Tattoo as no-cheat evidence
against the White Sox.
Correa also gave a somewhat shadier denial of rumors that Altuve was wearing a buzzer under his jersey when he homered off Aroldis Chapman to end the 2019 ALCS.
The shortstop told Rosenthal that the Astros didn’t wear buzzers and that his teammate’s walk-off, pennantclinching home run was “fair and square.”
According to Correa, Altuve warned his teammates not to remove his jersey after the biggest hit of his career because he was hiding an embarrassing tattoo. “[Altuve] doesn’t want me to talk about this, but I’m going to say it, is because he’s got an unfinished tattoo on his collarbone that honestly looked terrible,” Correa said. “It was a bad tattoo, and he didn’t want nobody to see it. He didn’t want to show it at all.”
Altuve, in more ways than one, confirmed the existence of the tattoo. With media present, Altuve walked into the Astros clubhouse shirtless, according to several reporters present — though none posted a picture. Later in the day, he told reporters that he got the tattoo during the middle of the 2019 season in San Francisco.
(The Astros did not play the San Francisco Giants last year. But they did play five series against the Athletics in nearby Oakland, including tilts in June, July and August.)
Altuve said it took him two sessions to finish the tattoo, a cursive inscription that reads “Melanie,” his daughter’s name.
Altuve said he appreciated Correa’s vigorous defense of his character, saying that it “tells you about what kind of person, what kind of teammate he is.”