Astros Owner Personally Apologizes to Reporter Who Wrote Brandon Taubman Story

Houston Astros owner Jim Crane wrote a personal letter of apology to Sports Illustrated reporter Stephanie Apstein after the organization initially attacked her credibility for a story involving a clubhouse incident between now former assistant GM Brandon Taubman and three female reporters.

Apstein tweeted out  the letter, which she received on Saturday and also retracted the team’s initial statement.

“On behalf of the entire Astros organization, I want to personally apologize for the statement we issued on Monday October 21^st,” the letter read. “We were wrong and I am sorry that we initially questioned your professionalism. We retract that statement, and I assure you that the Houston Astros will learn from this experience.”

Apstein reported on Monday that Taubman yelled in the direction of three female reporters, “Thank God we got Osuna! I’m so f---ing glad we got Osuna!” during the team’s ALCS celebration after beating the Yankees on Oct. 19.

Osuna, the team’s closer, served a 75-game suspension in 2018 for violating MLB’s domestic violence policy. One of the reporters Taubman was shouting toward was wearing a purple domestic violence awareness bracelet.

The Astros declined to comment to Apstein before the story was published, but released a statement that called the story “misleading and completely irresponsible” as the organization’s official response to it.

After receiving backlash from their initial response, the Astros attempted to mitigate the damage through various other statements before they ultimately fired Taubman on Thursday as MLB began its own investigation into the matter.

In a statement following Taubman’s firing, the Astros admitted they were “wrong” in their initial conclusion and offered an apology to Apstein and “ all individuals who witnessed this incident or were offended by the inappropriate conduct."

The story has overshadowed the first few games of the World Series, which was tied at 2-2 as of Sunday between the Astros and Washington Nationals.

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