It’s only the preseason, and already the Houston Astros have been heckled more in the first two weeks of exhibition play than they have over the last decade.
Don’t look for it to stop anytime soon.
Today’s victim was Jose Altuve, not that it is ever isolated to just one Astros player.
Fan tells Altuve to give Judge the MVP
The Houston Astros World Series title of 2017 is seemingly going to haunt them for years to come.
After admitting they took part in a pitch cheating scandal, the Astros apologized — albeit very lethargically — for their actions.
If they thought the apology was going to make everything magically forgotten, they were wrong.
The boos, jeers, and mocking has been in full force for well over a week now and will surely get worse when the regular season arrives.
In today’s preseason game, the Astros faced the St. Louis Cardinals when a fan decided to tell Altuve what he thought he should do with his 2017 MVP Award.
It’s only March 1st and things are starting to get chippy in the stands
(Via @Stevecass7) pic.twitter.com/H8NMn3ElKU
— 2020 Astros Shame Tour (@AsteriskTour) March 1, 2020
Ironically, the Astros were the home team, yet the heckling was still intact.
According to the USA Today, Altuve was in the on-deck circle as a fan let the Astros star hear about the tainted 2017 American League MVP award.
The fan shouted at Altuve to give his MVP “back” to the 2017 runner-up Aaron Judge. If you look at the video quickly, you can see Altuve engaging with the fan’s heckling.
The Astros won the game 5-4, and Altuve finished the game 1-for-2 on the day.
However, the bigger story is yet to come. You know that this is going to boil over at some point during the season.
Unfortunately, this whole cheating scandal is going to get worse before it gets better in terms of interactions between the Astros players and fans.
Judge deletes tweet
While Aaron Judge hasn’t been too outspoken about the Astros scandal, he did admit that he deleted a congratulatory tweet to Altuve after the news of the Astros cheating scandal broke.
“They cheated. It didn’t sit well with me, and I just didn’t feel like the post that I did really meant the same anymore,” Judge said at Yankees spring training.
Judge finished in second place in the 2017 AL MVP Award voting behind Altuve, but his numbers were more than worthy of winning the award.
The Yankees slugger smashed 52 home runs, drove in 114 RBI, and finished with a .284 batting average.
As for Altuve “giving up” the 2017 AL MVP Award?
That’s never going to happen — but he may sometimes secretly wish he never won it in the first place now that the cat is out of the bag.