Springer heckled as Astros continue spring boobird swing

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (AP) — George Springer could only stand there all alone and listen.

The Houston Astros leadoff man had no choice when he stepped into the batter's box a bit too early and was showered with loud boos Wednesday at an exhibition game against the New York Mets.

Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard turned and looked at the scoreboard clock that showed 1:09 p.m. — he waited for the minute to change so the game would officially reach the 1:10 start time, leaving Springer nowhere to go as the crowd heckled him.

“Cheater! Cheater! Cheater!” one Mets fan along the first-base side chanted at Springer.

The normal tranquility of a February game again was broken as a split squad of Astros continued the team's latest stop on their spring training tour of derisive boos and catcalls, the result of their exposed sign-steal scheme.

Two days after José Altuve, Alex Bregman, Carlos Correa and Yuli Gurriel got jeered for a game at Detroit's park in Lakeland, it was the Mets' turn to host at newly renovated Clover Park.

Vilified this offseason by the baseball world due to the their scam, the Astros brought a pedestrian lineup from their West Palm Beach complex to face the Mets. Springer and fellow outfielder Michael Brantley were the top Astros who started.

So it wasn’t mainly the names on the back of the jerseys that angered the small mid-week crowd in attendance at New York’s spruced-up ballpark, which had $57 million of renovations and additions put in starting a year ago.

It was the logo and colors worn by Houston, ironically a similar orange-and-blue color pattern to what the Mets wore.

Jim Masotti, a Connecticut native who lives in Port St. Lucie seven months of the year, sported a dark New York Yankees T-shirt and deplored the cheating scam. But he stopped...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Springer-heckled-as-Astros-continue-spring-15087120.php