WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - On Saturday, the Houston Astros played their initial baseball game since the world found out, and then had confirmed by a Major League Baseball investigation, Inland
Empire 66ers that they cheated in 2017. The spring teaching stadium that
they share with the Stockton
Ports reigning champion Washington Nationals was dominated by Nats fans, who
booed every opportunity they had (which wasn’t many - in a rain-shortened game,
the Astros started only players who debuted in 2018, or afterwards, or not at
all yet). --------------------------------------------------------------- WEST
PALM BEACH, Fla. - On Saturday, the Houston Astros played their initial baseball
game since the world found out, and then had confirmed by a Major League
Baseball investigation, that they cheated in 2017. The spring teaching stadium
that they share with the reigning champion Washington Nationals was dominated by
Nats fans, who booed every opportunity they had (which wasn’t many - in a
rain-shortened game, the Astros started only players who debuted in 2018, or
afterwards, or not at all yet). But among the triumphant reddish colored
T-shirts and at least one custom polo that said “CHAMPS VS Bakersfield
Blaze CHEATS,” there were also Astros fans - people who appreciate baseball
enough to become San
Jose Giants at a spring schooling game over 1,000 miles from Minute Maid
Park; those who Visalia
Rawhide have nothing to do with the today infamous trash-can banging scheme.
When the Astros betrayed the baseball world, they betrayed these people too. Or
maybe most of all. Or maybe they don’t feel that way. Fan stories come with a
built-in caveat. Every archetype could be contradicted or undermined by a dozen
other examples. There’s nothing to end up being concluded about Astros followers
en masse. Beyond that, the concourse of a springtime training facility is a
self-selecting group. The people here in West Palm aren’t the ones who
determined this offseason to abandon the Astros. Even so, I wanted to know how
they sensed about their team’s indiscretions and the subsequent scandal.