TENSIONS RISING

How Astros World Series campaign is creating volatility unlike anything ever seen

How Astros World Series campaign is creating volatility unlike anything ever seen
The atmosphere will be brutal in Boston. Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images.
Next time you hear some Altuve slander, here’s the perfect response

Hollywood or Vince McMahon couldn't have written it any better: the Houston Astros vs. the Boston Red Sox in the American League Championship Series with the winner advancing to the World Series.

This is gonna be fun. Or as your mother used to say when you and your brother were fighting in the backyard, "Yeah, it's all fun and games until somebody loses an eye."

There's a lot of anger in America and it's spilled onto the baseball diamond and into the stands. Political differences used to be "I like Ike" and "I'm just wild about Harry." Now we have a mob chanting "Hang Mike Pence." And Pence was one of their guys! At least "in name only."

Last week Chicago White Sox pitcher Ryan Tempera said the Astros have a reputation of doing "some sketchy stuff." What he really meant was "cheating." White Sox manager Tony La Russa said the Astros have a "character shortage." What he really meant was the Astros are "a-holes."

Dusty Baker, who's normally unflappable and turns the other cheek, turned feisty, "I don't have much response to that other than I was listening to Eric Clapton this morning, and he had a song, 'Before You Accuse Me (Take a Look at Yourself).' ... You know what I mean? That's all I got to say."

I got no problem with Dusty spitting back. Except Creedence Clearwater Revival's version of "Before You Accuse Me" is much tighter than Clapton's.

Houston sports fans have a reputation for being polite. The only player who really gets a hard time from the crowd here is Albert Pujols, and that's mostly out of respect for a homer Pujols hit in the 2005 NLCS that still hasn't landed.

Last week, though, a couple of Astros fans beat the crap out of a White Sox supporter in Minute Maid Park. Wave to the TMZ cameras, fellas. American baseball has turned into European soccer in some cities, not Houston, not yet, but we're trending.

The Astros ballpark is going to rock Friday night when the Red Sox get here. The White Sox were merely bystanders in the Astros 2017 cheating scandal. The Red Sox were involved – the Astros beat them in the AL Division Series and current Red Sox manager Alex Cora was in the Astros dugout in 2017. If Cora wasn't the mastermind of the sign-stealing scheme, he was at least consigliere to crime boss Carlos Beltran.

The Red Sox, unindicted co-conspirators for their own shenanigans in 2017, have revenge on their minds. It got nasty when the Astros visited Fenway back in June. Cora didn't apologize for his fans, but did admit that the fans' jeers were "tough to swallow, tough to hear it."

Cora added that Yankees fans were much harder on the Astros. True. I was in Yankee Stadium when the Astros visited The Bronx. I never heard an entire ballpark so united in one cheer that contained the F-word. Altuve got it the worst because Yankees fans believe he not only helped the Astros steal the ALCS from the Yankees, Altuve personally robbed the American League MVP from Aaron Judge.

Astros shortstop Carlos Correa also was a target of Yankee fans' taunts. There will be only one way Correa can get those fans to stop boo'ing him – sign with the Yankees next season. Fans are so fickle.

I suspect that Sox fans will let it hang out when the ALCS moves to Boston next week. There will be chants of "Cheaters!" and "F-Altuve" and some fans will sneak in blow-up garbage cans. The lead sports column in Thursday's Boston Globe wondered if the Astros are the biggest cheaters in sports history – not just baseball, all of sports!

That's a stretch. The 1919 White Sox cheated to lose the World Series on purpose. At least the 2017 Astros cheated to win the World Series. That's something, I guess. Then again, Pete Rose was banned from baseball for betting on his own team to win. Didn't help.

Yeah it'll be brutal up in Boston. And there may be even crazier villagers with pitchforks and torches if the Astros beat the Sox. I shouldn't say "if" – I mean "when."

There's a possibility the Astros will meet the Dodgers and unforgiving, high and tight pitcher Joe Kelly in the World Series. Dodgers fans make Yankees and Red Sox fans look like the Welcome Wagon lady.

Last month, my son and two friends were in Los Angeles for an Astros-Dodgers game. They wore Astros jerseys. After the game, security insisted they leave Dodger Stadium, already soaked with beer and condiments, in the back of a police car for their protection.

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Vegas likes Houston. Composite Getty Image.

Bruce Bochy doesn’t ever want the Texas Rangers to let go of those memories of their first World Series title.

“We just don’t want to lean on them,” said Bochy, whose first season with the Rangers ended with the first World Series championship for the 63-year-old franchise, and his fourth as a big league manager.

While Texas has the opportunity to be the first team in a quarter-century to win back-to-back world championships — the New York Yankees were the last, with three in a row from 1998-2000 — the Rangers aren’t even defending champs in their own division.

And they aren’t favored to win the AL West this season.

Houston is again the odds-on favorite in the division it has won each of the last six full MLB seasons since the Rangers finished on top in 2016. The Astros won their regular season finale last Oct. 1, matched Texas at 90-72 and won the AL West since they were 9-4 head-to-head.

The Astros have made the AL Championship Series the past seven seasons, even when not division champs in the 2020 season shortened to 60 games because of the pandemic. They made four trips to the Fall Classic and won two titles in that span.

Dusty Baker retired days after Houston lost ALCS Game 7 at home to the Rangers last fall, finishing with 2,183 wins over 26 seasons as a big league manager with five teams.

New Astros manager Joe Espada, their bench coach for six seasons, is certainly familiar with a lineup that has big hitters Jose Altuve, Yordan Alvarez, Alex Bregman and Kyle Tucker, and a loaded starting rotation.

Espada isn't the division's only new manager. Ron Washington, who took the Rangers to their previous World Series in 2010 and 2011, was hired by the Angels, who still have Mike Trout but not two-way star Shohei Ohtani, now with the other team in Los Angeles.

Seattle again revamped its roster without big spending in free agency and hopes for a quicker return to the playoffs. The Mariners missed by one game last season, a year after its first postseason appearance since 2001.

And just like last year, the Athletics go into another season not knowing if it will be their last in Oakland.

HOW THEY PROJECT

1. Houston Astros. Three-time Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlander, reacquired in a deadline trade last July, will start this season on the injured list. But the 41-year-old’s IL stint is expected to be a short one. The Astros still have lefty Framber Valdez (12-11, 2.45 ERA, 200 strikeouts and a no-hitter) and right-hander Cristian Javier. Eight-time All-Star second baseman Altuve signed a new $125 million, five-year contract that goes through 2029. But two-time All-Star third baseman Bregman, the only other position player to make all seven ALCS trips, is at the end of a $100 million deal.

2. Texas Rangers. After going from six losing seasons in a row to a World Series title, the Rangers should be playoff contenders again. They return ALCS MVP Adolis García and most of the lineup that hit 233 homers and scored an AL-high 5.4 runs per game. But World Series MVP and AL MVP runner-up shortstop Corey Seager (sports hernia), Gold Glove first baseman Nathaniel Lowe (oblique strain) and All-Star third baseman Josh Jung (calf) missed significant time in the spring. All-Star right-hander Nathan Eovaldi tops a rotation still missing injured multiple Cy Young Award winners Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom.

3. Seattle Mariners. The front office put together a roster that might be better than last year, but everybody has to stay healthy. Seattle should be better offensively with the additions of Mitch Garver, Mitch Haniger, Jorge Polanco and Luke Raley to go with young superstar Julio Rodriguez. If J.P. Crawford can replicate last season at the plate and Ty France returns to his 2021-22 form, the lineup will be deeper. Couple a better offense with one of the best rotations in baseball led by Luis Castillo, George Kirby and Logan Gilbert, the Mariners should once again contend in the division.

4. Los Angeles Angels. They feel like they’re starting over yet again and still haven't been to the playoffs since 2014. Ohtani left after six seasons for a record $700 million with the perennially contending Dodgers. The Halos added almost nothing in free agency, only revamping their bullpen again and taking low-cost flyers on Aaron Hicks and Miguel Sano. Trout and Anthony Rendon are back, and an open DH spot will allow them to rest their injury-prone bodies more regularly. Their rotation is last year’s group minus Ohtani. The 71-year-old Washington brings a unique blend of expertise and enthusiasm, which should benefit an exciting crop of young talent ready to break through in the majors.

5. Oakland Athletics. This could be the final season playing at the Coliseum with a lease set to expire. So the A's are still trying to figure out where they will play beyond this year with a new ballpark and move to Las Vegas scheduled for 2028. Manager Mark Kotsay has been committed to keeping his team focused on what it can do to be better on the field after two years with a combined 214 losses (112 last season). The A’s acquired Ross Stripling from the San Francisco Giants and added Alex Wood to the rotation.

OLD SKIPPERS

When the 74-year-old Baker retired, Bochy became the oldest manager in the majors. That lasted only a few weeks until the Angels hired Washington. Bochy will turn 69 on April 16, just 13 days before Washington turns 72. Bochy, with 2,093 wins going into his 27th season, is one of six managers with four World Series titles, his first three coming in San Francisco (2010, 2012 and 2014). Washington won a franchise-record 664 games in eight seasons with Texas from 2007-14. He was on Atlanta's staff the past seven years, and part of the Braves' 2021 World Series title.

RELIEF HELP

Several new relievers are in the AL West, including hard-throwing lefty Josh Hader with the Astros, veteran right-hander David Robertson and former All-Star closer Kirby Yates in Texas, Gregory Santos and Ryne Stanek in Seattle and Robert Stephenson with the Angels.

Hader's $95 million, five-year deal was the biggest after becoming a first-time free agent. The 29-year-old, once in the Astros' minor league system, turned down a $20,325,000 qualifying offer from San Diego.

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