Facing the music is part of season
When the Astros were introduced as a team at RingCentral Coliseum in Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, boos dominated the night.
The sweet sounds of baseball are back, baby.
The Astros heard the music last season, but thanks to COVID-19 restrictions, they didn’t have to face it.
Sounds were pumped into ballparks as per normal, but with cardboard cutouts replacing people in the seats, the Astros, like every other team, played much of the season in relative silence.
That was a relief of sorts, considering just before 2020 spring training, Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred released a damning report that found the Astros guilty of an electronic sign-stealing
scheme.
The Astros probably didn’t benefit from the sign-stealing to the extent they would not have won the 2017 World Series without the so-called cheating, but it was obvious from the reception in Grapefruit League ballparks last spring that opposing fans were going to be vicious.
The once loveable Astros had become the most hated team in the sport.
Even some Astros season ticket holders sued the ballclub, claiming various levels of disgust or alleged fraud over having bought tickets and enjoyed the 2017 championship run only to have it tainted a couple years later.
Morning Consult, a tech company that does market research, said the Astros went from being among the 10 most-liked teams in baseball to the least-liked in just two weeks.
A Seton Hall University poll last year found a majority of respondents believed the Astros should be stripped of their title. Amazingly, they were more bothered by the Astros breaking the rules than they were by politicians doing so.
When you rank lower than politicians …
The turn on the Astros was so ridiculously over the top that some youth leagues banned Astros as a team nickname.
With all of that mess swirling around the franchise — whose championship general manager and manager were fired — one only can imagine the vitriol the Astros would have faced had they run onto the field opening day before a huge, hostile crowd.
Well, not just Day 1, but Day 2, Day 3 and so on. As long of a year as the regular season turned out to be — the Astros finished with a sub-.500 record for the first time since 2014 — it could have been worse.
It should be easier now, as we’re a year removed from the breaking news, but you could tell by the crowd in Oakland for Thursday’s season opener that fans aren’t likely to move on so quickly. And just wait until the Astros visit Dodger Stadium in August.
The Astros entered Thursday having won eight straight season openers, with the chance to become just the fifth team since 1900 to win nine in a row, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
The streak dates to 2013, when MLB forced owner Jim Crane to move the Astros out of their longtime home in the National League.
As unpopular as the move was among Astros faithful, the success in recent years has erased all fear of the Yankees and Red Sox.
The Astros are the big boys. The A’s might have won the American League West last year, but that was in a shortened season. Not only did the Astros rebound to top Oakland in the playoffs, they believe over the true long haul of a 162-game run, they will prove to be the better team.
Alex Bregman used the word “excited” about 20 times in a five-minute media session Wednesday. It is that time of year.
“I would grade the mood of the club probably at 10 out of 10,” Bregman said. “Everyone is excited, ready to go. Ready to compete. Ready to get back to playing baseball. Excited to have fans in the stands.
“(We’re) looking forward to competing for a division title against some good teams in our division. We’re excited.”
Surely Bregman was still excited when he stepped into the batter’s box to boos raining down from the just over 12,000 fans at the coliseum (limited to 26 percent capacity because of California health requirements).
That is the new normal. And it isn’t unprecedented.
Good players have had to deal with such treatment before. Some even thrived on it.
Darryl Strawberry told me once he would rather have been booed than have fans moan, “D-a-a-a-ryll! D-a-a-a-ryll!” every time he stepped to the plate.
Still, he got so used to it that he sometimes tipped his cap and smiled.
Fan treatment will be less of a factor in the Astros’ success or failure than the attention it will receive, but it will be interesting to watch when players have the standard in-season slumps.
One thing is certain: The Astros will have to play through it because fans won’t run out of energy.
When Bregman hit into a double play to close out the first Astros half-inning of 2021, it wasn’t because of the boos. (And I assume that in the first inning the boos weren’t because of the booze.)
Yet it is impossible to convince fans they don’t affect winning and losing.
A good percentage — more than half, according every poll I could find — have unfavorable opinions of the Astros.
Opposing fans are going to enjoy this season unless the Astros silence them.
On the road, the Astros are hoping for the silence of 2020. The sweet sounds of championship baseball.