Say what you will about Aaron Boone’s Yankee managerial tenure, he’s now been around in the role for quite a while. In terms of years, 2024 is set to be his seventh season, and only seven Yankee managers have ever spent more years in charge. (In the case of someone like, say, Billy Martin, that technically includes some partial years.)
In terms of wins, Boone will in all likelihood surpass Martin to move into seventh on the Yankees’ franchise all-time leaderboard. That may sound surprising considering how frustrating his teams have occasionally been, but his .585 winning percentage does equate to just about 95 wins over a 162-game season.
However, there is another list that he will very likely move into first all time among Yankees’ managers this year: ejections. Your eyes do not deceive you when it comes to umpire squabbles, as Boone tends to get in a bunch of them. He comes in 2024 at 33 ejections according to Baseball Reference. That is just one behind the listed all-time leader, Joe Girardi’s 34. In total, Girardi got 10 years as Yankee manager, while, as mentioned, Boone is going into his seventh year. It’s possible that ejection stats weren’t as closely tracked in decades past, but going off what we’re working with, Boone stands a decent shot of truly rewriting the Yankees’ record in this area.
Considering that Boone averages 5.5 dismissals per year, you would think that he’ll get the two needed to take over the all-time lead at some point. Pretty much every other manager in team history, at least according to the recorded stats, typically hasn’t been thrown out at an average of more than four times per year. Clark Griffith — New York Highlanders manager from 1903-08 — is listed at 23 ejections in six years, 3.8 per year, is the next closest in that regard, of anyone that spent any significant time in charge. Kid Elberfeld — four ejections in 98 career games — is the only one who truly comes close, but he didn’t even last a full season, as it pretty quickly became clear that he wasn’t cut out for that role.
That rate is not only high for Yankees’ history, it’s pretty high for baseball history in general. With him so close to a bit of franchise history, let’s look back at some of the more notable ones from his tenure.
The most famous one that he became known for probably happened in 2019. After Brett Gardner got himself tossed after getting upset with a called third strike, Boone added to that by memorably getting thrown out.
In his ensuing rant, Boone was quoted as saying that his team were “savages in the box,” which would become a mantra for that year’s Yankee squad.
Several of his ejections over the years have featured him imitating umpires or some act involved in umpiring. That includes a 2018 one where he got tossed for showing he thought the opposing catcher was framing the pitches.
This past year, there was an instance of him mimicking umpire Laz Diaz’s punch out motion.
Last, but certainly not least was another moment from this past season. During the process of one argument, Boone tossed the gum he had been chewing, which got memed to various extents.
All of that is to say that you should make sure to watch out this year, because you’ll potentially end up seeing some Yankee history.
Be the first to comment