While many Yankees fans wonder why Aaron Boone still has his job, the only people who count see him differently, and maybe here’s why.
It’s a given the Yankees have the right to hire and personnel at will. Concerning managers, that power after “The Boss” years has been used sparingly.
Joe Torre himself had been fired three times previously by teams other than the Yankees before he took the team’s helm.
His “departure” as manager of the Yankees is still talked about today, but it is reported he turned down a one-year offer of $5 million – but did he? – and instead, was he forced out?
Joe Girardi came along next as the stoic marine type manager and leader, just as Brian Cashman was making the switch to an analytics-based team.
Girardi’s seat of the pants in your face, if I have to be, a style of managing that sooner or later was to be exposed as an improper mix.
The proverbial straw that broke Girardi’s back came when he saw fit to challenge the lack of hustle by Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez in full view of YES network cameras in the team dugout.
The Yankees And Why Boone
The history teacher in me tells me that to understand the present, you must appreciate the past, and it is with that Aaron Boone enters the conversation.
Now, whether or not we agree with the Yankee’s pretext that analytics rule (I personally do not), the fact is the Yankees made a good choice when they hired Aaron Boone, himself an analyst working in the ESPN TV booth.
Call Aaron Boone a “Yes Man,” a puppet of Yankees’ brass, whatever you wish – but he’s the right man for the job the Yankees hired him to do.
Because if we go back to 2017 for a look at finalists for Girardi’s job, we see the Yankees giving courtesy interviews to former and brief Yankees player Hensley Meulens, Rob Thompson, a long-time Yankees’ coach, and Carlos Beltran, a popular name at the time.
It Was Aaron Boone From Day One
Aaron Boone was their guy from the get-go, and it helps explain why he’s still their guy.
In his final year as an analyst for ESPN, I had the pleasure to speak with Aaron Boone as he sat in his hotel room awaiting that night’s Yankees’ telecast.
During the course of our ten-minute conversation, I peppered him with questions about this player and that player’s need to improve, and each time Boone diverted the question to that player’s “upside,” just as he does today in pre and post-game meetings with reporters.
The man was convincing, if only in the sense of how he views the game and the ones that play it.
The Yankees See The “Heart” In Aaron Boone
We think it’s part of his “puppeteering act,” but it’s not – it’s who he is.
Aaron Boone is a man whose heart and soul tell him baseball is the hardest game to play, something which he does have experience in doing, and that spirit moves him to be the person he is as the Yankees’ manager.
Now, we can go back to nitpick at this game or that game to second-guess moves that Boone has made that cost the Yankees, but overall his record stands at 281-191, a full 100 games over .500, with two 100+ win seasons to boot.
But with the Yankees and Aaron Boone, it’s not all about those numbers.
Because regardless of what some may think, the Yankees see a warrior in Aaron Boone – as a person who returned to the team days after undergoing a procedure to insert a pacemaker.
Boone still wears that pacemaker on good days and bad days as the stress rolls off his back, and he continues to do the job he was hired to do by the Yankees.
In the mind of Hall Steinbrenner and Brian Cashman, Boone is their man, and they appreciate his ability to roll with the punches of heart disease, interfacing with New York media, plus the daily stress of managing a team that is not reaching its potential.
I’m not trying to symbolize Boone as a martyr as much as to say there is another side to the “fire Boone” story that needs to be told.
What happens after this season will be a new story, but for now, the Yankees have their heart set on Aaron Boone, and maybe it’s time we should too…
Here’s What Readers Are Saying…
AJ Torres Again, I think other coaches have been a real concern
Pam Concato Yes l do! Think the problem is higher up!
Terry Hubbard He needs to go!!!
Bruce Sadler Boone not going to be that Brow beater. He is more of a guy that looks at the best of everyone. The guy leads the team to 100 wins & 103 wins. But I noticed he is not out there pitching, fielding or hitting.He puts the team he has on the field and hopes they win just like the rest of the MLB managers
Alex Mea Inherited an awesome lineup but couldn’t deliver; Pena would be a good choice to salvage the season
Timothy Hommel Anyone who thinks this bafoon is the right man for the job is completely lost
Joe Buglione No I don’t agree Boone is a good talker, gives interviews, there’s no fire in this team always waiting for something to happen that’s about it, any manager in the league would have won at least the same amount of wins if not a championship Boone & his wonks have to go
Butch Brobst Nobody else wants the Yankee managerial job that`s why he still has his job. Because the players have big egos.
Andrew Pal He may indeed be the right guy for the job they wanted him to do, but it’s not working. He may have led the team to multiple 100 win seasons, but the teams he led were built to win in the long slog of the regular season. Unfortunately, they turned out to be poorly constructed for the post-season. This year’s team is not even built well for the regular season. The bottom line is it’s not all Boone’s fault. The job they want him to do is a flawed blueprint, and that’s on Cashman and the front office.
Josias Gonzalez The honeymoon has been long over the old boss is flipping in his grave
Closing Published Comments And Final Thoughts
With this, published comments are closed but it’s clear – I lose.
Yankees fans, based on the comments above and others, firmly believe that Aaron Boone needs to be gone.
Baseball, it is said, is only a game. True. And the Grand Canyon is only a hole in Arizona. Not all holes, or games, are created equal.
