(Story & Photos by Marco Stoovelaar)
 Aaron Boone new Manager Yankees; Hensley Meulens stays with Giants
Nederlands
 THE BRONX, NEW YORK, New York (USA) -
Aaron Boone is the new Manager of the New York Yankees.
After some media-sources already announced the news in the weekend, the Yankees officially confirmed that Boone will be the 35th Manager in the history of the legendary club on Tuesday (December 5).
He will be introduced on Wednesday.
New York Yankees was the last club who was still without a new Manager.
The news in the weekend came somewhat as a surprise, as recently, it was mentioned that the club was in no hurry to name one, not even with the start of the Winter Meetings approaching on December 10.
...Hensley Meulens hitting grounders during a practice...
...of the Netherlands Baseball Team...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
Now that Boone has been named, it of course means that Hensley Meulens will not be the new Manager of the Yankees.
The Curaçao-born Meulens was one of six candidates in the search for a successor of Joe Girardi.
It took the Yankees five weeks to find a new Manager.
Meulens now will stay with the San Francisco Giants, where he is a member of the Major League coaching-staff since 2010.
He was the team's Hitting Coach since then and won the World Series with the Giants in 2010, 2012 and 2014.
On October 26, Meulens was named Bench Coach in the staff of Manager Bruce Bochy.
This is a sign that Meulens is considered a strong candidate to become a Manager himself in the near future, as a Bench Coach is the righthand of the Manager and is involved in making decisions.
Also on October 26, the Yankees announced that Joe Girardi would not return as its Manager.
Five days earlier, the Yankees lost the American League Championship Series against Houston Astros, resulting in elimination for the World Series.
Girardi's contract expired a few days later and was not renewed.
The former catcher led the Yankees since 2008, winning the World Series in 2009.
The first two candidates to be interviewed at Yankee Stadium for the vacant managerial position were Yankee Bench Coach Rob Thomson and Eric Wedge, who had been Manager of the Cleveland Indians (2003-2009) and Seattle Mariners (2011-2013).
Hereafter, Hensley Meulens, Aaron Boone, Chris Woodward (3B Coach Los Angeles Dodgers) and Carlos Beltran followed.
Last month, Beltran won the World Series with the Houston Astros, then retired as an active player.
With that, he and Boone were the only two candidates without coaching experience.
Boone becomes the first Yankee-Manager without any coaching experience since Bill Dickey in 1946.
Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman always has said that 'communication and connectivity' were important criteria for the next Manager.
With that, Meulens had an advantage as he speaks five languages, Dutch, Papiamento, English, Spanish and Japanese.
Nowadays, there are more and more Spanish-speaking players in the big leagues, as well as several more Japanese players coming to the Majors.
Besides being successful with the Giants, Meulens led the Netherlands Kingdom Baseball Team as its Manager during the last two editions of the World Baseball Classic in 2013 and 2017 and guided the Orange squad to the Semi-Finals both times.
As Manager, he led a squad that was compiled of some experienced Major League-players from Aruba and Curaçao, but also some young talented Dutch players.
...The main entrance of Yankee Stadium in The Bronx, New York...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
The 44-year old Aaron Boone played in the Major League in 1997-2009.
He first played for Cincinnati Reds, who traded him in July 2003 to the Yankees.
There, he played the remainder of the season and became a hero when he hit a walk-off homerun in the eleventh inning of Game 7 of the American League Championship Series against Boston Red Sox.
With that, the Yankees advanced to the World Series.
In January 2004, Boone tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during a basketball-game.
A month later, Boone was released by the Yankees.
After recovering from his injury, Boone played for Cleveland Indians (2005-2006), Florida Marlins (2007), Washington Nationals (2008) and Houston Astros (2009).
He played in only ten games for the Astros in September of 2009.
Earlier that year, he had underwent open-heart surgery and he returned to baseball in August.
Boone retired after the 2009 season and then became a TV-analyst in 2010.
In the last two seasons, Boone was a member of the ESPN-crew on Sunday Night Baseball.
In the booth, he shared he thoughts with play-by-play announcer Dan Shulman and softball-great Jessica Mendoza, who won the Gold Medal with Team USA at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens (Greece).
She played professionally in the National Pro Fastpitch in 2005-2010.
In 2005, Jessica Mendoza played in the Dutch big league for Terrasvogels.
Boone comes from a baseball-family.
His father and grandfather both also played in the Major League.
Grandfather Ray Boone played in the big leagues for six teams in 1948-1960 and his father Bob Boone played in 1972-1990 for three teams.
Former catcher Bob Boone also managed two teams.
Aaron's brother Bret Boone played in the Majors in 1992-2005 for six teams.
Another brother, Matt Boone played in the Minor League.
Besides that, the Boone-family is a descendant of legendary pioneer Daniel Boone (1734-1820).
(December 5)
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