A Google search for "Houston Astros" and "evil empire" generates over 1 million results, with headlines such as: "Are the Houston Astros the new evil empire of baseball?" and "Jose Abreu signing helps Astros approach evil empire status" and "The new evil empire: Houston Astros look to erase stain of cheating scandal."
Back in December 2002, then-Boston Red Sox president Larry Lucchino tagged the New York Yankees with that moniker because of their run of championships in the late 1990s and early 2000s. New York embraced the idea, playing "Star Wars" music at Yankee Stadium and even staging a legal battle to protect use of the "evil empire" term when used in a baseball context.