There haven’t been many instances over the course of this season where I have been proud of Aaron Boone. I find him to be a little soft in terms of his management of the team, focusing more on the feelings of his players than the success of the team. But over the weekend I found myself applauding him. In response to Alex Cora, who insinuated that he had put Brayan Bello in Saturday's game just to throw at Aaron Judge and get revenge on the Yankees for Gerrit Cole hitting Rafael Devers in the first inning, Boone said “We’ve got too many important things going on in front of us to really get caught up in that.” It was the correct response whether the Yankees were in the right or wrong. It gave hope that Boone’s eyes were on the big picture, and not on how other people viewed him. It makes the subtly condescending comment a heck of a lot sweeter when considering that the Red Sox were the ones who overreacted. First of all, if Gerrit Cole were to have tried to intentionally hit Devers in the first inning, then he wouldn’t have done it with a cutter tailing in. He would have done it with a four-seam fastball at Devers back. Second, Alex Cora attributed Gerrit Cole intentionally walking Devers in the fourth inning as the reason for how he was able to justify that Gerrit Cole hit Devers intentionally in the first. The only problem with that logic is that Cole made himself look pretty pathetic, throwing up four fingers and waving Devers to first in the fourth inning when, at the time, he had a no-hitter going. A person who is willing to do that would also be willing to do it in the first inning. Cora’s comments were circumstantial. He saw an opportunity to light a fire under his team, and he took it. Unfortunately for Cora, his team didn’t respond on Sunday, and he wound up just embarrassing himself. It was a rare management win for Boone.
But yesterday was a different story. Boone almost blew another game, relying on Clay Holmes in the eighth inning of a one-run game. And yes, at this point it is Boone’s fault when he puts Clay in the game, and he blows it because it has happened thirteen times now! At a certain point you just have to accept that you are placing a dead duck on the mound, but Aaron “bleeping” Boone as he was coined after hitting the game winning homerun to send the Yankees to the World Series in game seven of the 2003 ALCS, has refused to accept that Holmes has been a great failure. Beyond that, Boone has lied to Yankees fans everywhere. If he was really concerned about all the “many important things in front us” then he would grow a pair, go up to Hal Steinbrenner or Brian Cashman (or whichever analytical person who is telling him to keep putting Clay Holmes in the game because he features a 98 mile per hour sinker) and tell them to stick it. But Boone won’t do that because he is so concerned about his job that he won’t do the right things to help the Yankees win a championship. He will keep doing what the front office is telling him to do like a Muppet, and then celebrate in the locker room like he’s one of the guys and not the mooch that might cost the Yankees the World Series.
And celebrate for what? Making the playoffs for the 59th time in the Yankees “illustrious history” as Michael Kay put it after the game against Seattle? The Yankees feature two of the greatest hitters of all time in Juan Soto and Aaron Judge. There was no way that they weren’t going to make the postseason, and yet the team celebrated with the sophistication of college kids in a crowded dorm room—like they were doing it just to do it and for no other reason. The little candle of hope that I held for Boone in my tormented Yankee fan heart was doused with showers of champagne in a locker room of players who hadn’t even clinched the division. Allowing such a celebration to happen without even confronting the front office was clearly not trying to focus on the greater goal of winning a championship and eliminating distractions. Rather, it was creating one.
Today, the Yankees played Seattle again, and they came out flat. In the first inning Clarke Schmidt bobbled a bunt, and Jasson Dominguez dropped a can of corn in left field, which in the grand scheme of things wound up being the difference in the game as Seattle snuck away with a 3-2 victory. Nobody will say that it is because the entire team was hung over for celebrating something miniscule that they came out flat, but it was blatantly obvious. The team who had had so much fight over the past couple weeks seemingly seemed a little lethargic, which was concerning considering that they have not yet accomplished the goal of stepping on the Orioles' throat and taking the division. And with today’s loss, the Orioles are now just four games behind in the AL east, which will still be hard to overcome, but certainly more likely than five games, especially considering that the Orioles will be playing a three-game set with the Yankees in a few day's time. All this to say that if the Yankees were really serious about winning the World Series, they would be focusing on that, and not on the reward that follows like a spoiled, undisciplined brat of an organization, leaning on the successes of the past.
Add comment
Comments