Houston Astros owner Jim Crane wrote a letter to a Sports Illustrated reporter to apologize for a statement from the team last week that questioned her reporting.
Stephanie Apstein on Sunday tweeted the letter from Crane, saying she received it on Saturday.
Astros owner Jim Crane sent me a letter on Saturday retracting the team’s original statement about my story. “We were wrong.”https://t.co/arvGceF4To pic.twitter.com/bw2TZI3fh2
— Stephanie Apstein (@stephapstein) October 27, 2019
Last Monday, Apstein reported that during the celebration in the Astros clubhouse after clinching the American League Championship Series on Oct. 19, assistant general manager Brandon Taubman turned to a group of female reporters — including one wearing a purple domestic violence awareness bracelet — and repeatedly yelled, “Thank God we got (Roberto) Osuna! I’m so f—ing glad we got Osuna!”
Last season, Osuna served a 75-game suspension for violating Major League Baseball’s domestic violence policy, stemming from an incident that happened while he was a member of the Toronto Blue Jays.
The Astros initially denied Apstein’s report, calling the story “misleading and completely irresponsible” in a statement Monday.
In the letter, Crane wrote that he is apologizing to Apstein on behalf of the Astros and retracting that Monday statement.
“We were wrong and I am sorry that we initially questioned your professionalism,” Crane wrote. “We retract that statement, and I assure you that the Houston Astros will learn from this experience.”
Taubman was fired by the Astros on Thursday. The team said in a statement that Taubman’s “inappropriate comments” were directed at the women. The team said it was “wrong” in its initial conclusions and apologized to “Apstein, Sports Illustrated and to all individuals who witnessed this incident or were offended by the inappropriate conduct.
“The Astros in no way intended to minimize the issues related to domestic violence,” the team said in its statement.
Information from ESPN’s Bradford Doolittle was used in this report.