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Try it freeAaron Boone has had it with people questioning the Yankees’ effort — and the hyper-analyzing of his and his player’s remarks to the media.
The Yankees manager went off during his weekly appearance on Jomboy’s “Talkin’ Yanks” podcast during a discussion about the team’s 10-17 record against AL East opponents this season, Blue Jays star Vladimir Guerrero’s dive into home plate during Monday’s game and the notion that their rivals might want the games more than them.
Boone turned his fury toward the media and made it clear he wants his team to be even-keeled.
“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.”
Boone also has an issue with the interpretations of players’ comments after games and the idea that because they’re not outwardly upset, that they perhaps aren’t too concerned about results.
“Everyone’s different. Stop with the reaction of how a guy answers a frickin’ question. Seriously,” Boone said. “We gotta win. OK? We are obsessed with it and hell-bent preparation-wise and guys give a rip. … Some people will give you colorful answers. … Some guys throw their helmet. Does that make you feel good? Some guys are calm. Stop it. It doesn’t mean a guy cares more or less because he dives into home plate. It’s you’ve gotta be angry at something because we didn’t win.”
Jomboy said that the urgency Boone insists the Yankees feel doesn’t come across.
“You’re cherry-picking the answers you like that you’re like, ‘yeah, that’s tugging at my fandom in the right way.’ Sorry, they’re not robots,” Boone said.
Jomboy then said he wanted more non-robotic answers.
“I don’t care what you want,” Boone fired back. “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.”
The Yankees (55-45) lost to the Blue Jays, 4-1, Monday night to fall four games behind Toronto for the AL East lead.
That was their fifth straight loss to a division foe after being swept by the Blue Jays in four games earlier this month.