Bitter Yankees & Dodgers Fans Trash Jose Altuve as a Super Villain, But the Astros Star’s Selfless Action Punctures That Narrative

Much of the baseball world seems determined to cast Jose Altuve as the sport’s super villain. No player has faced more backlash over the Houston Astros’ electronic sign stealing scandal. And Altuve’s struggles to start this strange 2020 coronavirus short season are being used to ridicule and mock him — and worse, to impugn his abilities and question his past accomplishments.

Altuve finds himself trashed on social media and made the focus of national stories — with it all largely geared around the narrative that he’s being punished for his sins against the game. Hating on Jose Altuve is very much in fashion these days. Do it on Twitter — and an army of trolls and self appointed baseball justice warriors (some who work for major media outlets) will cheer you on.

Only, the narrative simply does not fit.

There Jose Altuve is on a 101 degree Saturday in Houston, quietly punching another hole in it. . . just by being Jose Altuve.

Altuve goes into Houston Astros manager Dusty Baker’s office before a game against the Seattle Mariners and asks to be moved down in the batting order. In baseball, that act is much, much rarer than a triple play. Baker’s been a manager for 23 seasons for five different franchises and he’s only had one other player ever volunteer to be dropped down in the order.

“He said,’Hey man, I’m not helping the club right now at the top of the lineup and I appreciate the respect that you’re giving me’ on what he’s done in his career,” Baker details. “But he said that really doesn’t matter. ‘The guys ahead of me are swinging the bat better.’ And he just wants to win and get into the playoffs.”

In the ego centric world of professional sports — a world where you often need to feel like you’re the best to have any chance of thriving — that is a remarkable display of low key sacrifice by Altuve. Proud baseball players (and anyone who makes the Majors is proud) just do not do that. Let alone a former American League MVP and six-time All-Star.

Jose Altuve was the heart and soul of the team that ended Houston’s 56-year championship drought — and another World Series team. If anyone deserves to be allowed to work out his struggles without being messed with, it’s Jose Altuve. Instead, he goes to his new manager and asks to be dropped in the lineup. It’s a move that potentially helps the team in the short term, but it also plays into and further fuels the national narrative of his hellish season post scandal.

But Altuve does not care. He puts the team first before any personal concerns. Again.

“He’s a consummate team man,” Baker says.

Altuve is dropped from third to seventh in the lineup after his request. The Astros win the game 2-1 with Altuve driving in one of the runs with an RBI groundout and getting a hit in three at-bats. It’s not the stuff of instant breakouts. But his request to his manager is another unmistakable shout of his leadership.

“I’ve been in thousands of lineups and had thousands of lineups that I made out,” says the 71-year-old Baker, who has spent most of the last 50 years either playing or managing Major League Baseball. “Guys don’t usually say put me down in the order. That’s a pride thing, especially if you’ve been hitting first, second or third most of your life. That was big for him to tell me that.”

It is an Altuve thing. A selfless, team-first move.

Jose Altuve, Baseball’s Punching Bag

The rest of the baseball world outside of Houston may be trying to cast Jose Altuve as villain, but they’re missing the man behind the numbers. Yankees and Dodgers fans are bitter and enraged that the Astros won that 2017 World Series during that electronic sign steal season. Maybe, they have a right to be enraged (though the Yankees hardly have any moral high ground). But logic has long left the ballpark when it comes to the avalanche of criticism being leveled against Altuve.

Altuve even became a talking point during a Korean Baseball Organization broadcast the other night/early morning with ESPN analyst Eduardo Perez arguing that the Astros heart and soul is facing fierce criticism because of the backlash for the “buzzer” incident with Aroldis Chapman. Of course, Major League Baseball actually investigated the wild speculation that Altuve was somehow wearing a buzzer to get pitch signals when he hit that epic Game 7 walkoff home run against the Yankees’ closer last October and found no substance to it whatsoever.

Still, Perez brought it up on the air like it was an accepted baseball truth. To his credit, ESPN play-by-play man Karl Ravech did jump in and say that MLB had investigated the 2019 buzzer talk and found nothing.

Of course, then Perez proceeded to rip into Altuve’s current swing.

“Look at this at-bat,” Perez said as a clip of a recent flailing Altuve strikeout played. “Completely noncompetitive.”

This is what Altuve is dealing with. He’s getting it from all sides — even from the voices calling a KBO game. Yet, even with all that, it’s impossible for anyone but Altuve to know for sure if his current struggles (he’s hitting .181 after 20 games) have anything to do with the outrage he’s facing or if it’s just unfortunate timing. After all, baseball is a game of struggles. Every superstar not named Mike Trout has gone through a prolonged slump at some point in their careers.

Baseball is a merciless game for even the most talented and determined players.

What cannot be questioned is Altuve’s leadership through it all. Any notion that Altuve is simply the product of a sign stealing system is absurd. This is a 5-foot-5 fighter who got sent home from the Astros’ baseball academy in Venezuela twice, dismissed as a non prospect, and just kept coming back, essentially refusing to be cut. This is a guy who hit .290 as a 22-year-old in 2012 when the Astros were losing 107 games. This is a guy who hit .341 in 2014 when the Astros lost another 90 games in the season Bo Porter was fired.

The only schemes the Astros had going on in those seasons was being bad. And still Altuve hit. He’ll hit at some point this season, too. He’s too good and too competitive not to hit.

Until then he’ll continue to be the leader that Justin Verlander fell in love with when he came over from the Tigers late in that World Series championship season.

“Altuve is one of the better teammates that I’ve had in my career,” new Astros closer Ryan Pressly says. “He’s as honest as it gets.”

He’s also as selfless as it gets in major professional sports. When Altuve singles on Saturday night, the cheers from the Astros dugout are as loud as things get in this empty ballpark without fans. The reaction is noticeable in its enthusiasm.

“We’ve been praying for him,” Baker says. “I was praying half the night for him. I know the rest of the team was pulling for him. He’s probably one of the more popular guys on this team and they know that he has a great heart — not only for people but for his teammates.”

This is your baseball super villain? Good luck with that casting job.