Aaron Boone hopes his Yankees will no longer have to worry about shady sign stealing after the MLB’s reaction to the Houston Astros scandal.
The Houston Astros sign-stealing nonsense could turn out to be good for baseball in the long run. New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone said as much in a recent interview about the situation with YES Network.
“Hopefully we’ve put an end to this, and kind of cut it off finally,” Boone said, referencing the use of technology to decode signs. Houston used a camera in center field to steal signals in 2017.
That unscrupulous behavior rocked the MLB world when it came to light after the 2019 season.
"Hopefully we've put an end to this."
Aaron Boone weighs in on the Astros scandal & what it means for baseball going forward. #YANKSonYES pic.twitter.com/Tx0750tliC
— YES Network (@YESNetwork) January 24, 2020
New York was a major victim of the Astros’ dirty dealings that season and possibly again in 2019. Both years the Yankees fell to Houston in the ALCS.
Boone’s optimism about the MLB’s punishment ending the practice of illegal sign-stealing did not come without a little frustration.
“It’s disappointing,” Boone said. “Frustrating. Frankly, I spent a couple days trying to get my head wrapped around the emotions that I was feeling about it.”
Although Boone didn’t become the Yankees’ skipper until 2018, he still felt hurt by the Astros’ actions, “Because there’s people you care about involved.” Also, he must be wondering if conspiracy theories about Houston using other cheating methods in 2019 might be true.
Boone isn’t the only member of the Yankees experiencing negative emotions. On an episode of the R2C2 podcast, CC Sabathia delivered an expletive-packed rant declaring his Yankees the rightful winners of the 2017 World Series.
Aaron Judge even deleted his social media post congratulating Astros star Jose Altuve for his 2017 MVP. Judge placed second in the 2017 MVP voting to Altuve.
Ideally, Boone’s assessment is correct, and the game will move on to better things in 2020 and beyond.