{"id":836419,"date":"2026-10-24T02:27:43","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T02:27:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/836419\/"},"modified":"2026-10-24T02:27:43","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T02:27:43","slug":"this-world-series-starter-rooted-for-the-astros-then-they-cheated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/836419\/","title":{"rendered":"This World Series starter rooted for the Astros. Then they cheated"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

MILWAUKEE\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Milwaukee is going absolutely nuts. The Brewers<\/a> have sold out Game 3 and Game 4 of the World Series.<\/p>\n

The Tampa Bay Rays will host those games, but the Brewers invited fans to come to their stadium and watch on the big screen. The Brewers sold more than 31,000 tickets to each of their watch parties at $15 apiece. On Friday morning, StubHub offered them for resale, starting at $168.<\/p>\n

There is nothing quite like a city uniting behind a team that never has won a World Series. Ask Logan Henderson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Henderson, the Brewers\u2019 starting pitcher Saturday in Milwaukee, grew up a huge fan of the Houston Astros. He was 15 when he attended his first World Series game.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy parents had always said, if we were fortunate enough to be able to watch them go to the World Series, we\u2019re going to do everything we can to get there,\u201d Henderson said. \u201cI was blessed that my parents got tickets to go to the games.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing like it. I\u2019m on the other side of it now. I was a spectator and a fan, now I\u2019m a player. It\u2019s definitely surreal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Milwaukee <\/p>\n

Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Logan Henderson follows through on a pitch during Game 2 of the NLCS against the Dodgers in Milwaukee on Oct. 12.<\/p>\n

(Robert Gauthier\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

His first World Series game as a spectator and fan? Game 4 of the 2017 World Series<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went to the one before the crazy one,\u201d he said. \u201cL.A. ended up winning that game.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the crazy one<\/a>, the Dodgers blew two four-run leads, tied the score with three runs in the ninth inning and lost in the 10th.<\/p>\n

If we knew then what we know now, Game 4 would be the crazy one: Dodgers pitcher Alex Wood constantly changing his signs, suspicious that the Astros might be up to something, whatever that might be.<\/p>\n

\"Dodgers <\/p>\n

Dodgers pitcher Alex Wood delivers from the mound during Game 4 of the World Series against the Astros on Oct. 28, 2017, in Houston.<\/p>\n

(Pool \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Wood was vindicated three years later, when a league investigation revealed the Astros had been cheating in 2017<\/a>, stealing signs from a television monitor next to the dugout and relaying them to batters by banging on trash cans. The practice, according to the report<\/a> issued by commissioner Rob Manfred, was refined during the regular season and extended \u201cthroughout the postseason.\u201d<\/p>\n

The scandal outraged the Dodgers and their fans. The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously<\/a> to demand Manfred award the 2017 championship to the Dodgers. Their players wanted nothing to do with that. A real championship, after all, would come with champagne and beer in the clubhouse and a parade through the streets.<\/p>\n

Still, the players did not turn the other cheek.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone knows they stole the ring from us,\u201d Cody Bellinger said.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThey cheated,\u201d Kik\u00e9 Hern\u00e1ndez said. \u201cThey got away with it. They got a ring out of it.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

When the Astros\u2019 team buses arrived at Dodger Stadium for games during the pandemic season of 2020, when ballparks were closed to the public, Dodgers fans gathered outside to boo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Dodgers <\/p>\n

Dodgers fans boo Jose Altuve of the Astros after he struck out in a game on Aug. 3, 2001, at Dodger Stadium.<\/p>\n

(Luis Sinco\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Those were Henderson\u2019s guys inside those buses: Jose Altuve<\/a>, Alex Bregman<\/a>, Carlos Correa<\/a>, George Springer<\/a>, Lance McCullers Jr. <\/a>Those were the guys that brought home the Astros\u2019 first World Series championship, as Henderson\u2019s Brewers are trying to do for Milwaukee.<\/p>\n

\u201cPersonally, as a fan, Hurricane Harvey hit Houston really hard<\/a>, and the Astros brought a championship to the city,\u201d Henderson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat meant absolutely everything to the city. I hope that means what it did for me to the fans in Milwaukee here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Rays also are trying to bring their first championship home to Tampa Bay. In 2017, hard as this might be to believe today, the mighty Dodgers had not won a championship in 29 years.<\/p>\n

And now, as a major leaguer, Henderson has an acute appreciation of the little things that can mean the difference between victory and defeat, between a parade and another plaintive chorus of \u201cwait \u2018til next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

It could be a pitcher that blows a throw he could make in his sleep<\/a>, sending his team home for the winter. It could be a defense perfectly executing a seldom-seen play<\/a>. It could be a ball that clanks off the roof and into play<\/a> instead of flying into the stands for a home run.<\/p>\n

It could be stealing signs and banging on trash cans<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would rather face a player that was taking steroids than face a player that knew every pitch that was coming,\u201d Wood tweeted<\/a> after Manfred\u2019s report on the Astros\u2019 cheating.<\/p>\n

Henderson knows how hard this is to do. The Brewers haven\u2019t appeared in the World Series in 44 years, and owner Mark Attanasio<\/a> said nervous fans already are wondering whether their next appearance will be 44 years away.<\/p>\n

So I asked Henderson if, all these years later, the scandal changed how he felt about those Astros.<\/p>\n

He paused.<\/p>\n

He exhaled.<\/p>\n

He paused again.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe a little bit,\u201d Henderson said. \u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate. I try not to think about it or talk on it too much. I think now, being in the game, my perspective on it is a little different.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think for the kid in me \u2014 and the huge baseball fan I was \u2014 that team will always have a special place in my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILWAUKEE\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Milwaukee is going absolutely nuts. The Brewers have sold out Game 3 and Game 4 of the World…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":836420,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2389],"tags":[42,5,5211,2500,39,2138,101348,14,139,54,3211,10679,1234,843,4,3815,3181,3185,101347,1319],"class_list":["post-836419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston-astros","tag-astros","tag-baseball","tag-brewer","tag-championship","tag-dodgers","tag-fan","tag-first-world-series-game","tag-game","tag-houston","tag-houston-astros","tag-houstonastros","tag-logan-henderson","tag-manfred","tag-milwaukee","tag-mlb","tag-one","tag-player","tag-sign","tag-world-series-starter","tag-year"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117493526969825038","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=836419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/836420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=836419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=836419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=836419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}