People are outraged at Texas Rangers’ refusal to swap home series with the Astros in wake of Hurricane Harvey

Elsa/Getty

With Hurricane Harvey relief efforts taking place throughout southeast Texas and even more rain in the forecast, the Houston Astros are temporarily unable to host games, but their cross-state rivals, the Texas Rangers, have refused to accommodate their scheduling needs.

The teams were scheduled to kick off a three-game series in Houston on Tuesday, but Minute Maid Park, while described as being in relatively “good condition,” isn’t in any shape for baseball. However, when Astros president Reid Ryan approached the Rangers with the idea of trading home series – the two squads are scheduled to play another series starting on September 25 – he was rebuffed.

“We went to the Rangers and said ‘hey, let’s switch series. You guys have our home series, we’ll take your home series,'” said Ryan, according to Stefan Stevenson of the Star-Telegram. “They rejected that and didn’t want to do that. The Rangers wanted us to play the next three days at their place, but they did not want to trade series with us. They wanted all six games at their park.”

In turn, the Astros refused to play an extra series in Arlington, opting for a neutral site instead. The latest edition of the Lone Star Series will commence at Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays.

But while the two sides eventually came to a resolution, people were decidedly unhappy with the Rangers’ refusal to allow the September series to be played in Houston. Hundreds took to Twitter to voice their dissatisfaction, including Astros pitcher Lance McCullers, who suggested the Rangers were motivated by greed.

Rangers general manager Jon Daniels defended his team, saying that the possibility of gaining an extra home series did not influence his decision to hold on to the September showdown.

“We were prepared to make the event all about hurricane relief and helping our neighbors,” he said. “It had nothing to do with looking for a competitive advantage. That’s an inaccurate portrayal….We didn’t feel it was right to give our fans 24 hours notice that their tickets in late September were now good this week. We were willing to play this series anywhere the Astros and MLB wanted, including here in Arlington.”

Just three games out of a playoff spot, the Rangers might have a legitimate case for keeping the series at home, especially when moving it to Houston would force them to play four consecutive road series near the end of September. But when a natural disaster strikes, baseball takes a backseat, and Daniels should have known that he’d take some heat for his decision.

The Rangers and Astros will kick off their next series on Tuesday in St. Petersburg. Houston’s home series against the Mets, set to begin on Friday, may also be played at Tropicana Field.