Angels fans have waited long enough for the luxury Astros fans already take for granted

When your favorite team is forced to watch the playoffs from home, it may be a little difficult to talk trash about other teams actually still playing. But when it's an opportunity to dunk on the Houston Astros, you just know that Los Angeles Angels fans are chomping at the bit. After the Astros lost Game 1 of the Wild Card Series against the Chicago White Sox, they immediately gave trash talkers all the material they needed to let it rip.  

The thing is, that material didn't come from the Astros’ performance on the field. After all, taking a 6-3 loss in the postseason to everyone's new favorite underdog team is nothing to feel ashamed about. No, Angels fans and Astros haters got all the material they could have dreamed for with what happened off the field. 

While there was an announced attendance of 34,011 at Daikin Park for Game One, the ballpark seemed just a little more vacant than that to outside observers. To some, the Astros appeared to be playing in front of a crowd that was unaware or unbothered by the stakes of a Wild Card Series. That is until a chorus of boos could be heard aimed at the Astros. And you can bet that the Astros players took notice of that. 

As documented by The Athletic’s Chandler Rome, Astros fans now are taking some heat from their own team for not only failing to really show up to support them, but for voicing their displeasure at the players. 

“It's extremely frustrating as a home player," Astros first baseman Christian Walker told reporters. "We're here, playing at home; we need cheers. We need energy. We don't need boos. What purpose does that serve in that moment?” 

Angels fans have waited over a decade for their next chance to see their favorite team play a home playoff game. Would the fans boo the Angels for losing that long-awaited game? Or would they show their support regardless of the outcome? 

Astros are already making this postseason an enjoyable experience for Angels fans  

There’s something to be said about watching a rival team being spiraling into chaos. It’s also nice when a player from a rival team complains about his own fanbase. It is a perfect opportunity for Angels fans to throw some salt on the wound whenever possible. So it's even nicer when two players do it. Astros reliever Bennett Sousa echoed Walker's sentiments as well, adding an extra helping of delectable schadenfreude for Angels fans. 

“The fans here are definitely spoiled with a lot of ALCS and World Series runs, and we have to earn that right to bring this team back to that position,” Sousa told The Atlantic. “That being said, when this team was in their first series 10 years ago, Minute Maid Park was probably packed. It makes a big difference. If we were in Chicago, it’d probably be loud as s***.”

To be fair, Sousa’s frustrations are understandable. He noted that the team and the players in the clubhouse worked very hard all year to even get into the postseason. So obviously it was disappointing when the fan base wasn’t there to support the team. However, his words may seem a little tactless when looking at the big picture. 

Calling your fanbase spoiled is probably not the best approach to take following a loss in the postseason. It does come off as someone making an excuse instead of focusing on the goal in front of them. The Angels currently sport the second-longest postseason drought in professional sports, trailing only the lowly New York Jets. Yet both teams still give it their all to make it back and to accomplish their goal.

Fans of either team would do almost anything for an opportunity to watch their team in a home playoff game. The Angels haven’t played in a postseason game since 2014. You could almost guarantee that Angel Stadium would be filled to the brim for their next playoff game, even during the middle of the day. If Angels fans had one more chance to see Mike Trout back in the postseason, they would almost certainly not take it for granted.      

Even this season, Angels fans still showed up and supported their team despite an abysmal 62-100 record. In fact, the team saw an attendance of 2,631,919 at Angel Stadium. That was more than the 2,472,118 fans that came to Daikin Park in 2026. As we saw in Game 1 of the Astros playoff matchup against the White Sox, that attendance was still lackluster.

Look, it is a pretty large ask of fans to be able to drop everything they’re doing and head to a baseball game in the middle of the day, especially when given such a short notice. But while it’s a large ask, it’s not an impossible ask. If you’ve watched enough playoff baseball on TV in your time, you have probably seen a packed out stadium or two for a day game.   

You’ve also probably seen fans of the home team show as much support to their favorite players as possible. After just one postseason game, the Astros and their fans already seem to be on a path to imploding. For Angels fans, that’s just pure entertainment.

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