Last night I cannot blame on Aaron Boone. Crazy right?
But as a whole, in the bonehead moves he has made, in our 4th place finish last year... in the way he over tinkers, befriends his players, argues balls and strikes in meaningless games, and just plain sucks as a manager because of his inexperience, and now because we have gotten to the World Series and lost it, it only makes sense that we say goodbye to this guy and turn the page on making the Yankee organization leadership brighter and better moving forward. This HAS to be the end of the Boone Era. The experiment didn't work... not even alittle bit! Hal, are you listening?
Look, the Yankees were never supposed to be in the World Series this year. Let's not fool ourselves. The Yankees have been so inconsistent all season, so the idea of making it to the World Series was a gift. Did I hope they won this year? Of course, but do I think they actually are the best team in baseball, nope. I'm a realist, this Yankee team is deeply flawed.
The Yankees made a few minor offseason tweaks even though we all knew they needed better pitching and that was the priority. We got Juan Soto instead. Now, don't get me wrong, Juan Soto was fantastic, I loved seeing him in pinstripes, but as I said then, we got this guy for one year, what happens if we DON'T win it all? And here we are... we didn't win it all. And so, what happens next?
For one, Juan Soto will be a free agent. That's big. Seems like we had one opportunity, and it was just now, and yet, we didn't win. And so, if he leaves, do you really think we have what it takes to try and win again? We were lucky to get to the World Series this year WITH Juan Soto. If Juan Soto leaves, you can forget our chances. And that is where you really need to go after our Yankees front office and lightweight manager Aaron Boone.
Leadership in any business is vital, and this guy just doesn't have what it takes to lead this Yankees team.
It's been a long time since Boone has been in the driver's seat. Here's the problem; he doesn't know how to drive stick. This isn't a team you just hand over to a JV coach and say, "Here, try and tinker with this." These are the New York Yankees. They are celebrities, personalities and they are wearing the pinstripes and so the stakes are much higher. While many people didn't like Joe Torre taking over after Buck Showalter in the 90's, the one thing Joe Torre had was experience. He was a long-time player and a manager, and while not a successful manager, he understood the game and surrounded himself with wisdom. In other words, he had a plan.
I see Aaron Boone as a guy who wants to hang out with the celebrity Yankees, have barbeques, a few drinks, play a pickup basketball game with Cortes and Judge, and just enjoy life as a millionaire. The problem? He's not actually doing his job. Being in the friend zone with Gerrit Cole doesn't win you a championship. He doesn't understand the stakes, He doesn't understand much of anything.
And I'll take it further. Better, smarter and more experienced managers in baseball have been fired for way less than what Boone's mistakes have led this Yankee team over the years. Buck Showalter is probably one of the most respected baseball minds in the game and the Mets lost a few years ago, and they cut him loose right away. Billy Martin was back and forth with George Steinbrenner for years, but when he couldn't win, he'd be fired. It was pretty simple.
The White Sox fired La Russa after the club got off to a 26–38 start in 1986, yet LaRussa is one of only two managers in MLB history to win World Series championships in both the American and National leagues. What's my point? My point is Boone should have been fired years ago. He's terrible.
Now last night's game you cannot blame on Aaron Boone. The 5th inning for the Yankees was the strangest thing I've ever seen. You always hear that errors will cost you ballgames, and last night it was evident. It was big. It was horrible. The Yankee club should be embarrassed. But let me be clear, errors are part of the game, and while no one wants to see the Yankees fold like they did, the bigger issue is our leadership.
Hal Steinbrenner either doesn't have his finger on the pulse or Brian Cashman has fooled him enough to handle this team and tricked big Hal into believing that "close enough" with Aaron Boone is "good enough" and the bottom line is as fans, we are very in tune with what's going on, but as fans we also love to watch our team win it all. Us fans spend the money, and we root hard only to be heartbroken and then we do it all over again the next year with our shitty manager and a wish and a prayer that we can retain Juan Soto long term.
None of it makes sense, yet we do it anyway. It's a trap. It's an abusive relationship and we're the ones getting mind fucked every season. And so, my biggest gripe with this team is simple; the management is stale, the hunger only comes when we hit home runs, and the idea of manufacturing runs is a very small part of the Yankees game and that my friends has been going on since the days of Jason Giambi. We will never break the mold if the manager gives Hal what he "thinks" he wants. Boone does not think for himself. Boone panders. Boone does what he's told. In essence, Boone isn't running this team as a true manager would.
I will give Joe Girardi credit for one thing; he was tough as nails when it came to managing this club. He wasn't the best at it, but he also didn't bend over and tried his best to manage the team his way. Many times, it didn't work, but one time it did and 2009 was glorious.
But 2009 was a long time ago and everyone knows that Aaron Boone's not winning us a championship. I mean, that lineup never changed in this World Series and there were major problems with our hitting. I am still baffled by the fact that Boone started Jose Trevino because Austin Wells was slumping just to then pinch-hit Wells for Trevino later in that game anyway. That's a manager that doesn't trust himself and it's embarrassing.
And so now the season is over. Last night will I PRAY brings real changes to the New York Yankees manager and coaching staff. Seeing the Dodgers celebrate at Yankee Stadium was sad, but this is the game. Someone had to lose and why not us... we don't have leadership anyway.
Finally, I'll leave you with this; Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York" is a staple for the Yankees when we win at the Stadium. Last night the Yankees played that song while the Dodgers were celebrating. While this was a total mind fuck for many of your fans, I clearly understood why they did it. There are 2 reasons actually and while it's my opinion, I know I'm right.
For one, it was a Thank you. It was a Thank you to the Yankees for the fight. It was a Thank You to us fans for sticking around and believing in the pinstripes. It was a "so long" as we head into the winter, not a "Goodbye". Maybe it's my maturity, maybe I just understand symbolism, but for the love of God for silly fans and this Jomboy hack to make it appear that the Yankees "messed up" for playing that song are just ridiculous.
I have been a fan of this team since the old Yankee stadium, 1981, Yankees vs. Dodgers Game 1 of the World Series. Even before that in '78 when I saw Ron Guidry strike out 18 Angels, but definitely in that World Series. The fans were loud, it just made sense to me that the Yankees were my team. And so, yes, I understand symbolism. I understand appreciation. The Yankees organization as a whole may not appear to be about the fans, but even they understood the gut punch last night. It was a peace offering, a "we're sorry, but thank you". It was supposed to make you feel good about our team. And Secondly, they probably snuck this in too; While Sinatra was a Hoboken kid, he was a Dodgers fan.
I know, I know, your brain just exploded. Well calm down, it's not that deep. It's symbolism and a gesture all the same. You may not have gotten it, but it was actually nice and guys like Jomboy make it about them and it's not.
And so now we crawl into our caves and wait. Hopefully Boone gets canned, it just makes sense at this point. Hopefully the Yankees can figure out a way to retain Juan Soto while getting another top starting pitcher. Hopefully we will see the fall classic next year and we win with a new manager and new hunger and an Aaron Judge who just tees off every at bat.
To our Bleeding Yankee Blue audience. You are loyal, you are wonderful, and we thank you for your support and love. Many of you have been reading BYB since we started in September 2010. That is a long time, and we love you very much. To the newbies, yeah, we complain about our Yankees a lot here, but we also celebrate them. Thank you for finding us and we hope you enjoy the ride.
Congrats to the Yankees for making it this far. You weren't supposed to be here, but you did prove many of us wrong and I respect the hell out of that. I always will.
Go Yanks.
See you all in the offseason. We will not stop writing and will bring you as much news, info and humor as we can. Thanks for reading Bleeding Yankee Blue.
-- Robert Casey
Chief & Head writer of Bleeding Yankee Blue
Twitter: @BleednYankeeBlu
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