Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports
Between Major League Baseball’s investigation into the Houston Astros for illegal sign stealing and the reported proposal to slash 42 minor-league teams, the offseason probably couldn’t have gotten off to a worse PR start for the sport.
And let’s not forget all the October controversy that overshadowed the postseason—the apparent deadening of the baseball following a record-setting regular season for home runs; the ESPN report that pitcher Tyler Skaggs, who had died of a fentanyl overdose in July, had bought drugs from a team media-relations staffer; the report from Sports Illustrated’s Stephanie Apstein before World Series Game 1 about former Astros assistant GM Brandon Taubman taunting female reporters about closer Roberto Osuna, who MLB had suspended for domestic violence, following Game 6 of the ALCS; the tone-deaf public relations fiasco from Houston that, among other blunders, attempted to discredit Apstein; umpire Rob Drake’s tweet about buying an AR-15 in preparation for a “civil war” amid President Trump’s impeachment proceedings.