June , 2024
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MY THOUGHTS - Aaron Boone has been a fine manager for the Yankees. Under his leadership, the Yankees have won a lot of games. And after this was posted on Twitter, he has passed Billy Martin and is now 7th all-time in wins as a Yankees manager. That's not nothing. Of course, he still has not been able to get his team to the World Series - and that is something.
Here, though is a different perspective regarding Boone and Martin. Many people consider Billy Martin one of the greatest managers of all-time. As a game manager, he was brilliant. There is no denying that. But Martin also was destructive to the team, his players, himself, and the organizations. He could never last in a position very long because something bad almost always seemed to happen. The winning he brought, never lasted.
Aaron Boone has been a better manager for the Yankees (as an organization) than Billy Martin was - especially after Billy Martin's first tenure. (Martin did get that one World Series win in 1977 and he brought them there in 1976 as well.) As far as professionalism, dignity, and so much more, I greatly prefer Aaron Boone as a manager to Billy Martin.
It would be nice, though, if Boone could win a few World Championships...
MY THOUGHTS - This is, without question, an outstanding photo of The Babe. The ball is midair, Ruth is about to swing... anything might happen including (of course) a magestic home run.
Baseball photos don't get much better than this!
MY THOUGHTS - If you know me well, you know that I'm working on this pitch right now.
MY THOUGHTS - How great is this? It's been a long time since the Yankees have dominated baseball like this. A .700 winning percentage?! MY GOODNESS!!!
MY THOUGHTS - When I was young, the consensus among all (or so it seemed) was that Joe DiMaggio was greater than Mickey Mantle. Then advanced stats become more popular and Mantle has ever since gotten the nod. Still, if asked, I'm not sure anyone, without seeing these stats, would have assumed that Joe DiMaggio had a higher Slugging Percentage than Mantle and their OPS were identical.
Maybe we should just say, "They were both great."
MY THOUGHTS - GOOD LUCK with your new book, E.J. !!!!!
MY THOUGHTS - CONTINUED GOOD LUCK on your excellent book Rob!
Don't forget that DiMaggio lost three full years to military service, his age 28-30 years. That really hits his counting numbers. If you average 1942 and 1946, and multiply by 3 to fill in the missing years, he has 430 HRs, 1850 RBI, 96.5 WAR. Mantle still has the better career, but DiMaggio looks even greater than he was.
Billy Martin was a great manager with every team he managed......But only during his FIRST YEAR with each of those teams. He was a great "quick fix", turning around a struggling franchise and making them an instant contender. But by the second or third year with that team, he wore out his welcome, and his teams started to regress. His managing style put fear in the hearts of his young players. Fear of losing. They knew if they lost, and they did something in the game that cost them the game, that Billy would be very upset with them, and would get on their case about it. So out of fear, they were determined to be the best versi…
well, I believe we did the Mantle v DiMaggio discussion recently when we were doing several of those- Jeter v Yogi, etc...
for as long as I have paid attention I have always had a preference for Mickey. I cannot help but be mildly sad. there is always a big WHAT IF. what if he had not hurt his knee. he played basically his ENTIRE career on one good knee. later in life Mickey's big what if, was what if he had taken better care of himself. anyway, I always had a preference for Mickey, but when i began to pay attention, the consensus was Dimaggio was the #3 Yankee. as you said that has changed. recent ranking…
No, Martin was a better manger than Boone.
DiMaggio considered Mantle to be more talented
but also thought Mantle, by staying out and drinking, to be foolishly failing to husband his prodigious talents