Chris Woodward backpedals rapidly on his 'Little League ballpark' comment
Rangers manager Chris Woodward sits at the dugout before a baseball game against the Yankees at Yankee Stadium on Monday. Credit: AP/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez
Just kidding.
That essentially was the explanation given Monday by Rangers manager Chris Woodward, who found himself in the middle of a social media storm Sunday after referring to Yankee Stadium as a “Little League ballpark.”
“Probably bad words on my part,” Woodward told reporters Monday morning, a few hours before the Rangers’ 1-0 loss to the Yankees. “I [made] it a layup for a lot of people. But I meant no disrespect, obviously, to this place. It’s obviously a world-class organization, ballpark. I talk about it as always being like one of my favorite places to come play, but I understand why Yankee fans will get upset about it. That’s why I love them.”
Woodward’s comments came Sunday after the first game of a doubleheader, a 2-1 Yankees victory that came courtesy of Gleyber Torres’ walk-off home run to rightfield, which traveled 369 feet. Woodward incorrectly said the homer would have been “an easy out in 99% of ballparks.”
Statcast, which measures such things, said Torres’ drive would have been a homer in 26 of the 30 MLB parks.
“I adore the city,” said Woodward, among those interviewed by the Yankees in 2017 after the club chose not to renew Joe Girardi’s contract; they wound up hiring Aaron Boone. “The ballpark is probably one of my favorite places to come. They’ve got a short rightfield, they always have. That’s kind of what makes this place unique in a lot of ways. And hats off to Gleyber. Man, he hit that ball hard.”
Extra bases
Monday marked only the sixth time in the last 64 seasons and the first time since 2010 that the Yankees won 20 of their first 28 games . . . 21 of the Yankees’ first 28 games this season have been decided by three or fewer runs. They are 5-3 in one-run games.
