Hinch should get warm welcome
Series-winning manager returns as Tigers’ leader
Astros second baseman Jose Altuve figures “it’s going to be a little weird” Monday night at Minute Maid Park, thanks to a guest who likely will receive a warm welcome back from the roughly 20,000 fans on hand.
“I wish him the best,” Altuve said of former Houston
manager A.J. Hinch, who returns with his new team, the Detroit Tigers. “But not these next three games.”
“A little weird” is right, considering Hinch is the lone manager to lead the Astros to a World Series title and he’ll now be calling the shots from the visitors’ dugout at Minute Maid.
“I know A.J. pretty good,
and I have a lot of respect for him,” said Hinch’s replacement with the Astros, Dusty Baker. “I know he’s coming in here, and I know he’s gonna want to beat us. It should be an exciting series.”
The Astros (6-3) and Tigers (3-5) begin a threegame series Monday, Hinch’s first time back to Minute Maid for a contest since the Astros lost Game 7 of the 2019 World Series to the Washington Nationals on Oct. 30 of that year.
“The Houston fans have been incredible to me, both before the sign-stealing, after the sign-stealing, when I was the manager there, now that I’m not the manager there,” Hinch said before the Tigers’ game at Cleveland on Sunday. “The Houston fans have been tremendously supportive to me and my family. It’s home for me. That city matters to me. The fans have been tremendous. Obviously, it will be very emotional when I see them.”
Hinch guided the Astros to a World Series win in 2017 over the Los Angeles Dodgers, the one and only title for the franchise that began in 1962 and has been managed by 24 men over the decades, with a handful
of those skippers in interim roles.
In January 2020, Astros owner Jim Crane fired Hinch and then-general manager Jeff Luhnow after an electronic sign-stealing scheme concocted by players embarrassed the franchise and tainted the 2017 title.
Hinch, 46, was cut loose from the franchise shortly after Major League Baseball announced he would be suspended for a year without pay (along with Luhnow) for failing to stop his players from stealing signs electronically.
The decoding involved someone with the Astros watching a live feed of the game, picking up a sign, and relaying it to a batter by banging a trash can in a hallway leading to the clubhouse at Minute Maid.
“I heard it — I heard it,” Hinch told MLB Network in February 2020 of the trash can banging. “I don’t think I really processed it right away — you hear a lot of things — but I heard it.”
Hinch publicly apologized to Crane in a statement and sat out of baseball per the MLB mandate during the 2020 season, which happened to coincide with the COVID-19 pandemic and a regular season shortened to 60 games.
The Tigers hired Hinch in October, days after his suspension was up. He replaced Ron Gardenhire, who retired.
“(Hinch) paid the price for whatever happened here, and I think (fans) ought to embrace him like he deserves to be embraced,” Baker said. “But
he is on the other team. … A lot of these (current Astros) played for A.J., and I’m sure they have a great relationship with him, much like I did with players when I went back to certain places.”
The 71-year-old Baker, a two-time All-Star as a player, previously managed the Giants, Cubs, Reds and Nationals. His 2002 Giants squad lost the World Series to the Los Angeles Angels in seven games, and Baker knows what it’s like to return to nostalgic grounds as a manager.
“It depends on how you exited,” Baker said of the types of receptions he received at prior stops. “When I went back to San Francisco, it was always a welcome homecoming.”
Baker managed the Cubs from 2003-06, winning the National League Central in his first season but finishing 66-96 on his way out the slamming door.
“When I (returned to) Chicago, it wasn’t very warm at all,” he said.
Baker reiterated that Hinch deserves warmth in Houston, which Baker fully expects his old friend to receive.
“A.J. did some great things here for this team, this organization and this town,” Baker said. “He went through a lot with (the Astros). He went through lean years, and he went through great years. And he still lives here — this is still his home.
“I’m sure he’ll have some jitters when he comes back here.”
Minute Maid Park will be around half capacity (about 21,000 fans) on Monday because of the ongoing pandemic, as it was for the Astros’ first three home games this season. The Oakland Athletics won two of those three games from Thursday to Saturday.
The sign-stealing scheme spanned the Astros’ 2017 and 2018 seasons, and after MLB’s investigation, the Astros were fined $5 million and stripped of their first- and secondround draft choices in 2020 and 2021 — hence Crane’s added ire with the two primary leaders of his franchise at the time.
Despite the unceremonious and embarrassing exit, Hinch was 481-329 over five seasons with the Astros. Pitcher Jose Urquidy, like Altuve, said he’s looking forward to briefly visiting with his former manager at Minute Maid with the Tigers in town.
“A.J. Hinch has my respect, and I appreciate the opportunity they gave me to throw in a big game like that in the World Series,” Urquidy said of his Game 4 victory in 2019. “If I get a chance to say hello to him, I definitely will. I think he’ll get a good reception here in Houston. He has a big history with the team.
“He’ll get a warm reception.”