Aaron Boone’s Yankees enjoying profession lasted lower than a full season and included simply 71 video games. It began on Aug. 1 and was formally over the next February.
However it included one at-bat he – and Yankees followers in all places – will always remember. It was a visit to the plate that made the infielder part of the franchise’s prolonged postseason lore, an ALCS-clinching, walk-off residence run that despatched the Yankees to the 2003 World Sequence and prolonged the rival Pink Sox’s Curse of the Bambino for at the least yet one more yr.
“I knew immediately I had hit it actual good,” Boone mentioned that evening, after his 11th-inning homer off Tim Wakefield capped an exciting 6-5, come-from-behind victory within the seventh sport of the sequence. “Derek [Jeter] advised me generally the ghosts present up right here. Once I joined the Yankees, that is the type of factor I assumed I might be part of. That is the right story ending for everybody — further innings in Recreation 7 after a comeback. It’s the right ending.”
Boone, acquired on the July 31 commerce deadline from the Reds, didn’t begin that evening, benched by supervisor Joe Torre in favor of Enrique Wilson. He entered within the eighth inning as a pinch-runner for Ruben Sierra, who had pinch-hit for Wilson, and took over at third base within the ninth inning. And Boone smoked the primary pitch he noticed all night off of Wakefield, launching the no-doubter deep into the left discipline seats.
![Aaron Boone (left) celebrates with his Yankees teammates after hitting walkoff home run in Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS]()
It was a dramatic end few may see coming earlier within the night. The Pink Sox raced out to a 4-Zero lead and had runners on the corners with no outs within the fourth inning. Torre lifted Roger Clemens at that time in favor of Mike Mussina, who was making the primary aid outing of a Corridor of Fame profession. Mussina struck out Jason Varitek and bought Johnny Damon to hit right into a double play, shifting the night’s momentum.
The Yankees would rally towards Pedro Martinez, scoring 3 times within the eighth inning to tug even. Martinez had entered the body over 100 pitches, however supervisor Grady Little infamously stayed with him till Jorge Posada’s bloop double tied the sport at 5.
“That is the perfect,” Torre mentioned. “To return right here and play towards the Pink Sox, and play them 26 occasions and beat our rival like we did, it couldn’t be extra satisfying. This needs to be the sweetest style of all for me.”
After the memorable residence run and the raucous celebration that adopted, Boone would quickly fade away. He went 3-for-21 in a World Sequence defeat to the Marlins in six video games. The next January, he tore his ACL enjoying a sport of pick-up basketball, paving the way in which for the Yankees to commerce for Alex Rodriguez and launch Boone. After lacking the whole 2004 season, he would play elements of 5 years with 4 groups, earlier than launching a broadcast profession and ultimately changing into the Yankees supervisor in December of 2017.
“Not per week goes by that I’m not reminded of how huge the New York Yankees are or how huge their attain are,” Boone mentioned after taking on because the group’s supervisor. “I’ve had a whole lot of tales advised to me too about the place folks had been or what aspect of the ledger they had been on.
“I admire it now. For a very long time, I type of distanced myself from it as a result of we misplaced the World Sequence.”