The city of Houston is hurting right now. It’s hurting pretty bad.
Tropical Storm Harvey has reportedly left thousands of people in the area stranded and homeless with no place to go.
Images of neighborhoods engulfed in water have gone viral all over social media.
Hundreds of panicked residents are desperately seeking shelter. Some parts of the city have even become so desperate that rescue boats have reportedly been attacked for not having the capacity to assist every person they drive by.
“You have people rushing the boat,” rescuer Clyde Cain told CNN. “Everyone wants to get in at the same time… We have boats being shot at if we’re not picking everybody up.”
Of course, with such a catastrophe currently plaguing one of the most prominent sports towns in the United States, surely its baseball team’s attention is solely focused on the well-being of its citizens, right?
Wrong.
The Houston Astros, who find themselves in the middle of a late-season playoff push, have much more important things to fret over, like having to relocate a trio of home games against the Texas Rangers to Tampa.
Due to the severe flooding caused by what was initially a Category 4 hurricane, the Astros asked the Rangers if they’d be willing to host this week’s three-game series in Arlington and allow Houston to host a later series in September at Minute Maid Park.
The Rangers declined the proposed swap, stating they didn’t want to inconvenience their fans who bought tickets for the September matchup, forcing this week’s games to be moved almost 1000 miles away to Tropicana Field instead.
Let’s just say the Astros weren’t too pleased.
“They did not want to trade series with us,” Astros president Ryan Reid complained to reporters. “They wanted all six of our games at their park.”
Pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. wasn’t afraid to voice his opinion on the matter either.
“Classy as always, should be absolutely ashamed,” McCullers Jr. tweeted about the Rangers on Monday. “Greed never takes off days, apparently.”
Oh, pardon me Lance. How inconvenient for you to have to travel to Tampa for a baseball game rather than Arlington.
I’m sure all of your fans in Houston fighting for their lives right now are just as outraged as you are.
In all of my years following sports, I’ve never seen a team display such a lack of empathy for the outside world.
Thirty people have died in Houston so far, and that toll is only expected to increase. How could anyone be more concerned over something as trivial as the location of a sporting event?
Rangers outfielder Delino DeShields agrees.
“I want people to understand that what is happening down there is way bigger than baseball,” DeShields wrote on Twitter. “Everyone wants to point fingers at each other calling each other names… That’s so irrelevant right now.”
Well said Delino. Well said.
The bottom line is that Ryan Reid and Lance McCullers Jr. are lucky to have the privilege of complaining about something as insignificant as where their game is played.
You can follow Dylan Dixon on Twitter @dylanrdixon, and contact him at ddixon@alligator.org.
Hurricane Harvey has left Houston and the surrounding areas flooded. Rescue boats are out trying to help people and animals get to safer and dryer land.
