Tag: Astros Cheating Scandal

Astros catcher Martin Maldonado responded after White Sox’s Ryan Tepera called out their ‘sketchy’ reputation

The Astros didn’t like that comment.

The Chicago White Sox returned home for Sunday’s Game 3 against the Houston Astros and were able to avoid an ALDS sweep thanks to a breakout game offensively. Chicago scored 12 runs on 16 hits, and on the flip side, Houston struggled at the plate away from Minute Maid Park.

Well, White Sox reliever Ryan Tepera didn’t exactly shy away from offering his theory behind the Astros’ road loss. He, of course, brought up the cheating scandal and implied — with no actual evidence — that some sign-stealing antics could be ongoing with this Houston team.

It was the kind of read-between-the-lines answer in a postgame press conference that caught the attention of the Astros clubhouse too.

Tepera said:

“They’ve obviously had a reputation of doing some sketchy stuff over there. It’s just, we can say that it’s a little bit of a difference, you know? I think you saw the swings and misses tonight compared to the first two games at Minute Maid. But that’s not really the story. We come here to play, we’re gonna compete. We’re not even gonna worry about what they’re gonna do. All we have to do is execute pitches, and they can’t hit them anyways.”

Honestly, I’m not sure what Tepera was hoping to do there besides fire up his own clubhouse (and troll the Astros). It would be tough to imagine the Astros continuing a sign-stealing system with a microscope constantly on them. Plus, their home-and-away splits were virtually the same this season.

Still, the comments were enough to grab the attention of Astros catcher Martin Maldonado. He definitely saw that press conference as bulletin-board material.

The Astros will have an extra day to let those comments simmer too as Game 4 was postponed due to weather.

Dodgers fans boo PA announcer after he told crowd to stop throwing objects onto the field

That kind of night at Dodger Stadium.

Out of all the hostile crowds the Astros have faced since the cheating scandal broke before the 2020 season, nothing matched what the team faced at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday night.

The Dodgers, as you probably remember, lost to Houston in the 2017 World Series while the Astros were all in on their sign-stealing tactics. And Tuesday night was the first opportunity the Dodgers fans truly had to lash out at the Astros players.

There was an expectation that things could get out of hand, and they sort of did. Videos hit Twitter of Astros fans getting pelted by drinks in the stands, and there were some fights. At one point, someone threw a foul ball back onto the field, which prompted a warning from PA announcer Todd Leitz.

And that wasn’t even well received!

During Carlos Correa’s third-inning at-bat, the Astros infielder stepped out of the box as the PA announcer reminded the crowd that abusive behavior and throwing objects onto the field wouldn’t be tolerated. The crowd then proceeded to boo that announcement.

It was just that kind of night. This was how the fans welcomed Correa to the batter’s box:

Despite the rowdy crowd, the Astros would go on to win, 3-0.

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Astros mocked the ‘buzzer’ cheating conspiracy with HR celebration against the Yankees

A response to Aaron Judge.

While much of the Astros cheating scandal concerned the team’s sign-stealing system, new layers to the entire ordeal did emerge ahead of the 2020 season. Notably, it was all about Jose Altuve and buzzers.

When fans dove into the footage of Astros games between 2017 and 2019, many flagged Altuve’s walk-off home run off the Yankees’ Aroldis Chapman that sent Houston to the 2019 World Series.

As Altuve approached home at the time, he reminded his teammates to not rip at his jersey, which sparked unproven allegations that Altuve had some kind of buzzing device under his jersey to steal signs. He’d later say he wanted to keep the jersey on because he was shy.

But fast forward to Sunday’s Astros-Yankees game where Martin Maldonado clearly referenced the buzzer conspiracies after his solo home run off Jameson Taillon. This came after Aaron Judge trolled Altuve about buzzers on Saturday.

As Maldonado rounded third to trot to home, he pulled down his jersey to show the Yankees that he wasn’t wearing a buzzer. It wasn’t exactly subtle.

Fans definitely noticed.

If anything, this rivalry keeps getting better.

https://youtu.be/pgHz7vbqMWw

Yankees fans had the most New York response to Alex Bregman’s first-inning home run

Classic.

Tuesday night’s game between the Astros and New York Yankees marked the first time that Houston would pay visit to Yankee Stadium since the cheating scandal broke before the 2020 season.

For the Yankees, the entire scandal was tough to handle. The Yankees lost both the 2017 and 2019 American League pennants to Houston in dramatic fashion, so the notion of getting cheated — well, it wasn’t something Yankees fans took lightly.

With an opportunity to roast the Astros for the first time in over a year, Yankees fans turned out in full force with creative ways of heckling. But Alex Bregman would strike first with a first-inning homer despite plenty of boos from the crowd.

Yet, that home run didn’t exactly silence the New York crowd. Instead, they just booed Bregman louder. Just listen:

I mean, you almost have to respect that reaction. It didn’t get any more New York than that.

Giancarlo Stanton would respond to that solo shot with a two-run homer of his own.

Yankees fans approved.

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Yankees fans came up with so many creative ways to roast the Astros before game at Yankee Stadium

People don’t forget.

When news broke last year about the Houston Astros’ multi-season cheating scandal dating back to 2017, no fanbases took the scandal harder than the Yankees and Dodgers.

The Dodgers, of course, lost the 2017 World Series to Houston. The Yankees lost that 2017 ALCS to Houston in seven games and then lost the 2019 pennant to Houston by way of a highly suspect Game 6 walk-off home run by Jose Altuve.

Of course, the scandal would break shortly after that season, and the coronavirus pandemic would send the 2020 season behind closed doors. So, the Astros generally avoided the harshest treatment from opposing fans. That’s over now.

Tuesday’s game at Yankee Stadium marked a much-anticipated event for Yankees fans. They had literally been waiting more than a year to roast the Astros. With all that time to prepare, the fans got very creative.

If the commitment of a TV-quality Oscar the Grouch costume wasn’t enough, there was more of this for the Astros players:

Assuming weather doesn’t interrupt the game, it should be a wild one in the Bronx.

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Dusty Baker was super disappointed that Angels fans taunted the Astros with trash cans

“It’s a sad situation for America.”

Last year, the Houston Astros avoided much of the fallout from their cheating scandal thanks to an MLB season that was played behind closed doors amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Well, fans are back in the stands for 2021, and they didn’t forget about those Astros.

The Los Angeles Angels welcomed around 14,000 fans to Monday night’s game against Houston, and the hecklers turned out in full force. There were multiple stoppages when trash cans (both inflatable and actual trash cans) fell onto the playing field.

The fans also taunted and booed the Astros players incessantly throughout the game, which the Angels won, 7-6.

But man, Astros manager Dusty Baker — who wasn’t around for the actual cheating — took the harsh treatment from the L.A. faithful hard. He went as far as to call the scene a “sad situation for America.”

This was how he reacted after the game:

Baker said:

“How many in the stands have never done anything wrong in their life? We paid the price for it. How many people have not cheated on a test or whatever at some point in time? I mean, it’s easy if you live in glass houses, but I don’t think anybody lives in glass houses.”

He continued:

“I think that sometimes we need to look at ourselves before you spew hate on somebody else. It’s a sad situation for America, to me, when you hear things – I mean what are the kids supposed to think in the stands? And some of them are kids that are following their parents. It’s sad to me. People make mistakes. We paid for ours, and I wish they’d leave it alone.”

While some of the heckling would still be there regardless, much of this hostile treatment to the Astros stems from the fact that they didn’t pay for their mistakes. MLB granted the players — the actual people who did the cheating — immunity in exchange for cooperation with its investigation.

Baker is, of course, standing up for his players, but his entire point overlooks that Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman escaped a massive cheating scandal with zero punishment beyond having to give an insincere apology. It’s also a bit disingenuous to equate cheating on a test to cheating en route to a World Series championship.

But really, Dusty, the inflatable trash can was funny. Just laugh it off and move on. It’s going to be that way all season on the road.

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Marlins security guard was apparently hitting a trash can during Alex Bregman’s entire at-bat

Amazing.

Though crowds will be at a reduced capacity at most MLB ballparks, the Houston Astros will play regular season games in front of fans for the first time since the cheating scandal took over the 2019 offseason.

Last year, we saw glimpses of how fans went to creative lengths to taunt the Astros for the cheating scandal, which included someone shouting from a San Diego condo balcony with a megaphone during the postseason.

Well, you know it’s going to be bad for Houston when even the opposing stadium staff gets in on the heckling.

According to Astros beat writer Chandler Rome, a security guard at the Marlins’ Roger Dean Stadium was seen banging on a trash can for the entirety of an Alex Bregman at-bat on Sunday.

Bregman stuck out looking on the at-bat too, so I’ll just credit this security guard for the effort.

The Marlins-Astros game was not televised on Sunday, so there’s no video of the at-bat. But we should expect to see plenty more of this as the MLB season gets underway.

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The Houston Astros cheating scandal has now been roasted on ‘Family Guy’

So good.

The “Astros Shame Tour” hasn’t ended just yet.

The Houston Astros dominated last MLB offseason as details behind their multi-year cheating scheme went public, leading to the firing of manager A.J. Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow. And while no players were actually punished, this past season was supposed to be absolutely brutal for the Astros in terms of treatment from fans and opponents.

We saw only a brief look at that in spring training before the coronavirus pandemic sent the season behind closed doors.

But from the looks of the recent episode of Family Guy, the Astros cheating scandal won’t be falling out of the spotlight any time soon.

A clip from Sunday’s episode spoofed an ESPN 30 for 30 about the Astros’ cheating where Oscar The Grouch ended up being the mastermind behind the whole operation.

You have to think that some Astros player saw that episode as it aired. I mean, that would have been too good.

For now, there’s no telling what MLB attendance will look like next season. The NLCS and World Series were played in front of a limited crowd in Arlington. But once the pandemic ends, you can almost guarantee that MLB fans will make up for the missed opportunity to boo the Astros.

Even Family Guy did its part.

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Baseball fans mocked the Astros’ cheating with some epic Halloween costumes

Well done.

You know that it’s never a good sign for MLB commissioner Rob Manfred when Halloween costumes held the Houston Astros more accountable than he did.

But that’s where we are in 2020.

The MLB offseason was dominated by the revelations of the Astros’ cheating during their 2017 World Series season. And then Manfred added fuel to that fire when he opted to forego punishing the individual players involved in the cheating. That — on top of a MLB season played behind closed doors — had baseball fans looking some outlet — any outlet — to shame the Astros.

And it turned out that many settled on some creative Halloween costumes to do just that.

The Astros Shame Tour Twitter account shared a few Astros-themed costume ideas from this weekend’s Halloween. And you just have to tip your cap to these ideas.

Great efforts all around.

One costume even brought back the Jose Altuve buzzer conspiracy.

Amazing.

At some point, baseball fans will get a chance to properly boo the Astros, but until then, those costumes will do just fine.

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A fan has been taunting the Astros with a megaphone from balcony near the Padres’ stadium

Amazing.

Before the coronavirus pandemic put a stop to the baseball season and sent games behind closed doors, the Houston Astros were essentially guaranteed a season full of hostility from opposing crowds.

The Astros cheating scandal dominated the offseason, and we were already seeing that hostility play out during spring training before the sport was shut down.

But closed-door games haven’t completely shielded the Astros from their much-deserved heckling. Fans will always find a way. We’ve seen that play out during the ALCS matchup with the Rays at San Diego’s Petco Park.

Reporters at the stadium noticed someone watching the game with a megaphone from a nearby apartment balcony. He was taunting the Astros for the cheating scandal.

According to The New York Times, this fan shouted insults like:

“Attention: Members of the Houston Astros organization that participated in the sign-stealing scandal of 2017 and 2018. You all are a bunch of cheaters. The global baseball community has not forgotten your transgressions against the game.”

Just legendary.

The Times actually caught up with this fan: 30-year-old Chicago White Sox fan, Tim Kanter.

He went as far as to purchase a megaphone that could project sound the approximate 700 feet from his balcony to the field (he did the math to figure out the distance). And Astros second baseman Jose Altuve evidently noticed the heckling as he could be seen turning around and looking towards the outfield as Kanter was speaking.

We haven’t been able to find video of Kanter’s antics, but plenty of reporters heard it.

You have to respect that effort from a totally neutral fan who just wanted to shame the Astros for cheating. Well done, Tim.

He’ll have another chance during Thursday’s Game 5.

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