Ted Cruz Comments on Being Booed and Flipped Off at Yankee Stadium: 'You Gotta Expect That'

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Ted Cruz didn't get the warmest welcome at New York City's Yankee Stadium this weekend.

The controversial Texas senator, 51, attended Sunday night's match-up against the Houston Astros wearing Astros colors and was met with several fans flipping him off at the home of the Bronx Bombers.

An image shared to Twitter by Jesse Angelo of Vice shows a spectator giving him a big thumbs down and at least three Yankees fans flashing their middle fingers at Cruz, who walked around the stadium in an orange button-up.

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Cruz, who sat behind home plate decked out in his Astros colors, could be seen throughout the game standing up and cheering on his team. Unfortunately for Cruz, several Yankees fans greeted him with the opposite of cheers as he watched his team eliminate the Yankees from playoff contention.

United States Senator Ted Cruz of Texas (top-L) stands during a Houston Astros at bat against the New York Yankees in the fourth game of the American League Championship Series between the Houston Astros and the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx borough of New York, New York, USA, 23 October 2022. MLB Houston Astros at New York Yankees, USA - 23 Oct 2022

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The Astros ended up winning the game 6-5 and taking the series 4-0, as Cruz responded to the photo in question with the word "scoreboard" and the hashtag "#GoStros." He shared an image of himself at the game earlier, writing "Minutes from opening pitch in Yankee Stadium."

Another clip posted to Twitter shows Yankee fans heckling the senator with boos, calling him a "loser," a "racist piece of s---," and demanding he go "back to Cancun." The last comment was in reference to the Republican's trip to Cancún in February 2021, when millions of Texans remained without power and water due to a winter storm that damaged the power grid.

Not all greetings were negative, though, as one man could be seen shuffling through the rows of Yankee Stadium to grab a selfie with the politician.

RELATED: Ted Cruz Says Supreme Court Was Wrong to Legalize Gay Marriage: 'Ignored 2 Centuries of Our Nation's History'

Responding to the viral Yankees appearance in an interview on The Megyn Kelly Show Monday, Cruz said the night was "spectacular" despite the angry reactions.

"I knew I was going into the belly of the beast, I was in bright orange Astros colors," he continued. "I saw a few middle fingers, but frankly if you're an Astros fan at a Yankees game, you gotta expect that."

Investigative reporter Hunter Walker, who was at the game, tweeted that Cruz left the stadium at the top of the sixth inning while the Astros were still tied with the Yankees.

Cruz was in New York for an appearance on NBC's The View, which aired Monday morning.

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Outside of his most recent run-in at Yankee Stadium, Cruz has made headlines a few different times throughout the year, notably for his concerns about Sesame Street having Elmo "aggressively advocate for vaccinating children UNDER 5," and for his comments pertaining to Roe v. Wade being overturned this summer.

In a July episode of his podcast, Verdict With Ted Cruz, Cruz argued that the 2015 Supreme Court case that legalized gay marriage in the U.S. "was clearly wrong when it was decided," comparing the Obergefell v. Hodges case to Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion until being overturned by the court in June.