Chris Woodward's 'Little League ballpark' rip draws attention as Yankees split
Aaron Judge of the Yankees connects on a sixth-inning base hit against the Rangers in the first game of a doubleheader at Yankee Stadium on Sunday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
On the surface, it merely was a split doubleheader on a long, cold, windy Sunday in early May.
But Rangers manager Chris Woodward managed to make it a memorable day at Yankee Stadium with a remark that will not soon be forgotten by Yankees fans.
After Gleyber Torres led off the ninth inning of Game 1 with a walk-off home run to rightfield for a 2-1 Yankees victory, Woodward said between games that Torres’ shot would have been “an easy out in 99% of ballparks.”
He added, “He just happened to hit it in a Little League ballpark to rightfield.”
Actually, Torres’ 369-foot shot would have been a home run in 26 of 30 major league stadiums. (It also went 14 feet farther than Kole Calhoun’s tying home run off Gerrit Cole in the seventh inning, but who’s counting?)
After the doubleheader, the Yankees seemed by turns confused, amused and annoyed by Woodward’s comments.
“I feel like both teams play in the same ballpark,” Torres said. “It’s the same dimensions. I think I feel good to hit a walk-off homer in the ‘Little League ballpark’ and happy to win the first game.
“I think the ego from people is too much sometimes. But it is what it is.”
Manager Aaron Boone initially smiled and said he had no comment, then added with an edge in his voice, “His math’s wrong; 99% is impossible. There are 30 parks.”
When informed after the second game of the stir his comments had created, Woodward said, according to The Athletic, "It was a joke. Listen, I love this place. This is like one of the cathedrals in all of sports. Obviously, everybody knows it's got a short rightfield . . . We hit one of our own in this [second] game, so I guess karma's funny that way."
The Rangers bounced back to win Game 2, 4-2, but in the third inning, Woodward presumably was more impressed when Giancarlo Stanton walloped a 427-foot two-run homer into the Rangers’ bullpen despite a stiff wind blowing straight in to give the Yankees a 2-0 lead.
Woodward did get the day’s last laugh, though, when pinch hitter Brad Miller’s two-out, two-run home run into the Yankees’ bullpen in the seventh salvaged the split for Texas (11-15). The Yankees are 19-8.
Game 2 turned on a rare off day for reliever Michael King, who threw a two-out wild pitch that allowed Jonah Heim to score the tying run, then gave up Miller’s 406-foot home run. “Two bad pitches,” he said.
King had allowed one earned run in 17 2⁄3 innings entering the game. Yankees relievers had pitched 23 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings in the previous seven games.
Boone began the day with a greeting for reporters: “You guys have a good All-Star break?” he asked.
That was a joke. It only felt that way.
The Yankees had not played since Wednesday, which was followed by an off day and two days of rain, complicating their pitching rotation and leaving them with a busy schedule over the next three weeks.
Game 1 featured a strong — and long — start from Cole, who threw a season-high 114 pitches in 6 1⁄3 innings, striking out 10, before Calhoun got to him with a home run just inside the rightfield foul pole that tied it at 1-1.
As pleased as he was with the victory, Cole still was lamenting the mistake when he met with reporters between games.
“I got beat,” said Cole, who recalled battles with Calhoun dating to their Pac-12 days, when Cole pitched for UCLA and Calhoun was at Arizona State.
Rather than call it a day after throwing 105 pitches through six innings, Cole told Boone he was good to go for the seventh, mindful of the fact that the team was facing a doubleheader Sunday and 23 games in 22 days.
Boone said with Cole in “cruise mode” in the sixth, he was willing to give him the ball in the seventh.
Torres’ shot came on a 3-and-1 pitch from John King and marked his first walk-off home run since May 6, 2018. His seven walk-off hits since 2018 lead the major leagues.
“In those situations, I’ve proved myself in those little things I can do,” Torres said. “Like I always say, those opportunities help me to do little things for my team.”
Said Boone, “We’ve seen him time and again, whether it’s in playoff situations, biggest situations, he does ratchet up that concentration level a bit.
“Cold day out there. It was good to see him stick one. That just happened quick. You’re thinking of all the possibilities there [in case of extra innings] and he ends it real quick. That was nice.”
The Yankees took the lead in the sixth on an infield single by Aaron Judge, a single by Anthony Rizzo that moved Judge to third and a sacrifice fly by Stanton.
In Game 2, Stanton’s homer off Glenn Otto in the third gave the Yankees a 2-0 lead. Eli White’s 342-foot homer off Jordan Montgomery made it 2-1 in the sixth. It would not have been out of almost every big league ballpark.
Judge flied out with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh.
The Rangers and Yankees will make up Saturday’s rainout on Monday, giving Woodward another chance to be a big league manager in a “Little League ballpark” — and the Yankees and their fans a chance to let him know how they feel about his thoughts on their home.
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
