Aaron Boone has said in the past that if you walked into the Yankees clubhouse, he wouldn’t want you to know whether the team was on a big winning streak or a long losing streak – ostensibly hoping it’s always on the same even keel, no matter what.
Boone being a baseball lifer may be a big reason for that.
“Sometimes you are who you are and you are a product of what you grew up in, I guess; I haven’t thought about it, but there probably is something to that,” he smiled when asked Monday if growing up in a baseball family fostered that mentality. “I'm sure that is something that shaped me in that regard.”
In reality, though, Boone – who has been oft-maligned during his four years in the Bronx, and had his job status questioned seemingly daily – knows that the ends justify the means in a way, as long as you get to the end you’re supposed to.
“I just think it's a 162-game season. It's a grind. It's a game of failure. You know, unlike other sports even, the best teams win 60 percent of the time, and you've got to be able to deal with that,” Boone said. “And you see teams and talented players that can't handle that that go by the wayside. So there's a makeup quality there that I think you have to have as a club if you're going to kind of survive the inevitable grind of the Major League season.”
Bob Boone, Aaron’s dad, was fired from two managerial jobs, so Aaron already knows what that’s like in a way, and so he doesn’t really sweat the noise about his own future.
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“I don’t, and I'm sure that's part of it. I'm sure my faith has something to do with it, my family,” he said. “You know, this is my livelihood. This has been a huge part of my life. I love it and it means a lot to me, but in the end, it's not everything.”
Surely, if the Yankees lose Tuesday’s game – or in the ALDS, ALCS, or even World Series – the speculation will ramp up about the status of Boone, whose contract is up come this winter.
As the saying goes, Boone will worry about crossing that bridge when the Yankees’ path gets him to it.
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