HOUSTON –– Last year, Kyle Tucker was warmly embraced in his first trip back to Houston after beingtraded away by the Astros.
His former club played his walk-up song. His former fan base wore crowns in honor of his “King Tuck” nickname. And even thoughhe was a member of the Chicago Cubs, his time as a homegrown Astros star seemed to be warmly remembered.
“We had a lot of success playing in this city and on this field,” Tucker told theNew York Times. “So it’s cool.”
Fast-forward a year, however, and fan feelings have evidently grown more conflicted.
While Tucker reiterated how much he “loved being here, playing here” upon his return with the Dodgers on Monday, the hometown crowd greeted him differently –– showering him with a smattering of boos.
“I don’t really focus on crowd noise and stuff. Most of the time I don’t really hear it a lot,” Tucker said, brushing off a question about his reaction to the boos. “So I don’t really have a take on it.”
That didn’t mean it didn’t still come as a surprise.
Tucker drew the boos during both his pregame introduction, as well as when he was announced for his first at-bat of the night. The groans only grew after he hit an RBI single in the first inning, then a solo homer in the third, turning in one of his better performances during a slow opening month with the Dodgers.
It all likely had something to do with Tucker’s new team, of course, after the four-time All-Starsigned a $240 million contractin Los Angeles this offseason.
As Dodgers manager Dave Roberts noted pregame when reflecting on a Dodgers-Astros rivalry that dates back to the controversial 2017 World Series: “Our fan base has feelings about them. Their fan base has feelings about us.”
Source: California Post – Breaking California News, Photos & Videos
