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Astros confiscate fan’s sign, booed in first spring training game

A ballpark official takes a sign from a fan before spring training baseball game between the Houston Astros and Washington Nationals on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2020, in West Palm Beach, Fla.

The Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal was taken to a whole new level on Saturday.

The team held its first spring training game of the year in Florida on Saturday, a matchup against the Washington Nationals, and were naturally booed heavily throughout the contest. Even their mascot, Orbit, was targeted.

One man brought a fairly clever sign to hold up behind home plate to honor the team — which is caught up in a massive cheating scandal that has dominated the offseason.

That sign, however, didn’t last long. Astros personnel quickly confiscated the sign and multiple others — which, of course, sparked a new wave of obvious jokes on social media.

The Astros are likely to face this kind of reception for quite some time. Fans — especially Los Angeles Dodgers fans, who the Astros beat in the 2017 World Series — are upset that Houston has been cheating, and rightfully so. The way the organization, and the league as a whole, have handled the scandal hasn’t helped much, either, even leaving many Houston fans frustrated.

“When the report finally came out and I read it, it was like your uncle bought you every Christmas present you ever wanted, and then a year later you find out they were all stolen,” one Astros fan told Yahoo Sports’ Hannah Keyser.

If Saturday was any indication, the Astros aren’t going to find many ballparks across the country that will welcome them in with open arms this year.

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