Inside the Astros culture that bred Brandon Taubman's comments

WHEN JEFF LUHNOW took over as Houston Astros general manager in December 2011, the organization dedicated itself to building a franchise for the 21st century, even if that meant dismissing more than 125 years of baseball orthodoxy. The long-accepted practice of belief without proof no longer would suffice. Luhnow demanded more. More critical thinking, more innovation, more logic and reason. At the root of those changes was what informed them: more information.

Luhnow loved information. If the Astros were going to upend baseball, it would happen only with a meticulous faith to evidence. They would ask questions, seek answers and iterate accordingly. Bad information leads to bad decisions, so the Astros built practices to obtain only the highest-quality kind. This was their ethos. This was their culture -- the renegades who disregarded what the rest of the industry thought because they were getting it right.

They determined that baseball's trove of data rendered better information than what humans gathered and slowly gutted their scouting department. They believed high-speed cameras delivered superior knowledge to pitchers and installed them in bulk across their minor league affiliates. They stuffed their analytics department with the best minds they could find, regardless of background -- a writer, an engineer, a derivative analyst. They blinkered themselves from outside disparagement and wedded themselves to the creed that information would guide them.

On the field, it did. The Houston Astros, as a baseball team, are a rousing success story. They have won more than 100 games in three consecutive seasons. Two years ago, they captured a championship. The industry has tried to copycat their methods. A man went to prison for stealing their information. Tonight they will play in Game 3 of the World Series against the Washington Nationals, trailing 2-0 but fielding a team still well capable of erasing the deficit.

They will do so amid a controversy now entering its fourth day -- each appreciably worse than the previous. An Astros assistant general manager has been fired amid an investigation into his mistreatment of female reporters. Major League Baseball is weighing further discipline against him as well as the organization, sources tell ESPN. The Astros' reputation has suffered deep damage. All of it has sullied their attempt at another coronation.

Around the game, shots of schadenfreude have been chased by I-told-you-so's. Contempt for the Astros runs deep -- and has well before this incident. Jealousy breeds some of it. The organization's arrogance accounts for the rest. The Astros painted themselves as a disrupter and reveled in the commotion. They lived with the perception that they didn't understand people. They fed their process, followed it with fealty, doubled down. They believed in it, and they never had much of a reason not to, not until a week ago, when the assistant GM high on the feeling of winning the pennant opened his mouth, and two days later, when Luhnow and the Astros forgot to abide by that essential principle that has guided them for so long: Bad information leads to bad decisions.

IN THE MIDDLE of a celebration still raging well past midnight, a reggaeton song blasting through the speakers on repeat, a 25-year-old baseball star locked eyes with a 34-year-old front-office official. Alex Bregman and Brandon Taubman leaned in and hugged each other.

"You got us here," said Bregman, the Astros' third baseman and MVP candidate.

Taubman demurred. No, he said. You -- the players -- got the Houston Astros here, through the regular season with 107 wins, over the scrappy Tampa Bay Rays in a hard-fought division series and, on this night last Saturday, past the New York Yankees in the sixth game of the American League Championship Series.

Puffing a cigar, wearing a grin of satisfaction, Taubman did not realize that minutes earlier he had likely ended his career in baseball and exposed the Astros to a stress test of their principles. Amid the festivities, Taubman found himself near a group of three female reporters, one of whom wore a purple domestic violence awareness bracelet. Taubman started yelling. At first, it was unclear at whom. Once the women heard him repeat his words, half a dozen times, it was evident he was directing his words at the reporter wearing the bracelet.

"Thank God we got Osuna!" Taubman said. "I'm so f---ing glad we got Osuna!"

Roberto Osuna is the Astros' closer. They acquired him from the Blue Jays a day before the July 31 trade deadline in 2018. He was in the middle of serving a 75-game MLB suspension for alleged domestic violence against the mother of his child. Canadian prosecutors dropped charges against Osuna after the woman returned to Mexico, their home country, and refused to testify, but the length of the suspension -- it remains the third longest MLB has levied on a player for violating the domestic violence policy -- and the fact that Osuna declined to appeal it spoke to the severity of the case.

Dealing for Osuna was a classic Luhnow-era Astros move. While a significant number of front-office employees opposed the trade, sources said, Luhnow overruled them with the support of Astros owner Jim Crane. Osuna was one of the game's best closers, a difference-maker, and the incident had depressed his trade value. Luhnow saw him as a distressed asset; whatever public-relations hit the team took would be far outweighed by what he could bring to the team on the mound.

On a conference call the day of the deal, Luhnow tried to square acquiring Osuna with the so-called zero tolerance policy the Astros had regarding domestic violence. "Quite frankly," Luhnow said, "I believe that you can have a zero tolerance policy and also have an opportunity to give people second chances when they have made mistakes in the past in other organizations. That's kind of how we put those two things together."

The logic gap in his words did not deter Luhnow from trying to sell it with conviction and assuredness. In a statement announcing the deal, Luhnow had claimed: "The due diligence by our front office was unprecedented." When pressed for specifics, Luhnow said he had spoken with Osuna, his past teammates and players on the Astros.

Less than six weeks after the trade, the Astros promoted Taubman, then a senior director of baseball operations, to assistant GM. His ascent since joining the Astros in 2013 after working on Wall Street had been rapid: from low-level analyst to No. 2 in the baseball operations department in half a decade. Like Luhnow, a former consultant with McKinsey & Co., Taubman's love of fantasy baseball provided a conduit into the sport. They shared, sources said, an unsparing view of the industry that manifested itself in an air of superiority. Taubman was widely disliked outside of Astros circles, eight sources who interacted with him said; most of them referenced his lack of "feel," or people skills. But around the sport there had always been a grudging respect for Luhnow. His single-mindedness was impressive, if not admirable.

Nothing to that point illustrated it quite like the Osuna trade. The Astros had earned a reputation as an organization that lacked a conscience, though that was more because of their reliance on data, drastic personnel turnover and willingness to almost entirely forgo traditional scouting. The Osuna deal felt different -- particularly the flimsiness of Luhnow's attempts to rationalize it.

"We believe that this environment -- the Houston Astros clubhouse, the players on our team, the staff that we have, the support system that we have, the influence that we can have going forward and our community in general -- is a great environment to hopefully turn this from a negative story into a positive outcome down the road," Luhnow said on the conference call. "It won't be overnight. It won't be easy. But we do hope that down the road there will be an opportunity to reflect on this in a more positive way."

ON MONDAY NIGHT, the eve of Game 1 of the World Series, Sports Illustrated staff writer Stephanie Apstein published a story with Taubman's comments from the ALCS celebration. She was one of the three women at whom he had directed them. When reached by Apstein, the Astros had declined to comment through a spokesman. At 9:25 p.m., she tweeted a link to the story. Almost exactly an hour later, the Astros released a statement.

"The story posted by Sports Illustrated is misleading and completely irresponsible," it said. "An Astros player was being asked questions about a difficult outing. Our executive was supporting the player during a difficult time. His comments had everything to do with the game situation that just occurred and nothing else -- they were also not directed toward any specific reporters. We are extremely disappointed in Sports Illustrated's attempt to fabricate a story where one does not exist."

In 74 words that oozed with aggression, the Astros had loosed an attack on the story's veracity and Apstein's credibility. It read with a similar belligerence to Luhnow's words on the day of the Osuna trade: defensive, stilted, nevertheless awash with certitude. They were the Astros. They were right.

Earlier in the day, Apstein had called Gene Dias, the Astros' media relations director, to inform him that she was writing a story about the incident. Dias already knew about what Taubman had said. On the night of the incident, ESPN.com reporter Bradford Doolittle had heard Taubman referencing Osuna. Though he had not observed Taubman turning toward the women, after talking with one of them, he believed Taubman had directed the words toward her. After speaking to the reporter again on Monday, Doolittle asked Dias if the team wanted to comment or make Taubman available to speak. Dias asked to call Doolittle back. When he did, he said Taubman had been speaking loudly in support of Osuna.

The context made little sense. Osuna had come on in the ninth inning of Game 6 to record a save that would have sent the Astros to the World Series and instead surrendered a game-tying home run to Yankees first baseman DJ LeMahieu. If there was any night Taubman was bound to be "so f---ing glad we got Osuna," that was not it.

On Monday, Dias repeated that explanation to Apstein. She said she planned to publish her version, and if the Astros wanted to give an official comment she would include it. Dias declined. From there, sources say, the Astros started to craft a strategy, aware of the potential impact the story would register with Game 1 of the World Series less than 24 hours away.

When asked by the Astros about his behavior, Taubman had vociferously denied targeting the women. Another Astros employee backed his version of the story, sources say. The organization found the information compelling enough to forgo any further examination of the comments and their context, even though Taubman's story contained clear logic gaps. It was, as one league source says, "the Astros being the Astros. They trust their people."

For nearly eight years, Luhnow had fomented a culture that pitted the Astros against the baseball world. This cocoon protected Taubman, even if it meant ignoring the tenet of information that stabilized the operation. They believed him, with no proof beyond his word.

Less than 10 minutes after Apstein's tweet Monday, Yahoo Sports' Hannah Keyser, one of the other women standing in the group, confirmed SI's version of the story. It did not dissuade the Astros from releasing the statement anyway. More accounts substantiating Apstein's description followed the team's statement -- first from the Houston Chronicle's Hunter Atkins, then from a Chronicle story citing three eyewitnesses.

The corroboration was damning. The statement would not stand. The Astros scrambled Tuesday morning to craft two new statements -- one from Taubman, the other from Crane. Though they struck a more apologetic and conciliatory tone, both shared the tone-deafness of the first.

Taubman said he was "deeply sorry and embarrassed" -- because he "used inappropriate language." He did not admit to targeting the women. He said his "overexuberance in support of a player has been misinterpreted." After deeming himself a "progressive and charitable member of the community" and a "loving and committed husband and father," Taubman offered one final apology: "I am sorry if anyone was offended by my actions." Crane's statement offered no contrition but highlighted the team's financial contributions to local domestic violence support groups. It ended: "We fully support MLB and baseball's stance and values regarding domestic violence."

The ham-fisted statements, sent about four and a half hours before Gerrit Cole threw the first pitch of the World Series, were distributed as MLB was scrambling too. League officials were horrified that the most important games of the season were being played under the specter of a completely preventable incident that was made actively worse twice by the Astros. Officials from baseball's Department of Investigations were on their way to Houston, and the league was trying to firm up times to interview witnesses. They wanted to know what happened. It wouldn't take long to get the truth.

BY WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON, Brandon Taubman's story was crumbling. Starting that morning, Bryan Seeley and Moira Weinberg, both former prosecutors who help lead MLB's investigations, had questioned witnesses -- at least four Astros employees and multiple reporters, sources say. As the interviews ended before Game 2 began, it was clear to MLB as well as the Astros, whose general counsel sat in on interviews, that Taubman's information was bad.

The Astros made the decision Wednesday night to fire Taubman. His words started the mess. He lied about his intent. Astros vs. the world could go only so far.

At 4:33 p.m. ET on Thursday, the Astros issued their fourth statement in less than 72 hours. The second paragraph began: "Our initial investigation led us to believe that Brandon Taubman's inappropriate comments were not directed toward any reporter. We were wrong. We sincerely apologize to Stephanie Apstein, Sports Illustrated and to all individuals who witnessed this incident or were offended by inappropriate conduct." In the third paragraph, they announced Taubman's firing.

What the statement never addressed was the Astros' active participation throughout. They believed Taubman without bothering to ask witnesses not affiliated with the Astros. They smeared Apstein unnecessarily. The Houston Astros put their name, and by extension their approval, on a statement in which Brandon Taubman -- who weaponized another man's domestic violence and used it to target and harass women -- denied that truth and hid behind the fact that he's a husband and father.

On Thursday evening, Luhnow held a news conference in Washington, D.C. He used the word "inappropriate" 13 times and "wrong" 10 times. He took 25 questions. He didn't answer nearly that many. He admitted that he had seen the original statement before its distribution but would not say who wrote it.

"There were a lot of people involved in reviewing it, looking at it, approving it," Luhnow said.

It was, he said, on behalf of the Astros.

"We take accountability for it," Luhnow said. "We take ownership of it. And it was wrong."