Yankees: 3 annoying Astros things you probably forgot about

The Houston Astros are, and will always be, the enemy of the New York Yankees franchise, even after we all collectively “get over it.”

Why? They stole a ring from the rest of baseball. They blocked the Yankees’ potential best chance at a title in this current window — 2019, not 2017. Not only did they brazenly and blatantly cheat, but they continued to have the upper hand in the rivalry even after they supposedly abandoned those immoral strategies.

Even after the Astros were “clean,” they still stomped us, which makes it all the more infuriating.

Oh, and they also foisted the leader of their cheating scheme on the Boston Red Sox, Alex Cora, who only went on to definitely cheat in 2018, get caught doing it, somehow get off scot-free thanks to MLB deciding cheating was actually pretty OK, and then get rehired with zero personal long-term consequences.

But those are the annoying things the Astros did that you remember.

What about the ones you probably — almost definitely? — have forgotten by now?

After all, there’s been a cavalcade of Astros-related trash in need of a can since 2017. The “F***ing Glad We Got Osuna” thing. The weird verified fan accusing the Yankees of bringing a camera to the bleachers in 2018. Astros Twitter’s obsession with “unsealing the Yankees letter.” We’ve been through it all, and we need a shower.

These three moments, though, shed a light on the wide-ranging impact of everything that’s wrong with the Astros. The players are rotten. The team isn’t remorseful. And MLB facilitated a lot of what they wrought on the league.

When you’re booing Houston this week, make sure you remember these three things, which are all a part of the nasty aura of this franchise.

Yankees fans can’t forget these 3 Houston Astros offenses.

3. Alex Bregman Taunting a Random Fan

Ride with us, if you will, back to well before the 2017 playoffs, back when the Astros were just a blip on everyone’s radar. A cute little post-tank contender that was known for collapsing in the 2015 playoffs against the Kansas City Royals and very little else.

We miss those days, back when H-Town was several pieces away and appeared on the verge of an unsuccessful total rebuild. Dang. Wonder what changed? Oh, right, cheating.

Prior to the 2017 season, with Houston languishing behind the contenders without both Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlander in the rotation, rumor had it the ‘Stros were eyeing a possible trade for Chris Sale while the White Sox were shopping him (that would’ve been … somethin’).

One lone fan theorized that Alex Bregman might be a nice centerpiece in a potential Sale trade. That fan didn’t tag Bregman. He didn’t target Bregman. He just said the name “Alex Bregman” on the famous website Twitter.com.

And that was more than enough for Bregman to find the fan, track him down, and hop into his DMs to yell at him.

“I forgot I shouldn’t give flees (sp) on the nutsack of society the time of day” should be an iconic quote, and it’s somewhat sad that we’ve let it dissolve into the annals of history.

At the time, Bregman had second-overall-pick pedigree and had batted .264 with eight homers in a 49-game cameo in 2016, and hadn’t yet been introduced to the team’s intricate 2017 cheating system. He was simply a bud yet to become an aggravating rose.

Ultimately, would life have been better for all of us if Sale had gone to Houston, Bregman ended up in Chicago, and the Red Sox still had Michael Kopech and Yoan Moncada? Eh, the correct thing probably happened. But it’s worth remembering that long before any sort of scandal, Bregman was the kind of guy who reacted so strongly to being included in idle trade rumors that he was going to track you down and make fun of your flees (again, sp).