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Justin Verlander Got Traded Back to the Astros and Everyone Made the Same Uniform Joke

On baseball Twitter, everyone's a comedian.

Patrick Andres

In this story:

Everything old is new again for the Astros. 

Less than eight months after pitcher Justin Verlander left Houston for the Mets in free agency, New York is reportedly dealing the future Hall of Famer back to Space City. The move gives the Astros—just a half-game back of the Rangers in the AL West standings—another ace as they pursue a second straight World Series title.

More importantly, though, it gave Twitter the opportunity to make its favorite joke whenever an athlete lands with a team for which they've already played.

Accounts large and small posted “Photoshops” of Verlander in a Houston uniform that reflected his 2017 to’ 22 stay with the Astros.

Official MLB accounts made the joke.

MLB television partners made the joke.

Fans made the joke and pointed out that it could extend to any of Houston’s current uniform options.

In a bit of meta humor, a few fans even made jokes about the omnipresence of the joke.

Admirably, a few fans and outlets tried their hand at lo-fi Microsoft Paint-style "Photoshops," with mixed results.

Needless to say, the baseball world needs some new material.

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Patrick Andres
PATRICK ANDRES

Patrick Andres is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He joined SI in December 2022, having worked for The Blade, Athlon Sports, Fear the Sword and Diamond Digest. Andres has covered everything from zero-attendance Big Ten basketball to a seven-overtime college football game. He is a graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism with a double major in history .

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