Fan Outside Stadium Uses Megaphone to Shame Astros ‘Cheaters’

In Thursday’s Hot Clicks: one fan’s determination to yell at the Astros, a Zamboni bursts into flames and more.

Shame. Shame. Shame.

The biggest disappointment of the 2020 MLB season will always be that the pandemic denied fans the opportunity to yell at the Astros for 81 road games. Imagine the signs fans would have brought, the chants they would have coordinated, the barbs they would have hurled from the front rows of the stands. Hatred toward the Astros after their sign-stealing scandal was so intense and fans were left without an effective outlet for their vitriol. 

The anger would have been even more extreme in a playoff series. Instead, the Astros and Rays are playing the ALCS in an empty stadium in San Diego. But one angry fan was incredibly determined to communicate his disgust to the Houston players. 

Some guy took advantage of the quiet ballpark and used a megaphone to call out individual Astros players as cheaters, according to reporters who could hear his yelling from the press box. The man was described as delivering his message “calmly,” perhaps even from the comfort of his own home. 

Someone with a bullhorn behind Petco Park is talking about the Astros: "The baseball community has not forgotten your transgressions."

This man is now going through each player and saying: "You are a cheater, shame on you."

— Jesse Dougherty (@dougherty_jesse) October 15, 2020

A man outside of the ballpark is on a megaphone yelling that "the Astros are a bunch of cheaters" and that "Jose Altuve, you are a cheater, shame on you." They are going down the list of players who were on the team and saying the same thing

— Chandler Rome (@Chandler_Rome) October 15, 2020

There is someone (in an apartment building?) outside Petco Park with a megaphone reading out the names of Astros players and calling them cheaters. "Jose Altuve, you are a cheater shame on you. Carlos Correa, shame on you.” And so on.

— James Wagner (@ByJamesWagner) October 15, 2020

There's a guy outside Petco Park with a megaphone calmly heckling at the Astros: "Carlos Correa. You are a cheater. Shame on you. Josh Reddick. You are a cheater. Shame on you."

— Greg Beacham (@gregbeacham) October 15, 2020

This wasn’t the first time this year that someone used a megaphone outside a stadium to bark at the Astros, but it does appear to be the first time that the message was actually audible inside the ballpark. 

Megaphone heckling happening outside the Astros game

(Via @k0an) pic.twitter.com/EhYr78VelF

— Very Baseball Moments (@verymlb) August 8, 2020

When the season started, it didn’t seem like the contempt for the Astros would be as strong whenever fans are able to return to ballparks. But if people are still willing to go to such great lengths to shout at the players, maybe this will be something that follows the Astros as long as the Altuve–Correa–Springer–Bregman core remains intact.

UPDATE: James Wagner of The New York Times found the guy with the megaphone. His name is Tim Kanter and he spent $200 on the device so his voice could be heard from his apartment some 700 feet away from home plate. 

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