Boone is feeling better with pacemaker
Manager may return to team this weekend
TAMPA, Fla. — By 6:35 p.m. on Wednesday night, hours after having surgery to implant a pacemaker in his chest, Aaron Boone was getting back to work. As he recovered in a hospital bed, he was watching new Yankee Corey Kluber make his spring training debut in pinstripes on the organization’s video services. Thursday he watched his team lose to the Phillies and by Friday, after coming to the complex to start his COVID protocols to come back, Boone was ready to jump right back in.
“I can’t believe how good I feel. It makes me really glad that I got this done. Because I certainly have not felt anywhere close to how I felt this morning,” the Yankees manager said on a Zoom conference call Friday morning. “Even yesterday morning, getting out of the hospital. So really excited about it and excited to get back.”
In his first interview since he took a sudden medical leave to have the procedure, Boone said that he expects to “be back,” to work Saturday or Sunday. That doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll be in the dugout for Saturday’s game in Bradenton against the Pirates or here at George M. Steinbrenner Field for the game against the Phillies, but he expects to be back in the Yankees COVID bubble and working at the complex.
“We’ll see,” Boone said about his return to the dugout. “I think I’m ready to be in the dugout, but look, I’m not not in any hurry. I feel like I can get a lot done and accomplish a lot just by being there. I’m grateful for that and lucky in that, I’m sure a lot of managers think they have a really good coaching staff and support staff, but I have the utmost confidence in our guys.”
Boone was energetic and upbeat Friday. He said it was a lot different than the recovery he had in 2009 when he had open-heart surgery to repair a congenital defect in an aortic valve. Boone said his only limitations will be to using his
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left arm for the next few weeks, he cannot raise it over his head. This is to allow the wires implanted to set permanently.
While being the Yankees’ manager is a stressful job, Boone said that he was told that is not an issue.
“My understanding is my way of life or anything moving forward or leading up to this point, were not contributors,” Boone said.
Boone said he felt dramatically better than he did over the winter. The fatigue and light-headedness along with his history of having had open-heart surgery in 2009 had him looking to doctors for answers.
“I did some things and went and started getting tested because there were some signs there that I wasn’t feeling the way I should be. But I think now that I’ve got this, it’s made me realize that man, I wasn’t feeling good, just energy level, just not myself,” Boone said.
German makes debut: Domingo German has vowed to his family, the Yankees and his teammates to show he is a changed manoffthe field after his 2019 domestic violence suspension. He also has needed to show he is the same pitcher when he is on the mound.
Friday, he made a good first attempt with two scoreless innings, striking out four and working around a double, in his first start against big leaguers in 17 months.
“He was sharp out there. I thought he looked great. I thought his changeup was really, really good,” Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez said. “Very effective and overall, I thought I saw confidence from him, you know, and that’s what I wanted. I wanted for him to go out there, have fun, and just execute with confidence.”
The crowd at George M. Steinbrenner Field for the Yankees 1-1 tie with the Tigers made him feel welcome, German said.
It’s another step in German’s attempt to come back from his domestic violence incident, which ended his breakout season and had him miss the entire coronavirus-pandemic shortened 2020 season. While serving the 81-game suspension, German said he spent his time working on his body and making sure he could prove he was the pitcher they saw in 2019.
“Oneofthethings I wantedtodo is pitching winter ball like I did,” German said. “Pitching over there gave me the ability and the confidenceto see that I can still compete at a high level and compete against really good competition. The confidence is big and that’s what I felt. It put meatease that I can still compete, and that I can find my way back to be that same picture that I was in 2019.”
The winter ball work may have given German confidence, but the results weren’t anything the Yankees could take comfort in. In five starts in the Dominican winter league, German pitched to a 7.16 ERA, allowing 13 earned runs over 16.1 innings pitched. He walked nine and struck out 18.