The Houston Astros’ mascot Orbit is meant to be an alien, but on Friday at the Oakland Coliseum he was more like a troll.
Before the coronavirus pandemic began, the leading story of the baseball offseason was the Astros’ cheating scandal. During their 2017 championship, Houston used an advanced sign-stealing system that went beyond the reasonably accepted levels of gamesmanship and into the realm of ill-gotten, unfair advantage. The enduring symbol was the trash can they banged on to communicate to their batter what type of pitch was coming next.
The Astros received some light punishment from MLB, but not nearly enough to appease fans.