Aaron Boone, the Yankees manager, can’t escape his now-infamous tirade at an umpire. It follows him everywhere, even though he isn’t proud of some of the language that on-field microphones caught him using during that July 18 game. His parents wear T-shirts printed with “Savages in the Box,” the phrase he repeatedly yelled. His players and fans do, too. The name plates in the home clubhouse at Yankee Stadium now include the words “October Savages.”

Another reminder came when the Yankees visited the Tampa Bay Rays in the final week of the season. Hanging from the walls of the visiting manager’s office at Tropicana Field are 29 photographs of rival managers either talking or arguing with umpires. On the one of Boone, a previous visitor had left a note: “WE ARE SAVAGES!”

While Boone can laugh about it now, his intense outburst might be the most memorable moment of the Yankees’ year so far. Known for his calm manner and affable personality, Boone let his edge — and vocabulary — show in that argument about the strike zone with the home-plate umpire, Brennan Miller.

To Boone’s players, it was an example of how their relatively inexperienced manager, who so often feels like one of them, was growing in his second year on the job — a season that might earn him the American League Manager of the Year Award. In their eyes, he was becoming more comfortable and more assertive — traits that could serve him well in this year’s playoffs.