Just was thinking during the Blue Jays and Rays series that the dynamic is actually very... cordial due to past history and familial connections... my list of teams/fan bases that hate the Astros the least: Toronto Blue Jays - family connections with Biggio and Gurriel. Springer coming over from here. Teoscar was on the 2017 team as well. Tampa Bay Rays - of course the general manager came from Tampa but Morton was there the last few years and McHugh is there now... and Buzzy, she is fighting hard for Astros respect still. Washington Nationals - the World Series where home field advantage literally meant nothing San Diego Padres - they may hate the Dodgers whining more than we do. Detroit Tigers - I am pretty sure their fan base is still happy for Verlander winning a ring, plus they now have the one true manager in AJ Hinch
This list is solid. I would throw a few NL teams on the list, mostly due to apathy and the fact that the Astros never play them. But I'd add the Giants. I post in another forum and regularly find that Giants fans root for or at least occasionally defend the Astros. No one hates the Dodgers more than they do. It's like that old saying "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."
I would suspect a team we don't see that often, or have played high intensity games against. So I'm all in on The Marlins.
The Twins are very nice too. Their fans will tell you how much they like you, then whisper to everyone they know that you “may be nice but just aren’t their sort of people and you preferred the nice young boys like Biggio and Bagwell to these Pina and Yordan types” The Braves fans also want to bless our hearts and cook a nice big Sunday brunch for Alex and Myles. Carlos is invited too, but the invite got there a bit late … so sorry. The Red Sox love that we are beating the Yankees but would also love to catch us in a bar at 2am with a few crowbars stashed in their trucks. The Cardinals really respect what we are doing and would really appreciate a few hours alone in our front offices to just “look around a little and get inspired.”
It should 100% be Red Sox fans. They got caught stealing signs in back to back years including a World Series Championship season but they get about 1% of the hate that the Astros get.
I'd think a team like the Orioles. They've sucked the entire time we've been relevant in the AL and we beat the Yanks & Sox. Detroit, Miami, Colorado, and Arizona are also teams that don't really have much reason to dislike the Astros, as I can't recall playing really meaningful games against them at any point ever.
I actually would think Tampa is secretly not a huge fan... only because the Astros/Luhnow helped popularize tactics that the Rays were amongst one of the founding members of (defensive shifting, draft slot $$ manipulation, tandem/opener starting pitching). Then the Astros go out and get more playoffs, LCS, WS appearances... and they can also afford a payroll that helps either retain players, trade for stars, or sign certain free agents, that the Rays don't have the luxury of doing.
Red Sox...they cheated before, during, and after we did, they got a title and an MVP, re-hired the mastermind of the system, and yet they get ZERO heat. NONE. Can you imagine the backlash if we re-hired AJ?
Every bit of the MLB/Red Sox situation was a measured/calculated adjustment based on the unexpected extreme backlash delivered to the Astros. The Red Sox players were then advised not to say much, and they didn't. Even if MLB pressured them, there was little recourse (something the Astros could have also explored with better advisement). Of course the Red Sox also didn't have a whistle-blower. But largely MLB was not going to implicate further ire against their teams by the media that was out for blood, without much real "reporting" going on. The cheating scandal was 1A on the news cycle for over 4 months, unprecedented off-season attention for MLB, and they didn't desire more bad press. Likewise once the Astros committed to Dusty, and the response to the Red Sox scandal was subdued... even after they initially denied any chance Cora could come back... there was little backlash once they re-hired him. Yes, having a "bad" Red Sox team also seemed to take some of the emphasis out of it. Had the Astros known that Cora would be let back in with little issues, I'm sure that would have impacted their decision to offer Dusty an extension. For future purposes, MLB really can't do much to players without battling the union. They couldn't force the players to say anything without guaranteeing immunity... but even then the Red Sox players still didn't say anything.
A factor that would play into this would be the local media. For instance, there could be teams with little reason to hate us that do because the lead editor in the local paper had it out for the Astros and printed every word he could to bash us. The opposite could also be true if that same editor had sympathy for us. Another would be how outspoken the local players were/are on that baseball town. Words for or against us by any local celebrity would have some effect as well. And there are cities that were biased for or against us before the scandal emerged like that southern oklahoma team So, making a conclusion based solely on baseball reasons may not be so accurate.
The real question: is the Astros overall brand better off now being constantly in the spotlight, vs. being simply another middle-market team that occasionally is a "nice story" when things are going well, but overwhelmingly less coverage than all east coast teams or more historic franchises? I would bet a lot of markets would tune into any marquee game involving the Astros to root against them.
Hates Astros due to cheating: Yankees, Dodgers Strongly Dislikes Astros due to cheating: Indians, Nationals Dislikes Astros due to cheating: Mets, A’s, Angels, Mariners, Twins, White Sox Dislikes Astros due to their stars having brown skin: Braves, Rangers Dislikes Astros for other reasons: Cardinals Mild dislike due to rivalry: Pirates, Cubs Meh on Astros: Royals, Marlins, Reds, D Backs, Rockies, Padres Common threads: Orioles, Tigers, Red Sox, Rays, Blue Jays, Brewers The Enemy of the enemy is my friend: Giants
Agree. 5 years from now the only teams fans likely to consistently hate/heckle the Astros will be Dodgers, Yankees, and Rangers. Everybody else will have forgotten about it. Bregman, Altuve, and Yordan will likely be among the most marketable/popular players in the league over the next 5 years.
