Jeff Luhnow just completed one of the greatest rebuilding jobs baseball has ever seen, and part of that execution required selling it to the city of Houston, explaining to Astros fans what he intended to do so that they’d keep the faith and be ready when the ramp-up arrived.
It turns out that Luhnow, the general manager of the World Series-winning Astros, gained those communication skills from both his heredity and his environment. And that Luhnow’s brother is, in a corporate way, a brother of The Post.
“My dad was a newspaperman,” Luhnow said before World Series Game 6 at Dodger Stadium. “My grandfather was a newspaperman. My ex-wife was a TV anchor. My brother’s a journalist. I’ve been through media training in prior careers and also have watched them and observed, and I think, for sure, (that helped).”
David Luhnow, Jeff’s brother, is Latin American editor for the Wall Street Journal, which like The Post is owned by News Corp. David Luhnow is based in Mexico City and attended some games of the Astros’ championship run, including American League Championship Series action against the Yankees at Yankee Stadium.
“I think our family’s ties to journalism helped Jeff to not view the press as an enemy and treat them with respect in the understanding they are just trying to do their jobs,” David Luhnow wrote in an email. “I think he’s generally done a good job providing journalists with access and being open about the front office process. Some may have mistakenly interpreted that transparency as tooting their own horn, but I think it was a good move to explain to fans and get them to buy in.”
David Lunhow continued: “I am the one that feels I have learned more by witnessing Jeff’s experiences with the press and seeing what it’s like with the shoe on the other foot, so to speak. I think journalists sometimes treated him unfairly, or made things too black and white in search of an angle. There were times in St. Louis (where Luhnow worked in the Cardinals’ front office) when stories were published about him where he wasn’t even called for comment, and to me that bordered on journalistic malpractice. Things got a lot better in Houston. It has underscored for me what an important responsibility we have as journalists to give everyone a fair hearing and to use our calling with humility.”
Amen to that. Jeff Luhnow admitted that, because of his background, “I also have a disdain for poor journalism, when people don’t check their sources and just say things and then never go back and correct what they say, which happens in our industry way more than it should.”
This winter, no one figures to screw up one basic item: The Astros, for the first time in their 56-year history, are champions.
This week’s Pop Quiz question came from John Stafford of Rye: This musician, best known for the instrumental “Clasical Gas,” shares his name with an outfielder who spent time with the Yankees each of the three last seasons. Name him.
It has now become an extremely worthwhile World Series tradition: A mid-game moment of silence to tribute someone you know who is (or was) battling cancer, courtesy of the great organization Stand Up To Cancer. It happened this year after the fifth inning of Game 4, and in conjunction with that, a new Public Service Announcement launched. Kudos to everyone involved.
Your Pop Quiz answer is Mason Williams. If you have a tidbit that connects baseball with popular culture, please send it to me at kdavidoff@nypost.com.