The Rangers and Astros Hate Is Real And Should Make This AL Championship Series Unforgettable — From Hurricane Harvey to Party Gate, Loathing Fuels All

David Ortiz, the jovial larger-than-life Red Sox turned national baseball commentator, jokes that he’s been to Minute Maid Park so many times for big playoff games that he’s “a Houston citizen.” There definitely is something familiar about the Houston Astros being in the American League Championship Series, but something is very different this time.

For in their seventh straight ALCS, the Astros are playing the Texas Rangers in the ultimate in-state bad blood playoff series. There’s nothing the same about this American League title tilt. Whether you want to call it The Buc-ee’s Bowl, the Super Silver Boot Showdown or the Lone Star State Hoedown, this is a different creature entirely. One with fierce organizational bragging rights on the line and seemingly endless scores to settle.

Astros manager Dusty Baker sees the happier side of things though. As usual. That would be the feel-good manager matchup between two baseball lifers who’ve won four world championships between them (with Dusty getting his first last season).

“Now me and (Rangers manager) Bruce Bochy can battle,” Baker says on FS1 in the moments after the Astros eliminate the Twins to advance. “They know us and we know them.

“I know Bruce and he knows me.”

The 73-year-old Baker and 68-year-old Bruce Bochy actually get along. They like each other. You really can’t say that about almost anyone else in this series. Astros fans (and perhaps some in the organization) are still livid over the Rangers’ refusal to swap a home series in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. Many Houstonians still feel the Rangers organization, which has undergone some changes since then, kicked Houston when it was down and at its most vulnerable.

Rangers fans have their own beef with the way the Astros swiped the division title away from them on the very last day of the regular season. With Astros fans gleefully blaming the Rangers’ very understandable playoff clinch celebration (it had been seven years since their last appearance) for making the difference.

Astros catcher Martin Maldonado and Rangers second baseman Marcus Semien also memorably barked at each other in the middle of a game with both eventually getting ejected as the two teams’ benches cleared. And that wasn’t the only time baseball’s version of a tussle threatened to break out between the Rangers and Astros.

Max Scherzer — the former two-time teammate and sometime rival of Astros ace Justin Verlander — has also declared himself healthy for the series. Which will bring more big time competitive energy, And more than a few unusual looks.

Christmas card will not be exchanged. Message pitches and plenty of stares have been.

Which is what should make this series so entertaining. When the stakes are this high (the winner advances to the World Series, the loser sees its season end) and the animosity this real, the chances for extraordinary drama is high.

For 10 days or so, Texas sports fans are in for a true treat. It all starts this Sunday night at Minute Maid Park with the series shifting to Globe Life Field for Games 3, 4 and 5 next week (Wednesday, Thursday and Friday).

There’s nothing the same about this American League title tilt. Whether you want to call it The Buc-ee’s Bowl, the Super Silver Boot Showdown or the Lone Star State Hoedown, this is a different creature entirely. One with fierce organizational bragging rights on the line and seemingly endless scores to settle.

Both stadiums could see mixed crowds adding to the heightened tensions. When the Astros played a series in Arlington in September, a good 50 percent of the crowd consisted of Houston fans. That is something players on both sides noticed — and heard more about from their family members and friends in the stands.

“It’s going to be rowdy,” Astros closer Ryan Pressly says. “But I think the crowd’s going to be 50-50 when we’re up there. So it’ll be fun.”

Pressly understands the dynamics at play here better than most. He grew up in the Dallas area, became a high school baseball star there and now is one of the more dominant postseason closers in history for Houston’s MLB team.

Bochy may have been born in France, but he started his Major League playing career as a Houston Astro and has been part of plenty of heated rivalries as a manager. (Giants v. Dodgers, anyone?) He gets it too.

“It’s the way baseball should be, I guess,” Bochy told reporters in Arlington. “They’re your opponent. So I don’t think it should be a love fest out there. Do you?”

Pressure and Pain — Inside the Astros and Rangers’ Hate Zone

As for who might have the edge in this hatefest?

The Astros’ 9-4 mark in the two teams’ 13 regular season meeting — which ended up deciding the division winner — might scream that it is Baker’s squad. But the Rangers are arguably the hottest team in baseball, having swept the 99 win Tampa Bay Rays and the 101 win Orioles right out of the playoffs without losing a single game.

Texas’ pitching has been a surprise revelation in October — and that unexpected transformation must continue for Bochy’s team to have a real chance of toppling baseball’s modern day dynasty.

There is more pressure on the Astros in this series. Anything the Rangers do from here on out will be considered a bonus, an unexpected feel-good playoff dream run continuing. But if the defending champions lose to the intrastate little brother Rangers, Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, Yordan Alvarez and Co. will never hear the end of it.

These Astros are playing for history, trying to become the first MLB team to repeat as world champions since those legendary New York Yankees teams of the late 1990s and early 2000s.

When you combine this much hate with his much on the line. . . the results are bound to be memorable. The rest of America might not quite get it, but who cares about that? Baseball fans in Texas are in for a huge treat.

The players will no doubt attempt to play down the dislike — at least before something re-triggers it once the games begin during this ALCS. And something certainly will. Rangers fans have already sparked the flame, breaking out into that “We want Houston! We want Houston!” chant that ended up dooming the Twins, Yankees and Phillies fans before them.

Don’t think the Astros players don’t notice. Veteran catcher Martin Maldonado had something to say about Twins screaming they wanted Houston in the immediate aftermath of the Astros eliminating those Twins. He did it before he even left the field. Now the Rangers get the American League’s standard bearers in a series for all of Texas.

One where the loathing is very much real. Brings on the spite. And all the joys it surely will brings.