen in a 2014 video brutally punching his girlfriend in an elevator.
The Astros ignored this history of domestic violence in sports and the massive destruction caused by these acts of violence to countless women and children in order to side with their own employees because teams like the Astros have the influence to convince people to believe in boldfaced lies.
Rarely, if ever, are teams severely punished for trying to hide corruption and abuse within their organizations. The little punishment given to teams has made it seem normal to lie when faced with stories that might be damaging to their teams, actively making the lives of already battered abuse victims far worse simply because very little can be done to stop them.
Toxicity should not be rampant in professional sports. Kids who grow up loving the games they play and the players who play them should not have this love tainted by organizations and people who believe they can say or do whatever they please. There must be action against the perpetrators of these heinous incidents if professional sports hope to stay afloat.