New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone might not always push the right buttons, but you can be sure he is always going to have his players’ backs. He proved that again on Tuesday when he went on a fiery rant regarding the media scrutiny his team faces, offering a passionate defense for how the players conduct themselves when answering questions and playing the game.
Boone’s rant came during his weekly appearance on the “Talkin’ Yanks” podcast.
In response to a question about Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s dive across home plate on Monday night, as well as the Yankees’ 10-17 record against the American League East, Boone grew clearly agitated and focused his rant on the media for the way they question his players.
“Understand the pestering, bantering, leading questions that are being asked of our guys,” a fired-up Boone said. “And I don’t want them to just fly off the handle and be emotional. We’ve been pretty good over the years of compartmentalizing and dealing with the everyday grind of the regular season and playing in New York, and you start getting emotional and going down that road, it’s a bad trait.”
The response to that answer from Boone was a call for the players to not be as robotic when answering questions, a suggestion that only furthered Boone’s anger.
“I don’t care what you want. These are answers of pestering, everyday questions. I want our guys in a good like, boom. We are locked in, when it’s s–tty and when it’s really good, and all in between. I want us locked. I want us showing up every day ready to prepare and ready to go. Period. It’s a hard game.”
Tensions are clearly high surrounding the Yankees right now as they have lost their lead on the American League East to Toronto and are now in a position where they are flirting with losing a wild-card spot. Not only are the Yankees dealing with significant injuries to their pitching staff, but they also still have a lot of the same fundamental problems that plagued them in the World Series a year ago and some key players who are struggling to live up to expectations (most notably, starting shortstop Anthony Volpe).
They are losing too many games to the teams they are competing with and need to add a lot of help before the July 31 trade deadline if they are going to be a factor in the playoffs and get back to the World Series.
Add in the scrutiny that comes from playing in New York, and it is easy to see how frustrations can be mounting for everybody.
The best way to fix all of that if you are Boone and the Yankees? Start winning more games.
