As the old saying goes, be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it.
That’s Yankees manager Aaron Boone’s mantra when he looks at the scoreboard every now and again during a game, and sees what’s going on around the league. He admits he’s a scoreboard watcher that follows often during games, but he never has a rooting interest necessarily.
“I know my coaches get sick of me, I’ll walk in there and a game is on, and I’ll ask who they’re pulling for,” Boone said Saturday. “They’ll say, and I might tell them, ‘hey, you might be pulling for the wrong team, you never know.’”
That’s prescient advice given the situation the Yankees are in: entering Saturday, they were 6.5 games behind the Rays in the AL East, but 1.5 up on Boston for the top Wild Card spot, and 4.5 up on Oakland for either Wild Card berth.
So, earlier this week, when Tampa Bay played Boston, either possible result could have been good for the Yankees – but that thought just further proved to Boone you never know until the end whether you had the right idea.
“I was hoping they’d both lose or they’d tie!” he joked. “But I was absolutely not (rooting for either team). I’m careful not to get too caught up in the process of their results or what they did, because I think all the way to the end that we might be pulling for the wrong team.”
Sage advice he doubled down on as both teams now split to face other opponents.
“I definitely pay attention to the scores around the league during the game, but I always say you may end up pulling for the wrong team,” Boone said. “Even when it’s an obvious matchup, you say this team may be out of it and another team may sneak in, so just handle our business.”
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