William Frederick "Woody" Woodward (born September 23, 1942, in Miami, Florida) is a former professional baseball player, college baseball coach, and general manager. He played all or part of nine seasons in Major League Baseball, primarily as a shortstop, but is better known for his tenure as GM of the Seattle Mariners.

Playing career [edit]

Woodward attended Florida State University (FSU), where he played college baseball for the Florida State Seminoles baseball team. In Major League Baseball (MLB), Woodward played for the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves (1963–68) and the Cincinnati Reds (1968–71). A shortstop and second baseman, Woodward appeared in 880 games, garnering 517 hits. He hit for a .236 batting average with one home run and 148 runs batted in.

On July 10, 1970, Woodward hit his only MLB home run in a game against the Atlanta Braves.^[1] Afterwards Woodward was quoted as saying "If I hit one homerun per every seven seasons, it will take me 4,998 seasons to catch Babe Ruth."^[2]

Woodward was involved in a bizarre incident on September 4, 1971. During a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, a sack of flour fell out of the sky and landed approximately ten feet from where Woodward was standing.^[3]

Coaching career [edit]

After a brief stint as Reds TV commentator, Woodward returned to FSU from 1975-1978 as head baseball coach. After working as an assistant general manager for both the Cincinnati Reds and New York Yankees, Woodward was named the general manager of the New York Yankees in October 1986. His resignation at the end of the 1987 season lead to a flurry of moves as then-manager Lou Piniella was promoted to general manager, and (for the fifth time) Billy Martin was named Yankees manager.

The Philadelphia Phillies hired Woodward as general manager in October 1987, and fired him in June 1988, and in July 1988 he became the general manager of the Seattle Mariners, working there until his retirement at the end of 1999. In Jan. 2009 the Mariners hired him to work as a part-time scout.

Personal life [edit]

He is a cousin of actress Joanne Woodward.^{[citation needed]}

References [edit]

External links [edit]

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)
• Page at Baseball Library
• Page at Baseball America Executive Database