Boone's Theatrics Didn't Help

May 26, 2023

***

Sal Maiorana, a friend of the site, will be sharing some of his thoughts on the Yankees here on SSTN from time-to-time.

For honest, unfiltered analysis on the New York Yankees, you can subscribe to Sal Maiorana's free Pinstripe People Newsletter at https://salmaiorana.beehiiv.com/subscribe.

***

Aaron Boone's Theatrics Didn't Help the Yankees

Yankees failed in all phases in dropping two of three to the Orioles

by Sal Maiorana

I’m not saying that Aaron Boone didn’t have a very good reason to be infuriated with home plate umpire Edwin Moscoso because the guy was horrible Thursday night, particularly when it came to his refusal to give Clarke Schmidt the outside corner. It was ridiculous and whatever spittle Boone sprayed in Moscoso’s face during the tirade was deserved.

Still, Boone coming out of the dugout and screaming bloody murder, purposely getting thrown out of games, has become a bit tedious. This was his second ejection in the last four games, the fourth this season, and the 30th since he became manager in 2018.

Boone said after the game that he initially came out calmly to make his point to Moscoso that the umpire was redefining how to suck at his job and that he didn’t need to be restrained by crew chief Chris Guccione. “Nothing bad was gonna happen,” Boone said. It was only when Moscoso walked away that Boone became enraged and that’s when he really went after the guy.

Nonetheless, I don’t understand what purpose this serves because he knows that the calls aren’t being changed, and he also has to know that these umpires aren’t going to all of a sudden change their interpretation of their particular strike zone.

It’s a maddening part of baseball, the inconsistency of the strike zone from game to game depending on who’s back there arbiting, and it’s been going on for 150-plus years.

But when he was asked if he would be in favor of the automatic strike zone if it gets implemented down the road, Boone was adamant. “I don’t want that,” Boone said. “These guys do, for the most part, a really good job and work hard at it.” I’m glad he said that because I don’t want the automatic ump either.

I say that even though I’ve been to Triple-A games in Rochester where the automatic strike zone is being used half the time, and it works seamlessly. The call is as instantaneous as if the umpire was actually making it, but I’m fine with leaving the balls and strikes to the humans behind the plate. I don’t know why I feel that way, but I do.

Of course, the easy joke here is that we should wish Boone would get thrown out of more games so we aren’t subjected to some of his bumbling bullpen decisions.

OK, now on to the important stuff. The Yankees blew this series. After a nice comeback win in the opener, they gave away the second game and then they were utterly horrible in the finale. So now we know for sure that at least two AL East teams are significantly better than the Yankees, the Rays and the Orioles. This Baltimore team is for real, and they proved it.

***

For more on Sal, see this interview we conducted with him in 2021:

SSTN Interviews Sal Maiorana