Yankees manager Aaron Boone believed in his team from day one. At times, his upbeat press meetings were laughable – but today, who’s laughing?
Yankees manager Aaron Boone was never a favorite of many Yankees fans, many of whom are still looking for him to be fired at the end of the season.
An easy target at times, Boone’s upbeat nature often spilled over in post-game meetings with reporters, to the point where he became of a caricature of himself in the wake of another dreadful loss.
His words about this guy and that guy having good swings today, or his starter’s slider being the best he’s had all year, seemed inappropriate when the box score showed a 1-8 with four runners stranded by those hitters and five runs over four innings surrendered by his pitcher.
When the “Bombers” fell victim to the Detroit Tigers in a series in late May, looking listless and lost, losing three straight, Boone’s press conference sounded especially “off.”
Yankees: Boone Holds Onto A Sinking Ship
The Yankees reached the bottom when, on July 4th, the American League East looked like this, as the calls for Boone’s firing grew even louder.
Yankees: “We’re A Better Team Than This”
Boone held on never wavering from his mantra, and when GM Brian Cashman stepped in at the trade deadline to add Anthony Rizzo and Joey Gallo, reader’s comments on these pages took a turn, as did the Yankees themselves.
Since the trade deadline, the Yankees are 7-1, and their last two wins have come at the expense of the Seattle Mariners, a rival of the Yankees in the AL Wild Card race.
And suddenly, it’s no longer a stretch to see the Yankees in the division race and beyond a wild card team.
The loss column deficit is especially impressive, as you see here in the AL East standings.
Yankees Nowhere Near Home Yet…
Aaron Boone, despite the small smile he couldn’t keep hidden in last night’s meet with the media, is not the kind to say, “See, I told you,” but should feel at least a bit vindicated.
The Yankees have won nothing this year, only the fact that they’ve come back from where they were, to have a full-fledged opportunity to make some noise in a pennant race that seemed beyond their reach only two months ago.
The bullpen game the team resorted to last night because Gerrit Cole and Jordan Montgomery are unavailable due to the third COVID outbreak suffered by the Yankees this season.
Newly acquired starter Andrew Heaney relies on tonight to earn his pinstripes by going deep into the game and saving the bullpen for another time.
Almost unnoticed has been the play of Giancarlo Stanton, who now leads the Yankees in RBI with 54 and Aaron Judge, the most consistent player on the team – and dare I jinx them, they have played injury-free all year.
I’ll repeat it, the Yankees have yet to win anything, and the streak they’ve put together is exactly what they needed to make them credible again – but their work has just begun.
The Yankees have six games left to play with the Red Sox and seven with Toronto. Only three games remain with Tampa Bay, but they are the season’s final games, and they’ll be played at Yankee Stadium.
As Aaron Boone said all along, the Yankees are a pretty good team, and now were are seeing why…
Here’s What Readers Are Saying…
Gary Bliss Just stupid. All managers believe in their teams. The question is would they be playing this good without Rizzo and Gallo? Took 1/2 season to get left-handed bats.
Evan Wetzel Its Cashman’s team.. half our losses are you (presumably Boone) managing players poorly
Roger Katz Aaron Boone is still an awful manager.
Sher Heide You have to admit, that his spin in the first half post-games were annoying as all get out. I doubt he saw this coming or what we would get at the trade deadline. So I’m not laughing just yet, we haven’t won anything yet so cool your jets a bit and let’s see where it goes.
Burnett Little Still two months to go in the season. We’ll see how things play out. It’s going to be an exciting race. Acquiring Rizzo and Gallo turned the season around.
Steven Rosario I’ll wait to see how they do against the rest of the division. That’s where they’re getting clobbered.
Chuck Isleman BS , he has made a lot of wrong moves and no moves! They have run the bases terribly at times. They are winning write now despite his managing!
Roger Katz Arthur Schwartz Gardner should be gone. He’s been awful this season. Roger: True, but there’s no one I’d rather see at the plate with the game on the line. You know he’s going to give you a good at-bat.
Maryann Mazzarella Great manager who believes in his Yankees. More people should follow his advice
Closing Published Comments And Final Thoughts
With this, we’ll close published comments on this article.
While the likes are numerous, we still have readers who want no part of Aaron Boone. I don’t get it, but I suppose that’s what this is all about.
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.
