Fan confronts Astros over sign-stealing scandal: 'You guys keeping the trophy?'
The Houston Astros know what kind of reception they’ll get on the road in 2020. Opposing fans have made that clear, relentlessly booing the team during spring training. While the Astros will have to take their lumps on the road, at least they’ll get a reprieve from that criticism when they play at home. There’s no way the team’s fans would turn on the Astros, right?
[Batter up: Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Baseball league for free today]
Well ... that might not be true. Sure, some Astros fans are willing to continue supporting the club, but others feel betrayed as a result of the team’s cheating. One brave fan even confronted the team during a spring training game:
Some of these fans are getting right up in there at spring training pic.twitter.com/3CS9F2F9lg
— 2020 Astros Shame Tour (@AsteriskTour) February 29, 2020
That fan was able to get right next to the dugout to heckle the Astros. He asked the team if they are “keeping the trophy.” He then asked about Jose Altuve’s MVP award and the World Series rings.
Most players ignored the fan, and didn’t even look in his direction. However, one member of the Astros decided to respond to the fan’s jeers. Someone in the Astros’ dugout told the fan, “As long as you keep paying to come see us.” The person who says that briefly appears in the lower left-hand corner of the video.
That’s a pretty terrible answer, but the fan handled it well. He responded to the Astros by saying, “I’ll come and do this.”
The entire exchange perfectly summarizes why people are frustrated with the Astros heading into 2020. It’s not just that the team cheated and suffered virtually no consequences, it’s the entire organization’s lack of remorse. Fans wanted more contrite apologies and some humility from team owner Jim Crane. Instead, they got players indignantly claiming they are going to shut people up and telling fans the team just wants their money.
While frustrated fans may find the above video cathartic, that type of heckling isn’t going to carry over into the regular season. When the Astros are at Minute Maid Park, the team will have more control over the situation, and a larger security force to send after fans.
It might be a different story when the team leaves Houston. As long as it’s respectful, fans will have more leeway to pull off stunts like this when the Astros go on the road in 2020.
More from Yahoo Sports:
