The Astros needed multiple people and a leaf blower to unveil their World Series banner

To be fair, they’ve never had to unveil a World Series banner before. But that said, the Astros’ banner unveiling ceremony before their home opener on Monday could probably have gone a little better.

After a ceremony announcing all the players and unfurling a huge banner with “World Champions” on it for all to see, the next step was to unveil a gold World Series pennant to celebrate the franchise’s first championship. If you missed it, you can see the entire pre-game ceremony here.

There’s nothing more embarrassing than a fudged banner unveiling undercutting a celebratory moment. So the Astros were probably hoping that when the time came that covering came off nice and easy, with no difficulties. Guess what happened next.

The announcement arrived, the music blared, the stands were overflowing with fans getting ready to cheer, and the covering ... did not want to come off.

All in all, it took three people (one with a pole, one with a leaf blower, and one climbing up and down the ladder to try and loosen the curtain by hand the best he could) to get the job done. It’s unclear if the leaf blower was actually helping things or making it harder for everyone else to unhook the curtain, but the guy control a heavy appliance on the top of an outfield wall under a lot of pressure deserves props. Good job, Leaf Blower Guy. You’re the true star of this show.

There are some underrated details here, namely the 28-3 banner hanging from a window in the background and Jose Altuve trying not to crack up at the farce happening in the outfield. He can definitely be forgiven for finding this incredibly amusing, because it’s a hoot. If someone wasn’t laughing then there might be some reason for concern.

After nearly a minute of struggling, they finally got it off and all was well. Congrats on getting to show off a shiny gold World Series pennant, Houston, and thanks for giving us an extra level of entertainment on a Monday.