May 12, 2025 • 16 mins
New York Yankees Manager Aaron Boone joins Dave Softy Mahler to discuss growing up with his brother Bret, leading the Yankees, joining the team in 2003, Aaron Judge and the expectations for his team, facing the M’s this week, and his brother’s new job.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I got a text message this morning from Aaron Boone
at about eleven am, who basically told me that his
brother instructed him to call me and wondering if I
could do the interview right now. And I said, sure,
you're the skipper of the Yankees. When do you give
me two minutes and I'll go to my home office
and get my big fancy schmancy radio equipment going and
we can diact it up and have a nice conversation.
(00:21):
So Yankees Mariners this week three games starting tonight, Emerson
Hancock is on the mound. Had a chance to catch
up with Yankee manager Aaron Boone, brother of Brett, before
tonight's Game one against the Yms.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Good to be up here in the Northwest, beautiful day,
Good to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Well, we appreciate you doing this, man, And first of all,
I got to ask you about what was life like
growing up in a baseball family. What was life like
growing up with Brett is your brother. We've gotten to
know him obviously as a Mariner and was doing a
radio show with us up until about a week ago
when he quit to go join the Rangers as they're
hitting coach. But we all know Brett is a real
(01:01):
outspoken guy. Right, You got to give us some thoughts,
some idea of what it was like in your house
growing up with Brett as a brother.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Man. Yeah, he was. He was actually a great older brother.
He's four years older than me. And when I was
a little kid, and I kind of give some of
the credit to him for my athletic development because when
I was, you know, five, six, seven years old, eight
years old, running around like, he used to take me
(01:30):
with them a lot and with and so I had
to kind of keep up if I wanted to hang
I had to be able to roll with the bigger kids. Like.
So whatever it was, whether we were playing basketball, football
on the street, dunk ball with fulltball, whatever it was like.
You know, I was playing with kids, you know, four
(01:50):
years older than me a lot in just our little
neighborhood games. And I had to keep up with that.
And he always drug me around. You know. One thing
we used to do when we were we were little too,
is we used to box wow and I would wear
the head gear and he would and he would he
wouldn't wear head gear. So one time I got him
(02:11):
pretty good. I'm probably you know, I'm probably seven eight
years old, so he's you know, eleven, twelve year old.
I catch him with a good one and kind of
sting him and get him mad, and he put it
on me and I went, I started crying, and I
was about to, you know, go. He's like, don't let
(02:32):
mom hear you cry. We'll get in trouble. And later
on I was thinking, we'll get in trouble. You just
beat up your little brother.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Well, that's funny you mentioned that, because I've always wondered
what happened to Brett's face, and now we know you
smashed it in when he was, you know, thirteen, fourteen
years old.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Man.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
But Aaron Boone's with us, and Aaron, you know, you
and I are about the same age. You're born a
few months before I was in its seventy three, so,
you know, almost fifty two years old. And I could
never imagine being mature enough or composed enough with myself
to deal with the New York Press Corps, Yankee fans,
being the manager of the Yankees. What what goes into
(03:10):
all of that for you? That makes this job unique
and sometimes difficult?
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Yeah, I mean there's you know, that's definitely one of
the challenges navigating that you know of you know, but
I would have it no other way, you know, I
love it. Like there's one of the great things about
being with the Yankees is that, obviously expectations are always
really high. It's you know, demanding, you know, fan base
(03:41):
and media. But I would say, no matter what, like
it always matters every single day. You know. Jason Zilla,
our PR director, and I kind of joke every now
and then, you know, we play one hundred and sixty
two one game seasons and and you feel that way,
But I think it's mostly in a good way. You know,
(04:03):
it makes you, makes you, helps drive you, makes you accountable,
and you know, there's obviously moments when it's you know,
can be difficult or it's a pain in certain areas,
but overall, like having that level of care from people
is you know how I would want it.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Well, you think about that great home run that you
hit as a Yankee. You know, god, it was twenty
two years ago, now, unbelievable in two thousand and three
to send the Yankees to the World Series, and George
Steinbrenner was around for that, you know, right, didn't pass
on until twenty ten. So so you're working with the
Steinbrenner family, but you're not working directly for George. What
do you remember about your relationship with George as a player,
(04:48):
and what is your relationship like with the family now.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Yeah, So I came over in two thousand and three.
That year, I came over at the trading deadline and
our first home series. I was staying staying in the
same hotel as as mister Steinberger stayed in when he
when he was in New York. And first our first
night home game, you know, we came off the road.
(05:16):
I was actually downstairs with Reggie Jackson, who I knew
very well since I was a kid, and we're we
got a bike, eating a drink after the game, and
we were going up on the elevator to to my
room to go to bed, and and George gets on
and it's my first time and Reggie said, hey, George,
I want to introduce you to our new player, Aaron Boone.
(05:37):
We just got him for the reds BA, And uh,
I can hear it in my head, it's like the
Seinfeld character. It was nice to meet you, nice to
have you on the club. You know, he's very very
straightforward and very direct and very nice. And then The
only other time I came in contact with him was
that the night after we beat the Red Sox in
(05:59):
the Game seven, and my wife and I had gone
back to the hotel. We're we're getting ready to walk
back out and and go meet the team. We're having
a gathering after the game, and we're walking through the
out lobby and mister Steinberger was coming in. He just
saw me and he said, happy for your son.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Those are my two interactions as as for now with
the family. Yeah. Great. I mean, my relationship with with
Hal is excellent. He is he's a great owner. He's
he's invested, he cares. He he's usually up in New York.
I would say he's in New York for about half
(06:42):
the home games. They live in Tampa, but comes to
my office and to to just get a lay of
the land and hear about the team, and he's he's
just a really good, good person and I've developed a
really good relationship with him and really the entire Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Well, Aaron Boone is with us again, brother of Brett
Skipper of the Yankees, in town to take on the
Mariners for three starting tonight, and Brett, you know, I mean,
obviously great players will make your job a lot easier,
and you've got maybe the best in the world right
in your dugout in an Aaron Judge, who was just
on a tear right now, hitting over four hundred, slugging
over almost eight hundred ops over twelve We don't know, though,
(07:25):
I don't know a lot about the kind of guy
he is. I mean, the numbers speak for themselves. Can
you talk a little bit about what kind of leader,
what kind of clubhouse presidence, what kind of player Aaron
Judges to manage.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
For you every day?
Speaker 2 (07:36):
The best. He's such a great person. He's such a
great leader. He's such a great teammate. You know, everything
I think people imagine about him, it is true. He's
just his teammates love him, whether you are another star
(07:56):
player or you're coming up from the minor leagues for
the first time. He's very accessible, relatable, and he's just
he's really good at the grind, Like he's never too high,
never too low, handles it all so well. And and
but he's a killer competitor, like like most great players
(08:19):
are too. So he is he's all about team and
all about you know, being the leader of this team.
And he takes that role very serious. But he's also
a killer between the lines obviously, and I've been so
fortunate to have him my entire time. Here is really
(08:41):
the face of our team.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Yeah, well, Aaron Boone's with us for a few more
minutes here on the radio show. And Aaron, I'm just
curious because you mentioned this at the top, that you
would not want to have it any other way, right,
as far as the expectations go, and the expectation is
to get twenty eight right, to be in the World
Series every year and to win it almost every year,
I mean, I would think the expectations for Yankee fans
are as high as they are for any fan base
(09:03):
in sports.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
So finish this sentence for me.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
The Yankees will will repeat as American League champions, get
to the World Series and win it this year.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
If blank fill in that sentence for me.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
I think if if first and foremost we put together
the start, which is the one hundred and sixty two
game season, you've got to have a level. You're gonna
have ups and downs, you're gonna have stretches where it's difficult,
but on balance, you've got to put together a really
strong season to put yourself in the mix in October.
(09:41):
So whether that's winning the division, getting in another way,
you got to get to October and then and then
it's about everything kind of coming together at that point.
You know. Last year obviously we get to the World
Series and and then how we wanted. But we want
to put ourselves in a position, hopefully, you know, from
(10:01):
a health standpoint, to be able to make another long
run at it and ultimately hoist that trophy. But I
also look at it, that's so far away. We got
so many things and boxes to check and right a
long way to go. We want to get there, of course,
and then you start talking about it, but that's months away.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Well, who's this Who's this Ben Rice kid that I
keep reading about from three thousand miles away because every
time I type in Yankees and and google this name,
Ben Rice keeps popping up. This young phenom. So tell
us about this kid and how much of him? Will
we see you this week?
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Yeah, you'll see him this week. He's d hing tonight,
the first game. He can really hit. He hits the
ball really hard, he controls the strike zone really well.
He's also a catcher. He's our third catcher, right now.
But that's not because he's not a good catcher, Like
he can really really catch. It's just not the role
(11:00):
for him right now on this team. That could evolve
as we go, because obviously we have Austin Wells, who's
one of our excellent young catcher and then j c
Ascara backing him up. But Rice's Rice can really catch
as well. But he is. He hits the ball incredibly
hard and really controls the strike zone and that's a
(11:21):
pretty good tandem to have as a hitter.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
Yeah, no doubt, Aaron.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Any thoughts on this Mariner team, this upstart Mariner team
that a lot of people are surprised at their twenty
two and seventeen start. Their offense up until the weekend
against Toronto was out a tear for the first month or.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
So of the season.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
But what do you see from this Mariner baseball clubs
you'll see starting tonight.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Yeah, I mean, I think we've seen a good Mariner
team now for the last few years that's had their
share of expectations and I think even safe to say
going into this year similar expectations that they expect to
be a playoff team and be right in the mix
in the American League West. I think the surprising part
(12:05):
of it, maybe the thumb, is that they're doing it
in a different way. I think everyone expected it to
be on the strength of their starting pitching, which has
been so great over the last few years. But like
you said, it's been the offense that's really carried unto
this hot start. And you know, so we know we'll
have our hands full, not only with a couple of
great pitchers that we're going to see this weekend, but
(12:27):
but an offense that's been one of the games best
to start the year.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
No doubt.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
And final thought for you, Aaron Boone, manager of the Yankees,
before you go, your brother is now the hitting coach
of the Rangers.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
As we said, I was a.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Little bit surprised when he took the gig. I told him,
you're not going to be playing much golf in the
next five months for trying out loud. So now he's
the hitting coach of the Texas Rangers. But did you
have any advice for your big brother when he took
that gig.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
Not really. I'm excited for him. It's the time in
his life when I think he's ready to go do that,
and I think he'll have a great opportunity to impact
a lot of young young men and obviously a talented
group that they have over there in Texas that you know,
offensively got off to a little bit of a start.
(13:13):
But I think it's a great opportunity to impact some good,
good young players.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
No doubt.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Hey Aaron Boone, great stuff, Thanks for doing this, and
we will talk down the road.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Man.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Appreciate this and and best of luck, best of luck
starting Thursday when you leave Seattle.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
How's that sound?
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Thank you?
Speaker 1 (13:29):
I appreciate Actually, best of luck. Never, how's that sound?
You're the manager of the Yankees.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
They should have said, Aaron, thanks for doing this, but
best of luck.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
Never You remember how hateable Joe Tory and Don Zimmer
Yankees were. I mean they were just hateable. You look
at them, those two sitting together and the dugout. It
was like Darth Vader and the Emperor. And it's it's
harder for me to hate an Aaron Boone led Yankee
team than it was for me to hate those teams
(13:56):
twenty years ago.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
Well I don't.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
I just don't have the hatred I did growing up
because I went to a lot of Yankee games, growing
up number one and number two. The Mariners actually at
one point in time used to have a little bit
of a rival with them because it felt like they
saw him.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
I mean, you saw him in ninety five.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
You saw him in two thousand, you saw him in
two thousand and one, three of eight years or whatever.
You saw him in the postseason, and that's when rivalries
are born, right in the playoffs. I mean, the Niner
Seahawk rivalry was big, but it was on steroids when
they met for the NFC Championship game. I think, and
I think you said this out of the year. If
you took Jackson Brett Boone's voice and put it in
a slocomotive, it sounded like him. It sounds just like
(14:34):
Aaron Boone. So I mean, I'm curious to see how
Dan Wilson handles Aaron Judge tonight. Aaron Judge is the
runaway MVP in the American League and it's not even closed.
I mean, it's just like, give the guy the trophy
right now, be done with. He's like Polanco in the dust. Well,
Polanco's not playing some way. That's another topic for later on.
But Aaron Judge is hitting three oh four with an
eleven ninety five ops, ten home runs and twenty four
(14:55):
RBIs in twenty two games at T Mobile Park against
the Mariners. He actually does better here against them that
he does there against them.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
So you can hit a team Mobile Park, you can
if you're Aaron Jillie, you're six foot seven and nineteen.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
So that's all we need to hit a Team Mobile
is to get seven or eight Aaron Judges our team.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
I I say this all the time that, like, I
look at Aaron Judge on TV and I think you
really have to almost watch TV to get a feel
for how big he is. You see him at the plate,
And I don't know if you guys feel the same
way I do. First of all, he's the same size
as Jimmy Graham. He's six seven to eighty. He's Jimmy
Graham in a baseball uniform. And then second of all,
when you watch him at home plate compared to the catcher,
(15:37):
uh and the umpire, does it look like he's been
super imposed on TVs?
Speaker 4 (15:41):
It does?
Speaker 3 (15:41):
And you know, you know when it's emphasized when they're
playing the Blue Jays and Kirk is catching, that's right
because it makes it it's Gulliver and the Liliputian. It's unbelievable,
Like Kirk comes up to his waist.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
It is amazing how freaking big this guy is. He
I went to one game a couple of years ago. Pregame,
he walked right by me behind home plate, and I
could not freaking believe what a mammoth individual he is.
You know, he's always thirty three too. He's not He's
not young anymore. He's always thirty three years old. He's
stilled out what three four more prime years? Probably, yeah,
maybe maybe a few more thirty three feels like the
(16:15):
new thirty.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (16:16):
All Right, we're gotta break.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Thanks to Aaron Boone, manager of the Yankees, for joining
us a little fun with audio and then a little
uh Hugh, A little more at four with Hugh coming
up on ninety three three kJ RFM
I got a text message this morning from Aaron Boone
at about eleven am, who basically told me that his
brother instructed him to call me and wondering if I
could do the interview right now. And I said, sure,
you're the skipper of the Yankees. When do you give
me two minutes and I'll go to my home office
and get my big fancy schmancy radio equipment going and
we can diact it up and have a nice conversation.
(00:21):
So Yankees Mariners this week three games starting tonight, Emerson
Hancock is on the mound. Had a chance to catch
up with Yankee manager Aaron Boone, brother of Brett, before
tonight's Game one against the Yms.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Good to be up here in the Northwest, beautiful day,
Good to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Well, we appreciate you doing this, man, And first of all,
I got to ask you about what was life like
growing up in a baseball family. What was life like
growing up with Brett is your brother. We've gotten to
know him obviously as a Mariner and was doing a
radio show with us up until about a week ago
when he quit to go join the Rangers as they're
hitting coach. But we all know Brett is a real
(01:01):
outspoken guy. Right, You got to give us some thoughts,
some idea of what it was like in your house
growing up with Brett as a brother.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Man. Yeah, he was. He was actually a great older brother.
He's four years older than me. And when I was
a little kid, and I kind of give some of
the credit to him for my athletic development because when
I was, you know, five, six, seven years old, eight
years old, running around like, he used to take me
(01:30):
with them a lot and with and so I had
to kind of keep up if I wanted to hang
I had to be able to roll with the bigger kids. Like.
So whatever it was, whether we were playing basketball, football
on the street, dunk ball with fulltball, whatever it was like.
You know, I was playing with kids, you know, four
(01:50):
years older than me a lot in just our little
neighborhood games. And I had to keep up with that.
And he always drug me around. You know. One thing
we used to do when we were we were little too,
is we used to box wow and I would wear
the head gear and he would and he would he
wouldn't wear head gear. So one time I got him
(02:11):
pretty good. I'm probably you know, I'm probably seven eight
years old, so he's you know, eleven, twelve year old.
I catch him with a good one and kind of
sting him and get him mad, and he put it
on me and I went, I started crying, and I
was about to, you know, go. He's like, don't let
(02:32):
mom hear you cry. We'll get in trouble. And later
on I was thinking, we'll get in trouble. You just
beat up your little brother.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Well, that's funny you mentioned that, because I've always wondered
what happened to Brett's face, and now we know you
smashed it in when he was, you know, thirteen, fourteen
years old.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Man.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
But Aaron Boone's with us, and Aaron, you know, you
and I are about the same age. You're born a
few months before I was in its seventy three, so,
you know, almost fifty two years old. And I could
never imagine being mature enough or composed enough with myself
to deal with the New York Press Corps, Yankee fans,
being the manager of the Yankees. What what goes into
(03:10):
all of that for you? That makes this job unique
and sometimes difficult?
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Yeah, I mean there's you know, that's definitely one of
the challenges navigating that you know of you know, but
I would have it no other way, you know, I
love it. Like there's one of the great things about
being with the Yankees is that, obviously expectations are always
really high. It's you know, demanding, you know, fan base
(03:41):
and media. But I would say, no matter what, like
it always matters every single day. You know. Jason Zilla,
our PR director, and I kind of joke every now
and then, you know, we play one hundred and sixty
two one game seasons and and you feel that way,
But I think it's mostly in a good way. You know,
(04:03):
it makes you, makes you, helps drive you, makes you accountable,
and you know, there's obviously moments when it's you know,
can be difficult or it's a pain in certain areas,
but overall, like having that level of care from people
is you know how I would want it.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Well, you think about that great home run that you
hit as a Yankee. You know, god, it was twenty
two years ago, now, unbelievable in two thousand and three
to send the Yankees to the World Series, and George
Steinbrenner was around for that, you know, right, didn't pass
on until twenty ten. So so you're working with the
Steinbrenner family, but you're not working directly for George. What
do you remember about your relationship with George as a player,
(04:48):
and what is your relationship like with the family now.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Yeah, So I came over in two thousand and three.
That year, I came over at the trading deadline and
our first home series. I was staying staying in the
same hotel as as mister Steinberger stayed in when he
when he was in New York. And first our first
night home game, you know, we came off the road.
(05:16):
I was actually downstairs with Reggie Jackson, who I knew
very well since I was a kid, and we're we
got a bike, eating a drink after the game, and
we were going up on the elevator to to my
room to go to bed, and and George gets on
and it's my first time and Reggie said, hey, George,
I want to introduce you to our new player, Aaron Boone.
(05:37):
We just got him for the reds BA, And uh,
I can hear it in my head, it's like the
Seinfeld character. It was nice to meet you, nice to
have you on the club. You know, he's very very
straightforward and very direct and very nice. And then The
only other time I came in contact with him was
that the night after we beat the Red Sox in
(05:59):
the Game seven, and my wife and I had gone
back to the hotel. We're we're getting ready to walk
back out and and go meet the team. We're having
a gathering after the game, and we're walking through the
out lobby and mister Steinberger was coming in. He just
saw me and he said, happy for your son.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Those are my two interactions as as for now with
the family. Yeah. Great. I mean, my relationship with with
Hal is excellent. He is he's a great owner. He's
he's invested, he cares. He he's usually up in New York.
I would say he's in New York for about half
(06:42):
the home games. They live in Tampa, but comes to
my office and to to just get a lay of
the land and hear about the team, and he's he's
just a really good, good person and I've developed a
really good relationship with him and really the entire Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Well, Aaron Boone is with us again, brother of Brett
Skipper of the Yankees, in town to take on the
Mariners for three starting tonight, and Brett, you know, I mean,
obviously great players will make your job a lot easier,
and you've got maybe the best in the world right
in your dugout in an Aaron Judge, who was just
on a tear right now, hitting over four hundred, slugging
over almost eight hundred ops over twelve We don't know, though,
(07:25):
I don't know a lot about the kind of guy
he is. I mean, the numbers speak for themselves. Can
you talk a little bit about what kind of leader,
what kind of clubhouse presidence, what kind of player Aaron
Judges to manage.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
For you every day?
Speaker 2 (07:36):
The best. He's such a great person. He's such a
great leader. He's such a great teammate. You know, everything
I think people imagine about him, it is true. He's
just his teammates love him, whether you are another star
(07:56):
player or you're coming up from the minor leagues for
the first time. He's very accessible, relatable, and he's just
he's really good at the grind, Like he's never too high,
never too low, handles it all so well. And and
but he's a killer competitor, like like most great players
(08:19):
are too. So he is he's all about team and
all about you know, being the leader of this team.
And he takes that role very serious. But he's also
a killer between the lines obviously, and I've been so
fortunate to have him my entire time. Here is really
(08:41):
the face of our team.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Yeah, well, Aaron Boone's with us for a few more
minutes here on the radio show. And Aaron, I'm just
curious because you mentioned this at the top, that you
would not want to have it any other way, right,
as far as the expectations go, and the expectation is
to get twenty eight right, to be in the World
Series every year and to win it almost every year,
I mean, I would think the expectations for Yankee fans
are as high as they are for any fan base
(09:03):
in sports.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
So finish this sentence for me.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
The Yankees will will repeat as American League champions, get
to the World Series and win it this year.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
If blank fill in that sentence for me.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
I think if if first and foremost we put together
the start, which is the one hundred and sixty two
game season, you've got to have a level. You're gonna
have ups and downs, you're gonna have stretches where it's difficult,
but on balance, you've got to put together a really
strong season to put yourself in the mix in October.
(09:41):
So whether that's winning the division, getting in another way,
you got to get to October and then and then
it's about everything kind of coming together at that point.
You know. Last year obviously we get to the World
Series and and then how we wanted. But we want
to put ourselves in a position, hopefully, you know, from
(10:01):
a health standpoint, to be able to make another long
run at it and ultimately hoist that trophy. But I
also look at it, that's so far away. We got
so many things and boxes to check and right a
long way to go. We want to get there, of course,
and then you start talking about it, but that's months away.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Well, who's this Who's this Ben Rice kid that I
keep reading about from three thousand miles away because every
time I type in Yankees and and google this name,
Ben Rice keeps popping up. This young phenom. So tell
us about this kid and how much of him? Will
we see you this week?
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Yeah, you'll see him this week. He's d hing tonight,
the first game. He can really hit. He hits the
ball really hard, he controls the strike zone really well.
He's also a catcher. He's our third catcher, right now.
But that's not because he's not a good catcher, Like
he can really really catch. It's just not the role
(11:00):
for him right now on this team. That could evolve
as we go, because obviously we have Austin Wells, who's
one of our excellent young catcher and then j c
Ascara backing him up. But Rice's Rice can really catch
as well. But he is. He hits the ball incredibly
hard and really controls the strike zone and that's a
(11:21):
pretty good tandem to have as a hitter.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
Yeah, no doubt, Aaron.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Any thoughts on this Mariner team, this upstart Mariner team
that a lot of people are surprised at their twenty
two and seventeen start. Their offense up until the weekend
against Toronto was out a tear for the first month or.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
So of the season.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
But what do you see from this Mariner baseball clubs
you'll see starting tonight.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Yeah, I mean, I think we've seen a good Mariner
team now for the last few years that's had their
share of expectations and I think even safe to say
going into this year similar expectations that they expect to
be a playoff team and be right in the mix
in the American League West. I think the surprising part
(12:05):
of it, maybe the thumb, is that they're doing it
in a different way. I think everyone expected it to
be on the strength of their starting pitching, which has
been so great over the last few years. But like
you said, it's been the offense that's really carried unto
this hot start. And you know, so we know we'll
have our hands full, not only with a couple of
great pitchers that we're going to see this weekend, but
(12:27):
but an offense that's been one of the games best
to start the year.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
No doubt.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
And final thought for you, Aaron Boone, manager of the Yankees,
before you go, your brother is now the hitting coach
of the Rangers.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
As we said, I was a.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Little bit surprised when he took the gig. I told him,
you're not going to be playing much golf in the
next five months for trying out loud. So now he's
the hitting coach of the Texas Rangers. But did you
have any advice for your big brother when he took
that gig.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
Not really. I'm excited for him. It's the time in
his life when I think he's ready to go do that,
and I think he'll have a great opportunity to impact
a lot of young young men and obviously a talented
group that they have over there in Texas that you know,
offensively got off to a little bit of a start.
(13:13):
But I think it's a great opportunity to impact some good,
good young players.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
No doubt.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Hey Aaron Boone, great stuff, Thanks for doing this, and
we will talk down the road.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Man.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Appreciate this and and best of luck, best of luck
starting Thursday when you leave Seattle.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
How's that sound?
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Thank you?
Speaker 1 (13:29):
I appreciate Actually, best of luck. Never, how's that sound?
You're the manager of the Yankees.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
They should have said, Aaron, thanks for doing this, but
best of luck.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
Never You remember how hateable Joe Tory and Don Zimmer
Yankees were. I mean they were just hateable. You look
at them, those two sitting together and the dugout. It
was like Darth Vader and the Emperor. And it's it's
harder for me to hate an Aaron Boone led Yankee
team than it was for me to hate those teams
(13:56):
twenty years ago.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
Well I don't.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
I just don't have the hatred I did growing up
because I went to a lot of Yankee games, growing
up number one and number two. The Mariners actually at
one point in time used to have a little bit
of a rival with them because it felt like they
saw him.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
I mean, you saw him in ninety five.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
You saw him in two thousand, you saw him in
two thousand and one, three of eight years or whatever.
You saw him in the postseason, and that's when rivalries
are born, right in the playoffs. I mean, the Niner
Seahawk rivalry was big, but it was on steroids when
they met for the NFC Championship game. I think, and
I think you said this out of the year. If
you took Jackson Brett Boone's voice and put it in
a slocomotive, it sounded like him. It sounds just like
(14:34):
Aaron Boone. So I mean, I'm curious to see how
Dan Wilson handles Aaron Judge tonight. Aaron Judge is the
runaway MVP in the American League and it's not even closed.
I mean, it's just like, give the guy the trophy
right now, be done with. He's like Polanco in the dust. Well,
Polanco's not playing some way. That's another topic for later on.
But Aaron Judge is hitting three oh four with an
eleven ninety five ops, ten home runs and twenty four
(14:55):
RBIs in twenty two games at T Mobile Park against
the Mariners. He actually does better here against them that
he does there against them.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
So you can hit a team Mobile Park, you can
if you're Aaron Jillie, you're six foot seven and nineteen.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
So that's all we need to hit a Team Mobile
is to get seven or eight Aaron Judges our team.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
I I say this all the time that, like, I
look at Aaron Judge on TV and I think you
really have to almost watch TV to get a feel
for how big he is. You see him at the plate,
And I don't know if you guys feel the same
way I do. First of all, he's the same size
as Jimmy Graham. He's six seven to eighty. He's Jimmy
Graham in a baseball uniform. And then second of all,
when you watch him at home plate compared to the catcher,
(15:37):
uh and the umpire, does it look like he's been
super imposed on TVs?
Speaker 4 (15:41):
It does?
Speaker 3 (15:41):
And you know, you know when it's emphasized when they're
playing the Blue Jays and Kirk is catching, that's right
because it makes it it's Gulliver and the Liliputian. It's unbelievable,
Like Kirk comes up to his waist.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
It is amazing how freaking big this guy is. He
I went to one game a couple of years ago. Pregame,
he walked right by me behind home plate, and I
could not freaking believe what a mammoth individual he is.
You know, he's always thirty three too. He's not He's
not young anymore. He's always thirty three years old. He's
stilled out what three four more prime years? Probably, yeah,
maybe maybe a few more thirty three feels like the
(16:15):
new thirty.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (16:16):
All Right, we're gotta break.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Thanks to Aaron Boone, manager of the Yankees, for joining
us a little fun with audio and then a little
uh Hugh, A little more at four with Hugh coming
up on ninety three three kJ RFM
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