Baseball is blowing it
Bad moves by an ump and a team exec are overshadowing a fascinating World Series
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Baseball can't get out of its own way
Everything should be great right now. The World Series is on, and it's taken a dramatic turn. Oddsmakers pegged the Washington Nationals as the biggest Series underdog in a decade, but they just shocked everyone by winning the first two games in Houston. If they can take two of the next three, which are all in D.C., they'll win the first championship in team history. And they're doing this after losing their former franchise player, Bryce Harper, in free agency last winter. Pretty nice story — and a good chance for baseball to get some rare buzz in an era when it's routinely overshadowed by the NFL and the NBA.
But they're blowing it. Instead of the focus being squarely on a surprising and exciting championship run, it's shifted to two incidents of questionable (at best) behaviour and/or comments.
The first involved Houston's assistant general manager. After the Astros beat the Yankees to win the American League pennant on Saturday, Sports Illustrated's Stephanie Apstein reported that Brandon Taubman turned to a group of three female reporters in the clubhouse and yelled "Thank God we got Osuna! I'm so f------ glad we got Osuna!" multiple times. The timing was odd because Osuna had given up a game-tying homer in the ninth inning. He was also suspended 75 games last year for violating Major League Baseball's domestic violence policy when we was with the Blue Jays, allowing Houston to trade for him at a cut rate. Other journalists in the clubhouse corroborated Apstein's report, but the Astros released a statement calling it "misleading and completely irresponsible." The team also accused her of trying to "fabricate a story where one does not exist." Taubman later issued a sort-of apology for his "inappropriate language" and "unprofessional" comments, and the Astros assured everyone that they're against domestic violence. But no one has apologized for attacking the reporter's credibility.
UPDATE: On Thursday, the Astros announced they had fired Taubman after they said more investigation on their part confirmed Apstein's original report.
The latest incident involved a veteran umpire. Rob Drake is not working the World Series, but he posted this (quickly deleted) message on Twitter: "I will be buying an AR-15 tomorrow, because if you impeach MY PRESIDENT this way, YOU WILL HAVE ANOTHER CIVAL WAR!!! #MAGA2020." Yes, that's how he spelled civil. MLB says it's looking into the tweet.
Baseball isn't the only sport going through a rough patch — but this is different. The NBA is still dealing with the fallout from how it handled Houston (what is it with that town right now?) Rockets GM Daryl Morey tweeting his support for the protests in Hong Kong against the ruling Chinese government. But at least there's nuance there. A reasonable person could, say, approve of Morey supporting resistance to an authoritarian regime, but also think that maybe he shouldn't have jeopardized multi-billion-dollar business deals with a casual tweet that had little chance of actually helping the people in Hong Kong. It's much harder to defend someone hyping a player who was charged with domestic assault by directing an expletive-filled outburst at a group of women — and then the team trying to make it go away by attacking the reporter's credibility. And now you've got an umpire threatening to maybe shoot some people.
These incidents are another blow for a sport that's seen better days. It's not like MLB is going out of business. In fact, it's making more money than ever. But in terms of prominence in the culture, baseball has slipped behind the NFL (that happened a long time ago) and the NBA (more recently). Average attendance dropped for the fourth year in a row, and even hardcore fans are getting restless with the direction the sport is taking. Home runs continue to climb, which is fun. But so do strikeouts and pitching changes, which are not. Modern baseball is a standstill game where the ball is rarely in play and games seem to drag on longer than ever. Also, inequality is increasing. A record four teams won more than 100 games this season, while four lost 100 for only the second time ever. Many teams seem less interested in putting a good team on the field than in turning a big profit — something that's easy to do these days, even with a bad team, because of the firehose of TV and streaming money coming in. The on-field concerns are big enough. Throw in the latest off-field stuff and it's a rough time all around for baseball.
Quickly...
Toronto FC pulled off a big playoff upset. They came into the Eastern Conference semifinals hot after scoring four goals in extra time for a 5-1 win over D.C. United in the opening round. But Toronto was still a pretty big underdog on the road against New York City FC — the top team in the East. TFC pulled off the 2-1 upset after Alejandro Pozuelo scored his second goal of the night on a penalty in the 90th minute (Hopefully you could see it OK — the game was played at the Mets' stadium and the foul-ball netting was right in the camera angle). Toronto's opponent in the Eastern final on Wednesday will be either Philadelphia or defending MLS Cup champion Atlanta. They play tonight.
Conor McGregor is getting back in the octagon. When we last saw him in a sanctioned fight, the UFC's mouthiest star got tapped out in October 2018 by lightweight champ Khabib Nurmagomedov and then got involved in a brawl. Both fighters were suspended for their roles in it. When we last saw McGregor in an unsanctioned fight, a video showed him sucker-punching an older guy at a bar in Ireland (and not really hurting him). McGregor announced today his next UFC bout will be in January against an unnamed opponent. By that time, he'll have been out of the octagon for 15 months. Read more about McGregor's comeback plans here.
Kyrie Irving made a very Kyrie Irving debut for Brooklyn. The full Kyrie experience was on display in his first game with the Nets. The good: one of basketball's most entertaining scorers dazzled the home crowd by pouring in 50 points. The bad: Brooklyn lost 127-126 in overtime to the so-so Timberwolves and Kyrie was truly a one-man show. Forty per cent of the Nets' plays ended with him either taking the shot, getting to the free-throw line or turning the ball over. For context, that usage rate would have led the entire NBA last season.
And finally...
Simone Biles continues to be delightful. Fresh off winning her record fifth all-around world title, the greatest gymnast of all time threw out the first pitch at last night's World Series game in her hometown of Houston. And she didn't just throw it. Biles warmed up for the toss by performing an impressive-looking backflip/twist move right there on the infield. Check out the video:
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