The Rise and Sudden Fall of the Houston Astros

On Oct. 19, life was grand for the Astros. After leading the majors with 107 wins in the regular season, they clinched their second World Series berth in three years with a towering home run by Jose Altuve off the Yankees’ Aroldis Chapman in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series.

Yet almost from the moment that drive cleared the left field fence, the organization descended into chaos.

In the clubhouse celebration after that game, the assistant general manager Brandon Taubman gloated profanely to a group of female reporters about the Astros’ acquisition of pitcher Roberto Osuna, who had been serving a suspension for domestic violence when the team traded for him in 2018. The Astros compounded the problem by publicly denying the incident, another public-relations blunder for a team that had barred a credentialed reporter from its clubhouse in August to placate pitcher Justin Verlander.

Taubman was fired during the World Series, which the Astros lost to the Washington Nationals in seven games.

Houston’s ace starter, Gerrit Cole, joined the Yankees in December, signing a nine-year, $324 million contract. The Astros also lost Nolan Ryan, the Hall of Famer and team icon, who quit as an executive adviser after the team owner Jim Crane elevated his son Jared in the team’s hierarchy and demoted Ryan’s son Reid, who had been president of business operations.

But the worst news, by far, came on Nov. 12, when The Athletic published a story in which the former Astros pitcher Mike Fiers confirmed the team’s sign-stealing methods in 2017: Players decoded the catcher’s signals from a live video feed, then communicated the signal to the hitter by banging a trash can in the tunnel near the dugout.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/18/sports/houston-astros-cheating.html?emc=rss&partner=rss