TAMPA – It was just a passing conversation with Aaron Boone at Steinbrenner Field, but it now resonates more with Brett Gardner.
“He told me he was a little tired,” Gardner said after Boone took leave to put in a pacemaker Wednesday to address a low heart rate. ‘Looking back, that’s probably one of the reasons he didn’ t feel 100 percent that day. I hope they caught it at the right time and it enables him to do his job going forward to the best of his ability. ”
The procedure went “as expected”, the Yankees said in a statement, but Boone, who turns 48 on Tuesday, has already done his best to alleviate his team’s concerns about his health issue.
“Every time you hear of the heart, it’s very, very worrying,” Gardner said. “Of course he’s had problems there before. Our thoughts go out to him and his well-being, but his first thoughts go to his players and our well-being. It was good to see that he was at ease. We’re looking forward to getting him here again soon, but we’ll miss him while he’s gone. ‘
Giancarlo Stanton said Boone apparently had no effects until Wednesday.
“How he behaved normally and how well he was able to deal with what he went through shows you how strong a person he is,” Stanton said.
Mike Ford said the news came as a ‘shock’ to him.
“He’s an incredibly tough man,” the first man said. “It puts things in perspective for me. You do not know what can happen on any given day. We all support him. ”
Although Gardner knew of the open heart surgery that Boone underwent in 2009 to replace an aortic valve, Ford did not.
“I hope he kicks and fights like he normally does,” Ford said. “He wanted to be the one to tell us.”
Bank coach Carlos Mendoza was part of a Zoom call earlier in the day and helped tell players the news before showing Boone’s video from the hospital.
“I will not say that I was surprised, because of course I have had previous conversations with him,” Mendoza said of the procedure. ‘But after talking to him a few times this morning when he was in the hospital, he made me feel really good. I felt good about it as he talks. ”
And the Zoom calls helped.
“Everyone could see his face and it made me feel much better and we were all around here,” said Mendoza, who will serve as manager while Boone is away. “It made us feel a lot better.”