As a Los Angeles Dodgers Fan, there’s no team I hate more in Major League Baseball than the Houston Astros. After it was revealed that the Astros had cheated during their 2017 World Series run, many fans of the game expected swift and thorough punishment from MLB officials. Extreme disappointment set in when MLB did little to nothing to punish the team and the players who engaged in the sign-stealing scheme. The Astros’ manager and general manager were both suspended for a year, the team was fined 5 million dollars, and they lost two draft picks in the following two years of drafts.
In response, the Astros fired their manager and general manager but punished no players on their team who participated in the scandal. Teams with actual integrity, who had picked up implicated coaches from the Astros after the 2017 season, dismissed those pick-ups. The Red Sox released Alex Cora and the Mets released Carlos Beltran.
(Oh yeah, they did one of those fake apology things too, and, as my podcast partner and fellow Dodgers superfan Jennifer Van Laar wrote in February 2020, they can “shove their sorries in a sack.”)
Regardless of team, fans of the sport have taken justice into their own hands by relentlessly mocking the Astros in the seasons since the cheating scandal was uncovered.
— Right Handed Power (@righthandedpwr) November 1, 2020
Waiting for my food and see this worker dressed up for Halloween @AsteriskTour pic.twitter.com/Y9rIM16Fnk
— Eric (@Eric30Hernandez) October 31, 2020
In 2017 and 2018 the Houston Astros cheated & won the 2017 World Series* using a system of hidden cameras to steal signs and banging a trash can to signal pitches to the batter. Astro management was punished, but the players were not. These are their stories. pic.twitter.com/9LlJBmHKEb
— Brendan (@brendan_rbl) October 31, 2020
the astros losing has really united our country
— Lana Berry (@Lana) October 18, 2020
Every other fan base to the Astros fans right now pic.twitter.com/I7jiZHcj8p
— TheCheapSeats (@CheapSeatsLLC) October 18, 2020
“The Astros don’t need to cheat, they’ll be fine. They’ll still be back in the World Series.” pic.twitter.com/UfWI22K9Hv
— NOTSportsCenter (@NOTSportsCenter) October 18, 2020
Houston Astros World Series titles with a trash can: 1 (1 season)
Houston Astros World Series titles without a trash can: 0 (58 seasons)
— Danny Vietti (@DannyVietti) October 18, 2020
New York Yankees Fans have been particularly relentless in their attacks on the 2017 Champs*.
*Not Really Champs
Dodgers fans Yankees fans
🤝
Hating the Astros https://t.co/MdLBoRSNcO
— Dodgers Nation (@DodgersNation) May 5, 2021
After the Astros’ treatment at Yankee Stadium, it is now reported that the Houston Astros have gone and complained to MLB suggesting that the accurate mocking was somehow distracting from the game.
From Fox News:
The Houston Astros received a New York welcome from Yankee fans this week in their first meeting since the Astros’ sign-stealing scam was exposed – but according to a report, Houston allegedly complained to the league about taunting this season, which resulted in security curbing some hecklers.
In the first of a three-game series on Tuesday, Yankee fan David Taub went viral for wearing an Oscar the Grouch costume – a nod to the Astros’ use of garbage cans for signaling to batters.
Taub told Sports Illustrated that he previously received confirmation before the game that he could wear the costume but when he showed up on Tuesday he was not allowed in as security informed him: “Our policy changed.”
Numerous fans throughout the stadium reported that MLB had asked Yankee Stadium officials to reduce the onslaught of heckling, by preventing certain costumes and items from the stadium.
update: the Yankees told him he could not wear the costume into the stadium
— joon 이준엽 (@joonlee) May 4, 2021
The first casualty of the Yankees-Astros game: an inflatable trash can confiscated by security pic.twitter.com/Ip6fK6xVYz
— Stephanie Apstein (@stephapstein) May 4, 2021
If this report is accurate, the Astros, on top of being cheaters, are thin-skinned as well. I hope that fans in other stadiums pick up the torch and give the Astros exactly what they are deserving.
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