How do you think Aaron Boone would react if one of his Yankees players repeatedly made the same mistake, yet told the manager that he had no reason to change his approach?
I’m betting that Boone would tell the player to look in the mirror and do some soul-searching before next reporting to the ballpark. I think that’s pretty much what anyone would expect.
The manager should expect the same from himself.
Apparently, he does not.
Upon his return from the one-game suspension he earned from MLB in the wake of his third ejection over a 10-game period and for, “recent conduct toward major league umpires,” Boone said that he had no intention of changing his behavior.
“No, I’m not going to … I’m not going to change. I mean, even though I’ve been kicked out of a lot of games, a lot of them I make it through,” the Yankees manager said with more than a tinge of humor Saturday before his team’s 3-2, 10-inning victory over the Padres in The Bronx. “So maybe, you know, just being better at where that line is. I’ll be mindful of it and try and stay in games [while] still fighting for what I think is important.”
This is not about accountability. Surely Boone is accountable to general manager Brian Cashman and the Yankees’ hierarchy. This is about self-awareness. This is about optics. It is hard to believe that Boone is oblivious of the fact that he comes off as a petulant child while incessantly challenging umpires over ball-and-strike calls.
It reeks of entitlement and disrespect, the way it reeked of entitlement and disrespect when Brett Gardner was banging his bat on the dugout roof to protest calls in August 2019. Boone is the influencer who might as well have created Jomboy Media.
The poor, put-upon Yankees. Everyone is always against them.
There are ways for a manager to have his team’s back other than screaming at home plate umpires to “Be Better!” and to demand that they stay in place to debate the issue with him. Histrionics may have been entertaining back in the day when Earl Weaver would toss a base in protest of a call or Billy Martin would kick dirt on an umpire’s shoes, but this is not then.
The subjectivity of the strike zone from umpire to umpire at times undermines the integrity of the game. It is not new; e.g., Livan Hernandez and Eric Gregg in the 1997 NLCS. Perfecting the robo-ump should be an MLB priority. The strike zone to Aaron Judge is often indecipherable.
Still, while perception may not be reality, the perception of these incessant complaints is not flattering to Boone. Rarely do folks identify with game officials, but at times the manager’s demonstrations border on bullying. I am sure that is not what he intends.
The second in the series of Boone’s last three ejections was over what certainly appeared to be a botched call on a video review decision in Cincinnati last Sunday. That is the one that does not belong in the kaleidoscope of juvenile behavior.
The notorious ump-baiter Weaver was ejected 96 times in 2,541 games, or once for every 26.5 games he managed. The notoriously unhinged Martin was ejected 48 times in 2,267 games, or once every 47.2 contests. Bobby Cox, the all-time leader in manager ejections, was tossed 162 times in 4,508 games, or one every 27.8.
Boone has been ejected 30 times in 762 career games as a manager, or once every 25.4. Almost twice as many per while measured against Martin.
Yet the 50-year-old baseball lifer doesn’t seem to think there is anything amiss with his conduct. If he does, he has been good at hiding it. Maybe he thinks admitting that would be perceived as weakness within the clubhouse?
“I always reflect on it when something like that happens. Certainly I’ve thought about it,” Boone said before Luis Severino allowed just a solo home run over a masterful 6 ²/₃ innings in his second start of the season “I don’t know if anything changes.
“I always try to be respectful of everyone. But again, I’m not going to lose my edge or fighting for things I think are important. But yeah, I mean, but at the same time trying to be better and more mindful of knowing that line.”
Boone defended his comportment in Toronto, where he was tossed during the eighth inning of the Yankees’ victory on May 15 for arguing calls against Judge. He said again that he doesn’t think he should have been ejected on Thursday, against the Orioles.
Denial seems to be a river flowing through the manager’s office.
That does not make Boone a bad person. It does not reveal a lack of character, even as the manager extolled the virtues of Isiah Kiner-Falefa after the converted shortstop turned outfielder delivered the walk-off hit by saying, “You get character-reveals all the time in this game.”
It does, however, reveal a surprising lack of self-awareness. The tantrums do not befit Boone. The constant carping does not benefit the team. It’s time for them to stop.
It is time for Boone to “Be better.”