LOS ANGELES – George Springer has spent the past six seasons enduring a cacophony of boos whenever he plays a road game, lingering fallout from his role in the 2017 Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal, uncovered publicly in 2019.
Yet time, and place, and context matter so much and that’s why it hit very different – and a lot louder – Oct. 27 as Springer led off Game 3 of the World Series at Dodger Stadium.
It was Springer’s Houston Astros who, the Los Angeles Dodgers and their fans believe, stole the 2017 World Series title from them thanks to an elaborate sign-stealing system, an offshoot of which that seemed to most drastically affect Game 4 of that Series, won by the Astros by a 13-12 score in 10 innings.
They went on to capture that World Series in seven games, resulting in deferred rage when The Athletic reported in 2019 that the ’17 Astros utilized a camera hidden in center field and a video monitor and trash can in a tunnel adjacent to their dugout to pass opponent pitch selections to the batter.
And in the moments before Game 1, the Dodger Stadium crowd let him have it.
The wailing notes of Jimmy Page’s guitar hadn’t even faded from Dodgers starter Tyler Glasnow’s intro song, Led Zeppelin’s “Dazed and Confused,” when a dull roar spread through the crowd as Springer approached home plate.
For 25 seconds, they sustained a full-throated collective jeer, until Springer whiffed at Glasnow’s first pitch, a 97-mph fastball. The boos quickly gave way to a roaring chant of “Cheater! Cheater!”
And finally, raucous cheers when Glasnow struck him out.
It was hardly punishment but certainly reflected accurately the fans’ feelings about the crime.
It was a craven setup, going far beyond the generally accepted principles of sign-stealing in the game, and resulted in firings of manager A.J. Hinch and GM Jeff Luhnow.
Yet the players involved went unpunished, at least once they completed an apology tour in February 2020, and the Astros kept their championship.
That unrequited justice resulted in Astros superstars from that team – including Springer, Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman and Carlos Correa getting mercilessly booed on the road.
All except Altuve eventually left in free agency – Correa returned in trade this past season – yet fans did not forget, no matter the uniform.
Especially in L.A.
Springer played here with the Blue Jays in August and in July 2023. And as an Astro, he played in a Dodger Stadium without fans amid COVID-19 restrictions in September 2020, and in a neutral-sight playoff situation a month later.
In other words: Very much not the World Series with 54,000 blue-clad fans, most of them booing with their full chests.
Not that the Dodgers would discourage it.
“That’s up to the fans,” says Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “Heck of a player. Having a great postseason. Dodger fans have a long memory and that’s what makes ’em great. I’m just going to manage the game, and I’m not in the stands, so they can do whatever they feel is going to help the club win.”
After their Game 2 loss in Toronto Oct. 25, Springer downplayed returning to L.A. amid such circumstances for the first time.
“I’m here now,” he said in the opulent Blue Jays home clubhouse, an indirect way to note that 2017 was eight years ago.
Not to Dodger fans, so long as a Commissioner’s Trophy commemorating that championship resides in Houston.