Houston Vs All Y'all
I am a firm believer that a team and their fanbase are one in the same. No one understands a team better than their own fans, especially in baseball. To be a baseball fan is to spend countless nights alongside these professional athletes, whether you are in person or watching from home. The “dog days of summer” are not just felt by the players but the fans as well. True fans ride or die with their teams to the bitter end because at the end of a long baseball season, when your team hoists that trophy, millions of people are represented by the players who have fought a long and hard journey. For many teams, the journey was the simple act of waiting for the season to be over. However, for Houston Astros fans it has been so much more than just baseball.
In 2017 Hurricane Harvey hit Houston. It was called a five hundred year flood. The streets I grew up on were rivers. My fellow Houstonians were put out of their homes. Houses were destroyed. Some to this day have yet to fully recover. But one thing that has been true throughout all of history, tragedy breeds triumph. Houston is a city of diverse hard working people who would rather die than fail to help out. When Katrina hit New Orleans, Houston welcomed hundreds of thousands of people from southern Louisiana and let them stay as long as they needed. Some never left and both cities are stronger because of it. In 2017, when the bulk of Harvey had passed, Houston was in ruins and we had a lot of work to do. Countless volunteering locations opened and the people showed up. Me and my fellow Houstonians answered the call as we have in the past and will in the future. We do not shy away from a fight no matter the odds. We Texans are stubborn that way. Remember the Alamo? But while we rebuilt, there was still nothing but pain and sorrow until a certain hometown team gave everyone the only thing they needed to keep going: hope.
The 2017 Astros had been one of the best teams in the league the entire season, but when Harvey hit they were out of town and could not get back for almost three weeks. They were forced to host home series in Miami and St. Petersburg. Later that season, their run to the World Series gave Houstonians the hope they desperately needed and the city cherishes them as heroes to this day because of it. The only problem is, outside of Houston, that is not what that World Series or season is remembered for.
In January of 2020, Rob Manfred, the Commissioner of Major League baseball, released an official report that detailed the league’s findings after a lengthy investigation into the 2017 Houston Astros. The report detailed that in 2017 the Astros used a camera in center field during home games to provide a live feed to the dugout to see what signs the catcher was using, and what pitch was being thrown so the batter could be informed via the sound of a trashcan bang. Astros fans were crushed, ashamed, and heartbroken and in many ways still are. Our favorite players were getting slandered and we as fans were being verbally attacked for supporting them. Conspiracy theories were flying around leading to players being attacked over events that did not happen.
Then something amazing happened that will forever live as a shining moment in Astros history. Carlos Correa, a key figure for the Astros at the time, went on live television to do an interview on MLB Network with Ken Rosenthal. Before the interview many players from other teams made comments about the Astros, specifically Jose Altuve, who has been proven to have been guilty only by association. When asked about these players’ comments, Carlos said “...and for him to go out there and defame Jose Altuve’s name like that, it doesn’t sit right with me…get informed, be informed…if you don’t know the facts then you gotta shut the fuck up…”. It served as our shot heard around the world. The beacons of Gondor had been lit. Carlos sent out a rallying cry and just like Katrina and Harvey, Houstonains answered the call. We remembered what the Astros did for us in our time of need and so, there was only one thing for us to do: go to war. We would combat every false claim, every stupid conspiracy theory, and every drunk loudmouth who felt we needed to know his feelings about our boys. We would walk to hell and back for the Astros and across the past three seasons we have.
In 2022, Ryne Stanek, a relief pitcher for the Astros, went on MLB Network and was asked about what the fans mean to the team and he said “...with everything that happened, [the fans] wear it like a badge of honor and they try to be a shield for the [players].” Astros fans have shirts that say “Houston vs. All Y’all” or “Houston vs. Everyone”. We cheer as loud as we can for them at home so they can feel that support when they get booed on the road. Houston's love for the Astros was best demonstrated by the more than two million people who showed up in Downtown Houston for the 2022 WS championship parade.
Next time you see an Astros fan, a true Astros fan, just know that your anger and hatred make us love them even more. To associate with the Astros now is a choice and not an easy one. So when you see someone wearing Astros gear, odds are they know what happened in 2017 and then they made a decision: they chose to go to war.