HOUSTON -- It may have been Rivalry Weekend in MLB, but that didn’t stop noted nice guy Brandon Nimmo from making friends with some Astros fans during the Silver Boot Series this weekend.
The Rangers right fielder was in a giving mood after taking a would-be home run away from Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez -- and a potential souvenir away from a fan -- on Sunday.
Nimmo’s incredible robbery -- which kept the Rangers and Astros in a scoreless tie during the series finale at the time -- may not have been possible if a group of Astros fans sitting in the front row hadn’t stayed out of his way, so he brought them some baseballs later in the game. He was sure to leave a thank-you note on at least one of them.
“Usually I'll throw a ball up, so I found a kid, threw it up to him,” Nimmo explained. “The guy had a sign and used his sign as a megaphone, and he was like, 'Hey, you stole that ball from her and me.’ I said, 'OK, I'll get you another one then.’”
“Thanks 4 Letting Me Go After It!,” the inscription read, according to a social media post from one of the fans, Ronald Branch, who has sat in that section of Minute Maid Park for years and is even a tour guide at the ballpark.
“As a 31-year Houston Astros season ticket holder and lifelong fan, there was no way I was reaching over that wall and interfering with Brandon Nimmo trying to catch Yordan Alvarez’s solo homer,” Branch, who goes by “coasterron” on Instagram, wrote. “Loyal Astros fan always … but also loyal to the game itself.”
Even on Rivalry Weekend, there was room for good sportsmanship in Houston on Sunday.
“My arm was in the stands, so if they were going after it, I probably would have missed it,” Nimmo said. “Because she was turned away, like I was able to get in there a little bit more. I thanked them for being good sports about it. It was pretty funny. I was laughing, but they're really good sports about it all.”