Major League Baseball

How do new Astros deal with boos borne of 2017? 'If it's witty, I'm all for it'

Updated Aug. 9, 2023 4:06 p.m. ET

NEW YORK — The eight-year-old spotted the orange star and instinctively started booing.

It's thirty minutes before first pitch at Yankee Stadium and a parade of eager little-leaguers are circling the dirt warning track for a typical pre-game ceremony. As a team in full purple and white uniforms trots by the visiting dugout, one particularly observant kid notices Houston Astros reliever Ryne Stanek, leaning against the helmet rack, deep in conversation.

"BOOOOOO, ASTROS SUCK" the child hollers in Stanek's direction.

A handful of the kid's teammates, recognizing the rare opportunity to chirp a Houston Astro live and in person, immediately join the party. Soon, the whole squad is booing in unison; while a swarm of adolescent thumbs gesture downward towards Stanek in utter disgust.

Stanek, his long blonde hair tucked beneath a backwards Astros cap, hears the buzzing and looks up to see the slow-moving pack of adolescents sneering at him, or more specifically, at the logo on his shirt. In turn, the jovial right hander waves and smiles — only intensifying the jeers — and then, without a word, returns to his business as the childish symphony of aggrieved taunting rolls on.

When asked about the interaction a day later, Stanek, who joined Houston in 2021, four years after the infamous sign-stealing scheme took place, grinned and chuckled. At this point, he's well used to the dissonance.

"They're booing me and obviously I wasn't here, I was on another team," He noted, referencing his 2017 rookie season with the Tampa Bay Rays. "Those kids were born in, what? 2015? They could barely walk when all that stuff went down. They just think that [booing] is what they're supposed to do.

But for Stanek, and his 22 fellow teammates who weren't members of the 2017 Astros, that's the status quo in the post-can-banging era.

When The Athletic's Evan Drellich and Ken Rosenthal broke the story in November 2019, the Astros cheating scandal lit the baseball world ablaze, infuriating fans and big-leaguers alike. The hitters tangled up in the scheme immediately became villains, particularly Houston cornerstones like Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa and Alex Bregman.

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The Astros' continued run of success, the brazen nature of their infractions and the relatively unapologetic tone from that group of players helped blot an enduring stain on the franchise's reputation. Still today, the Astros organization remains the butt of many jokes, the recipient of many boos. Fair or not, that's how it goes. It's not about what other teams did or didn't do. Houston cheated. They got caught and they got punished. Now they get clowned.

But much has changed in the six seasons since the Astros' pitapat subterfuge. Only four players remain on the payroll from that tainted world title squad. Lance McCullers hasn't thrown a pitch since 2022. Justin Verlander was a midseason trade addition that season. So Alex Bregman and Jose Altuve are the only true culprits still donning the navy and orange.

Every other player, many of whom were main characters in the 2022 World Series run — Yordan Alvarez, Chas McCormick, Kyle Tucker, Framber Valdez, Jeremy Peña — were nowhere near the dugout tunnel trash can that made the Astros the ire of the sporting world.

That doesn't stop many opposing fans, who voice their displeasure on all 26 Houston ballplayers whenever the Astros arrive — though Bregman and Altuve receive by far the loudest boos. Stanek knows that when he gets chirped, it's nothing personal.

"Usually when they ‘mother-f' you, it's just cuz of the jersey."

Houston outfielder Jake Meyers, who spent the first half of 2017 starring for the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers, is similarly unbothered by the indiscriminate booing. Meyers says that while the vitriol has died down noticeably, he vividly remembers the tidal wave of jeers during his first MLB Spring Training in 2021.

"That first year, fans had zero perspective. Now I think they've gotten smarter about it. Now, it's just a couple guys who get the worst of it."

"My favorite chirp I heard was a fan telling me that I was practicing my cheating in the minors."

Reliever Phil Maton remembers his first Astros booing experience as well. In the summer of 2021, Maton was dealt to Houston at the trade deadline and joined the team in San Francisco, where they were in the midst of a west-coast swing.

On his first day with his new club, just hours after getting off the plane, mere minutes after putting on his uniform for the first time, Maton entered the visiting bullpen alongside three other deadline acquisitions: Yimi García, Rafael Montero and Kendall Graveman. As the door swung open, the four newbies were greeted by a thunderstorm of boos from the Giant faithful

"I was sitting with him, "Stanek remembers "And I literally looked up and told a guy, ‘yo you know, he just got traded here, right' And the guy goes, ‘I don't care.'

Despite comical stories like that one, Stanek understands the reality of the situation. For a player who was just as mad as everybody else when the scandal broke, Stanek completely gets why fans are ticked. He just wishes they were a bit more creative.

"It's usually unoriginal stuff, honestly. Cheater, trashcan jokes, whatever. But if it's witty, I'm all for it. Make me think hard about it. Catch me off guard. If you do, I'll give you props, good for you."

Jake Mintz, the louder half of @CespedesBBQ is a baseball writer for FOX Sports. He played college baseball, poorly at first, then very well, very briefly. Jake lives in New York City where he coaches Little League and rides his bike, sometimes at the same time. Follow him on Twitter at @Jake_Mintz.