Aaron Boone loved playing third base for the Cincinnati Reds. He came through the Reds minor league system. He wrote the foreward to Dayton Daily News Reds writer Hal McCoy’s book “The Real McCoy,” and the day he was traded to the the Yankees in 2003, he was emotionally overcome to the point he could barely speak.
Three months later, he was a part of baseball and Yankee lore, taking Red Sox reliever Tim Wakefield over the fence for a ALCS Game 7-winning home run that put the Yankees in the World Series. One of the Reds all-time favorites was a part of baseball history; now he’s taking the job as manager of the biggest franchise in baseball.
According to the Associated Press, Boone will manage the Yankees. He’s never been a manager or coach at any level. After retiring in 2009, he joined ESPN as an in-studio analyst before doing color commentator on games.
He beat six other candidates for the job - Yankees bench coach Rob Thomson, former Cleveland and Seattle manager Eric Wedge, San Francisco bench coach Hensley Meulens; Dodgers third base coach Chris Woodward and former Yankee outfielder Carlos Beltran.