The Astros and Texas Rangers will play their next series at Tampa Bay’s Tropicana Field after catastrophic flooding hit Houston from Hurricane Harvey. But this arrangement has the Rangers facing backlash from fans across Major League Baseball.
According to Astros president Reid Ryan, the team approached the Rangers about swapping their home series against each other. Ryan wanted the Rangers to host the Astros for the series starting Tuesday in exchange for Houston getting the Sept. 25 series scheduled to be in Arlington. The Rangers declined that proposal.
The Rangers were willing to take a home series from Houston but not give one back in return, and Rangers general manager Jon Daniels didn’t exactly make matters better with his justification for turning down the Astros’ proposal.
The Rangers play 81 games at home, and by late September, they’ll likely be eliminated from playoff contention in the American League. Putting the interests of slightly inconvenienced Rangers fans over helping a team from a city full of people dealing with real problems came off as incredibly tone deaf. It’s not a good look, and for that, the Rangers are hearing it.
