In his city, he's a hero. Everywhere else, Altuve will be forever booed.
is safe. From the boos and hisses, the anger and loathing, the emotion his mere existence conjures. This man, baseball's smallest player and yet one of its biggest stars, lives a binary existence. He is a villain in 29 stadiums. And then he comes home., the reigning World Series winners intent on becoming the first back-to-back champions in Major League Baseball this century.
Nearly four years after the breadth of the Astros' cheating was exposed, the stain on Altuve is indelible. He lives with it -- with the public perception about his involvement with the trash can bangs, with the charges that his knowledge of the system amounted to complicity no matter his level of involvement.
And so home games are Altuve's respite, the salve on wounds that have not healed and might never. For 13 years Altuve has been a part of these fans' lives. When October rolls around, the city coalesces around another march toward a championship, and everything is right again. "He's the face of the franchise, and he's so good, and he's not going to defend himself," Adams said."That's the way he is. I think he's the ultimate teammate. I can't imagine anybody not wanting him on the team. He's taken all of this for the team. Never broke. Never got mad. Never wavered. It's admirable."
The booing of Altuve knows no bounds. Regardless of the crowd size, the score, his performance that day, he wears the aural disdain of those outside of Houston. And yet Altuve, still elite, bore the brunt and learned to play in this new paradigm.said."He doesn't care. I think it's funny. He seems to enjoy it, and he hits a home run every time they boo him. I really hope they boo him."said."One of the nicest people that I've ever met.
"No. 1, he wants to be up there," Astros manager Dusty Baker said."No. 2, he's got a high concentration level, because that's what it takes in big moments like that: concentration, desire and relaxation all encompassed into one. And everybody can't do all three of those things.Altuve stuck his tongue out as the ball left his bat, a reflexive move that was as Jordan-like as a baseball player can get.
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