Aaron Boone may have been a fit as Cincinnati Reds manager if the timing was different

John Fay | Cincinnati Enquirer

Show Caption Hide Caption New Yankees manager Aaron Boone: 'Special, special day' Aaron Boone introduced as the new manager of the New York Yankees.

Former Red. Check.

Well-versed in analytics. Check.

Stayed connected to baseball after retiring. Check.

Impeccable reputation around baseball. Check.

Sounds like the perfect candidate for the Cincinnati Reds managerial job if they decide to follow the current trend and hire a former player with no experience as a coach or a manager.

Aaron Boone would be that. But Boone has a pretty good gig right now. Boone, the former Red, is in his first year as manager of the New York Yankees.

Boone, 45, could easily be mistaken for a player as he walks through the Yankee clubhouse pregame. It’s not just his appearance. He’s the same generation as the veteran players – with the same tastes and sensibilities.

The biggest reason he was hired as the Yankees thought he could communicate better with the players than Joe Girardi. Still, it was a risk hiring someone as inexperienced as Boone to take over a 91-win team.

“We’re betting on Aaron’s ceiling,” general manager Brian Cashman said when Boone was hired.

Boone was confident he could make it work from the start. He thinks if the Reds were to go a similar route it could work in Cincinnati as well.

“I think if you’re versed in the game there are a lot of different avenues to get here,” Boone told the Enquirer before a recent Yankee game. “There’s having the experience of as a coach and manager or in the front office. Then there’s all of your life experience in baseball that prepare for this in different ways.

“I lack a lot of experience in some areas, but I’ve lived this game my entire life. I don’t think there’s a one-size-fits-all path.”

Boone has been a success. The Yankees are 75-45 – the second best record in baseball and 101-win pace. While the Yankees are having a great season, the rival Boston Red Sox are on pace for the greatest season. That brings some heat from the fans. Boone does his best to ignore it (more on that later).

Boone began thinking about getting a job in baseball over the 1 1/2 years of tenure with ESPN. Boone had one of the best and highest profile jobs at ESPN as an analyst on Sunday Night Baseball.

“I loved the job,” he said. “But I felt a little bit of the game pulling at me and calling a little bit. I missed the competition of it all a little bit. I was probably transitioning. I was probably going to leave broadcasting at least temporarily.

“I was considering a couple of front office things, a couple of coaching things this offseason.”

Then Cashman called and asked Boone to interview.

Boone had a connection to the Yankee front office. Assistant GM Tim Naehring was the farm director when Boone was coming up with the Reds.

“I thought Boonie was very qualified baseball person,” Naehring said. “But I’d be lying if I told you I thought he was going to come and in the New York Yankees were going to have a relatively inexperienced manager heading up the ballclub.”

Then came the interviews.

“He’s a tremendous baseball guy, open-minded, great people skills,” Naehring said. “He interviewed unbelievably. Everyone who sat in the room and listened, came away totally impressed and thinking this is kind of guy who a tremendous future in that seat.”

Boone was one of six candidates the Yankees brought in for an interview. The plan was to bring a few back for a second interview.

Boone was so good – he was top on the list of every decision maker – the second interviews never happened. The Yankees offered him the job.

“From the time (Cashman) called until I was named manager was probably a couple of week period,” Boone said.

Boone, of course, is from a three-generation baseball family. His father, Bob, managed the Kansa City Royals and later the Reds. He was the manager in part of Aaron’s seven-year run with the Reds.

But Aaron says managing was never in his plans as a player.

“When I was playing, it wasn’t my ambition to manage,” he said. “It wasn’t a goal or something I envisioned. Not that I didn’t want to manage. This is kind of path I’ve been on.”

The path has taken him to one of the highest pressure jobs in sports – maybe the highest. He’s handled it well.

“There’s been some ups and downs like every year,” Naehring said. “But the whole body of work has been pretty good through some injuries, through some challenging times, especially against the Red Sox. Aaron has brought that continued calmness to the dugout, which is outstanding.

“He’s been very consistent with everything going on. Those are obviously all traits that are going to bode well for him being successful in the future.”

Boone went from the Reds to Yankees in the fire sale of 2003.

“After I got traded to the Yankees, I met the team in Oakland,” Boone said. “I went into Joe Torre’s office, and one thing he told me is don’t read the papers. It’s little different now with social media. I don’t go there. I don’t read the papers. Everyone’s going to have an opinion criticism or whatever. I stay away and inundate myself in the day-to-day and the team.”

Boone watches the postgame interviews with his players. He gets updates on what he needs to know from media relations director Jason Zillo.

“But I stay away from the noise,” he said. “You’ll drive yourself crazy.”



Boone stays connected to ex-teammates with the Reds. He texted back and forth with Adam Dunn upon Dunn’s induction in the Reds Hall of Fame.



“Cincinnati is a very special place to me,” Boone said. “It’s where I grew up in so many ways and spent a significant part of my adult life from single guy to getting married, starting a family. Most of my best baseball memories are from Cincinnati and the guys I played with.”

If the timing had been a little different he could have been in a position to add to the memories as manager.