Rangers' CEO apologizes for remarks

DALLAS, Nov. 1 (UPI) -- Texas Rangers Chief Executive Officer Chuck Greenberg said Monday he has apologized to the New York Yankees for ripping Yankees fans.

Greenberg, echoing criticisms made by Kristin Lee, the wife of Rangers pitcher Cliff Lee, told a Dallas radio station Yankees fans were "either violent or apathetic." Kristin Lee said New York fans behaved boorishly last month during the American League Championship Series, the New York Daily News reported.

"Earlier today, in the course of praising the extraordinary support and enthusiasm of Texas Rangers fans, I unfairly and inaccurately disparaged fans of the New York Yankees," Greenberg said. "Those remarks were inappropriate. Yankees fans are among the most passionate and supportive in all of baseball."

Greenberg said the team was proud of its fans "and how remarkably they have supported the Rangers throughout lean times and now during this magical season."

Major League Baseball ordered Greenberg to extend the apology, SI.com reported.

In his earlier comments, Greenberg said Yankees fans had been "awful" when the Rangers played in New York during the American League Championship Series.

"They were either violent or apathetic, neither of which is good," he said. "So I thought Yankee fans were by far the worst of any I've seen in the post-season. I thought they were an embarrassment."

Kristin Lee told USA Today last week that she and other Rangers wives and girlfriends were spat upon, taunted and cursed by New York fans as Texas was defeating the Bronx Bombers at Yankee Stadium.