As players continue to wait for direction from Major League Baseball, the Washington Nationals staged a Zoom call on Tuesday night for a re-watch of their Game 7 victory over the Houston Astros in the 2019 World Series.
The reunion was organized in effort to raise money for prosforheroes.org, launched by Ryan Zimmerman. Trea Turner, Juan Soto, Sean Doolittle, Stephen Strasburg and Brian Dozier were among those to participate.
The night of laughs included a jab at the Astros, when Dozier offered to lend Soto a hand during his at-bat in the eighth inning. Dozier reached for a trash can and began banging it, a reference to the Astros’ cheating scandal that rocked the sport during the offseason.
Several of Dozier’s former teammates couldn’t help but laugh, with Zimmerman astutely noting the infielder was now a member of the San Diego Padres and that front office would have to deal with ramifications.
LMAO DOZIER IS BANGING pic.twitter.com/3u8LmNa5ZW
— Thank you 42 (@pattyiceSZN) April 15, 2020
Although the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has consumed MLB, the Astros haven’t fully escaped the spotlight. When Game 7 of last year’s World Series was streamed on YouTube as part of MLB’s
“Opening Day at home” celebration, the comments section was inundated with criticism.
Fans’ frustration was seemingly an extension of what opposing players felt and expressed during Spring Training. Several Los Angeles Dodgers spoke out on the matter, with Cody Bellinger and Justin Turner the most critical of not only the Astros, but MLB commissioner Rob Manfred as well.
Bellinger accused the Astros of stealing a World Series from the Dodgers, which earned a sharp retort from Carlos Correa. Rather than engage in a war of words, the reigning National League MVP stood by his comments and left it at that.
Meanwhile, Turner voiced his disdain with Manfred alluding to the World Series trophy as a “piece of metal.” Turner championed the trophy as a driving force for which the Dodgers and players across the league to spend countless hours training to win.
Turner had previously shared he does not believe the Astros should be referred to as champions.
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