David Ross didn’t pile on like the North Side-loyal Twitter crowd.
But that doesn’t mean the Cubs manager appreciates what Red Sox pitcher Josh Winckowski had to say about Wrigley Field after the Cubs beat him Saturday night.
“Underwhelming”?
“I don’t know what his life experience is, but I appreciate this place a lot,” Ross said. “I’ve got a lot of history here. This is one of the best [ballparks] I’ve ever been around.”
Ross played all or parts of three seasons with the Red Sox, winning a World Series there in 2013, and spent the last two seasons of his playing career with the Cubs, winning in 2016.
Winckowski, 24, is a rookie from southwest Florida who has less than three weeks of big-league service time.
In addition to calling Wrigley "a little underwhelming," Saturday night’s losing pitcher said this when asked about the second-oldest ballpark in the majors (to Boston’s Fenway Park):
MLB
“Fenway kind of has a presence to it. I really didn’t get that here, to be honest. I said to my mom last night, this place is very stock standard, if you ask me. I didn’t really feel anything, to be honest. It kind of just felt like another ballpark.”
Of course, everyone is entitled to his or her opinion. And give the kid credit for sharing candidly (and for some impressive pitching, even on this night). But unless he was trying to pick a public fight with a sizable cross section of Chicagoans and the city’s hefty sports-fan demographic, it was — as our Dave Kaplan said in one of those pile-on tweets, a “clown comment.”
At least not a smart one.
“Stock standard”?
“Oh, man, my experience in those ballparks is pretty amazing,” Ross said when asked about both teams’ parks in the context of “stock standard.”
“I’ve been part of a World Series in both,” Ross said. “[Saturday] night at Wrigley felt pretty awesome. It was nice to have fans on their feet, the ‘Go, Cubs, Go,’ packed house. It was fun.
“Fenway’s the same,” he added. “Historic. You walk into it, just like here, beautiful ballpark — a lot of history there. Very similar from my vantage point. Two amazing ballparks and great places to play, great fan bases, intense. Fun atmosphere.”
Maybe Winckowski just needs more time here to appreciate the ivy, rooftops and “Go, Cubs, Go.”
Maybe the Cubs should trade for him?
“He’s a pretty good pitcher,” Ross said. “So I don’t know. You can talk to Jed and [his staff] about trades.”