Rangers' Chris Woodward on Swinging 3-0: "It's The Best Pitch In Baseball To Hit"
ARLINGTON, Texas — Like it or not, baseball's unwritten rules are back at the forefront of the news cycle.
Not Shohei Ohtani's remarkable two-way season. Not five—FIVE—no-hitters by May 19. Not Yermín Mercedes's remarkable Cinderella story.
Nope. White Sox manager Tony La Russa has brought us back to a medieval time when it is expected to risk player injury by throwing at a batter for retribution after breaking an unwritten rule.
“We were taught from day one: Respect the game. Respect the competition. Respect your opponent," La Russa said.
Of course, Texas Rangers manager Chris Woodward knows all too well about being ridiculed for any kind of opposition to breaking said rules. Woodward's reaction last year to Fernando Tatis Jr. hitting a grand slam off a 3-0 pitch with a seven-run lead sent the baseball world into a frenzy.
Now, several months later, Woodward calls it "the best pitch in baseball to hit."
"I've thought long and hard about and I don't have a problem with it, honestly," Woodward said. "I've been around this game for 25 years and there's things that were brought down and handed to me that I was expected to push forward. ... I had to hand some of these things back down and some of them are silly. Maybe that's one of them."
Woodward added: "If you have a bat in your hand and you're standing in the batter's box, I've completely changed my opinion on it. I never swung at a 3-0 pitch because it was never allowed. Now I look back, I'm like, 'That was silly.' ... I preach that to our guys now. As a manager, every time you look over to me 3-0, I'm giving the [green light]. Don't be afraid to swing."
Full statement from Woodward:
Woodward declined to comment on how La Russa and his team are handling the fallout of Mercedes swinging at a 47-mph cookie from a position player on a 3-0 count. That's commendable, and probably the right thing to do. But I can fill you in.
Quite simply, La Russa decided to fully declare war on anyone who opposes the traditions of baseball, even the players in his own clubhouse.
“Big mistake,” La Russa said before Tuesday’s game. “There will be a consequence that he has to endure within our family. But it won’t happen again.”
When former Rangers pitcher Lance Lynn backed up his White Sox teammate, La Russa fired back saying, "Lance has a locker. I have an office. ... I don't agree."
MLB players are playing in a system that determines their pay by how well they perform. If a player can pad their stats because a position player is tossing meatballs, why not take a chance to thicken your wallet, right?
“You go to bat 400, 500 times," La Russa added. "Three events, you think that’s gonna make a difference?”
Actually, it might. The difference between 29 or 30 homers, 99 or 100 RBI, .299 or .300 are much more further apart than it appears. If a player like Mercedes can go to arbitration in a few years with a better chance to make more money, at minimum, he is being fiscally responsible. In reality, Mercedes is becoming a vital spoke on the wheel of a new, fun culture in Major League Baseball.
La Russa, however, could not care less.
“I heard he said something like, ‘I play my game,’" La Russa recalled. "No, he doesn't. He plays the game of Major League Baseball.”
Chris Woodward may not be 76 years old and have La Russa's pedigree, but a quarter-century of professional baseball knowledge and experience is plenty to make public statements about the game. And Woodward acknowledges that the game is changing. When Rangers rookie sensation Adolis García flipped his bat after a clutch go-ahead home run earlier this season, Woodward took no issue with it.
In fact, he celebrated it.
"It's a different style of game," Woodward said. "What I do love is everybody comes from different backgrounds, from all over the world. In different cultures, that's celebrated. He's not trying to show anybody up. He's not trying to disrespect anybody. He's excited hit a home run in the Major Leagues to give his team a chance to win the game. I'm all about that, man."
While Woodward admitted several months ago that he didn't like Tatis Jr. swinging 3-0 last year, he also said he was "willing to move on and kind of adapt to the new norm." Now, his time to reflect on it has caused him to go completely against what purists like La Russa loathe.
Just one less guy screaming at clouds.
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