I Like What Rangers Manager Said About Yankee Stadium, Just Not When He Said It

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Everyone knows the New York Yankees play in a very hitter friendly ballpark, especially for left-handed hitters.  Their right field wall has been the point of a lot of jokes over the years, and after Sunday’s game against the Texas Ranges, it was the point of another.  After Gleyber Torres hit a walk-off home run to beat Texas, Rangers’ head coach Chris Woodward called the park a little league park, saying “small ballpark, that’s an easy out in 99% of ballparks.  Torres just happened to hit it in a little league ballpark to right field.” 

As you can imagine, this quote made many headlines.  Of course, he’s getting a lot of junk from Yankee fans about it, but most other fans know he’s right and they love it.  Including me.  BUT, I hate the timing of it.  Sure, he was frustrated after just getting beat from the walk-off home run, but it was a terrible time to hate on their “little league ballpark.”  This is because Torres’s home run went 369 feet and would have been a home run in 25 of the other 29 ballparks.

So, while the dimensions at Yankee Stadium are a joke (318’ down left field line, 314’ down right field line), you just can’t say something like that when the home run would have still cleared 25 other outfield walls.  It just makes you look dumb.  Now, if it would have a 320’-something pop fly that ended up going over the wall and ending the game, it would have been the perfect place and time for that “little league” comment.  I would have commended Chris Woodward for it in every way possible.  But while I agree with him, he simply looks dumb for saying it.

Reactions

Reactions are always a fun part of things like this.  Let’s start with Gleyber Torres himself.

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“I feel like both teams play in the same ballpark and it’s the same dimensions.  I feel to hit a walk-off homer in the little league ballpark.  Happy to win the first game.”

This is a decent response.  I don’t really like him saying both ballparks are the same, though.  The Rangers park is 9’ and 12’ longer down the lines, so while the Rangers’ new stadium is a little bit longer (still a joke of a stadium), it’s still longer.  Don’t dismiss the fact that your stadium (Yankee Stadium) is a little league park by saying another stadium is the same.  Just own your ballpark and its dimension.  And by the way, any MLB stadium that is not at least 330’ down the lines, is a joke in my opinion.

Now I love the second part of his reaction, saying he’s happy to hit a home run in a little league ballpark.  Maybe it was the way he said it, but it was pretty funny listening to it.  Grade: B-

Now for Yankees’ manager Aaron Boone’s reaction: “His math is wrong.  99% is impossible.  There’s only 30 parks.”  This is a terrible reaction.  But in all honesty, it sums up perfectly who Aaron Boone is, which is an arrogant jerk who always sounds like he’s full of himself.  It’s just a dumb angle to take the “technicality” approach as a response.  Saying “99% of [something]” is clearly a figure of speech and Boone responded in all seriousness.  And, and…Woodward didn’t say 99% of major league ballparks.  He just said ballparks.  So he could have meant minor league parks as well.  He could’ve even included high school ballparks because there are home runs down the lines in Yankee stadium that wouldn’t clear the fence at my old high school’s field.  Grade: F

Lastly, Chris Woodward’s follow-up response:  After calling it a joke and saying he meant no disrespect, he went on to say it was a world-class organization and ballpark.  He even went as far as to say Yankee Stadium was a “cathedral” before saying it was one of his favorite places to come and play.

Now, I get you have to address the statement by perhaps backtracking a little, but he should’ve done just that…A LITTLE.  He went all out and gushed over a stadium that is just 13 years old.  I mean, a cathedral?  The old Yankee stadium surely was a cathedral, but nothing about the new one is.  It’s no more special than any other ballpark…well maybe Tampa’s and Oakland’s.  But my point is either he shouldn’t have backtracked at all (it wasn’t necessary after all) or just backtracked a little bit.  He definitely shouldn’t have acted like it was the best stadium he’s ever stepped foot in.  Grade: D-

Garett