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The two Houston Astros who dared to show their faces at T-Mobile Park at this year’s MLB All-Star Game got what Seattle Mariners fans feel they deserve: loud, spirited boos.
Houston Astros players Yordan Alvarez and Kyle Tucker were greeted with 300 seconds of disapproving hype for what sounded like almost all of the 47,000-plus fans packed into the Park.
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The injured Alvarez will not play in the match but he was featured in the festivities. Tucker was named as his replacement. Neither Alvarez nor Tucker were part of the Astros senior squad at the time the team was committing the acts that made up the scandal.
The Houston Astros had a three-star selection on the team, but pitcher Framper Valdez was also suffering from an injury and didn’t make the trip to the Pacific Northwest.
Nearly four years after the Astros sign-stealing scandal that helped the team win the 2017 World Series under highly suspicious circumstances completely exposed baseball fans, the Houston team remains the most universally hated team in MLB.
The boos from Mariners fans weren’t limited to anything to do with the Astros in the All-Star Game.
Houston’s first-day picks of the MLB draft, also held in Seattle, were the only thing more frowned upon than Commissioner Rob Manfred’s consistent appearance on the podium to announce first-round picks.
The Houston Astros fell out of the limelight in the wake of the scandal
What most MLB fans are upset about is that the Astros walked off lightly in the wake of the scandal.
Houston manager AJ Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow were suspended for a season, and the Astros were fined a maximum of $5 million. The team also lost first and second round picks in the 2020 and 2021 MLB drafts.
Hinch and Luhnow were both fired in the aftermath, but the Astros players were not penalized. Manfred said in June that he regretted giving Houston players immunity in the scandal.
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