Nebraska Senator calls Houston Astros ‘miserable cheaters’ at Supreme Court hearing
The Houston Astros staved off elimination in the American League Championship Series on Wednesday, and perhaps they found inspiration in the Amy Coney Barrett Supreme Court hearing.
Well before first pitch of Wednesday’s Game 4, which Houston won 4-3 against Tampa Bay, Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse used his time for asking Barrett questions to rip the Astros.
“I’d like to talk about the Houston Astros, who are miserable cheaters,” said Sasse, who then apologized to John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, the Texas senators who were at the hearing.
“But I think all baseball fans know that the Houston Astros cheat,” Sasse added. “They steal signs, they bang on cans. They’ve done a whole bunch of miserable things, historically, and they deserve to be punished probably more than they have been.”
Earlier this year, the Astros were stripped of draft picks by Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred, who shed light on Houston’s sign stealing during the 2017 season. Manager A.J. Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow were given one-year suspensions and then were fired by the Astros.
The Astros had used a camera in center field to steal signs from opposing catchers, then banged a garbage can to signal to hitters what pitch was coming.
Sasse used the Astros as an analogy for questioning from Democratic senators about how Barrett might rule on future questions before the court.
Later in the hearings, Cruz struck back at Sasse.
“I came to the realization that Nebraska lacks a professional baseball team and at times doesn’t always have a winning football team either,” Cruz said, per Omaha.com. “And so I view it more as a plea for help than a substantive point. The scurrilous lies about the Astros I think should be stricken from the record and forgotten by all.”
You can hear Sasse’s comments in the video above.
