Yankees: Let’s laugh at Jose Altuve for guaranteeing Astros would make World Series

Yankees nemesis Jose Altuve guaranteeing that the Astros would make the World Series this season is hilarious.

Following the Yankees’ early playoff exit, fans in the Bronx, like the majority of baseball fans outside of Houston, were probably pulling for Tampa Bay to humiliate the Astros in the ALCS.

That reality became all the more inconvenient when Houston impressively erased a 3-0 deficit to force a Game 7, putting Yankees fans in an internal debate of whether to root for a Rays collapse or MLB being embarrassed by watching the hated Astros advance to the World Series after essentially getting off scot-free following for their cheating scandal.

When all was said and done, however, Tampa Bay avoided a historical choke job and took care of business in Game 7, putting the hearts of all baseball diehards at ease in the process. In hindsight, this is likely the end result that the Pinstripe faithful wanted considering their history and rivalry with the Astros, who were finally put in their place after they laughably embraced an underdog role and played the victim card seemingly all season long.

What made their humbling defeat all the more pleasing? The fact that Jose Altuve guaranteed back in January that Houston would make the World Series, so Yankees fans have our permission to laugh in his face.

Before haters came out our necks and proclaim that we have no room to talk after the Yankees failed to make it beyond the ALDS, the self-respect card simply gets thrown out of the window when it comes to Houston, which eliminated New York in both the 2017 an 2019 ALCS, when their sign-stealing operation was presumably still at large.

It goes without saying that Altuve has drawn the ire from Yankees fans the most of any Astros player following MLB’s investigation. Not only did he eliminate NYY from the 2019 ALCS with a walk-off home run off closer Aroldis Chapman in Game 6, but it’s became abundantly clear that he robbed Aaron Judge of the AL MVP award back in 2017.

A good as Altuve was at the plate in these playoffs — he hit .462/563/.885 with three home runs and five RBI–  it was so satisfying watching him cost Houston as much as he did on defense against Tampa Bay, as he committed a string of throwing errors in Games 2 of 3 (both losses).

Though they don’t always work in the Yankees’ favor, Houston being eliminated just as it smelled blood in the water vs the Rays proves that the baseball gods care about the integrity of the game.

Watching Alutve’s bold preseason prediction go down in flames in the process was just icing on the cake.

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