Mets' Carlos Mendoza and Yankees' Aaron Boone: Mutual admiration society
Carlos Mendoza and Aaron Boone have plenty of respect for each other as they go head-to-head in this week's Subway Series. Credit: AP/Kirsty Wigglesworth; Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Aaron Boone, in his first game managing against his old bench coach Carlos Mendoza, pulled out all the stops in the eighth inning of Tuesday night’s Subway Series opener, using three lefthanded pinch hitters with the Yankees trailing 9-2.
Boone’s moves worked as all three pinch hitters reached base. The Yankees went from trailing by seven runs to trailing by two after an RBI single by pinch hitter Austin Wells off lefty Danny Young and a grand slam by Aaron Judge off righty Reed Garrett. But Garrett got the final four outs to finish the Mets’ 9-7 victory.
It was the first opportunity for Boone and Mendoza to match wits. Mendoza used three relievers in the inning to counter Boone’s machinations.
“Mixing and matching,” Mendoza said on Wednesday before the conclusion of the two-game series at Citi Field. “If I bring in righties, I know that he’s going to use their lefties. I mean, that's the game the managers play. Pretty familiar with him. He's pretty familiar with me. But at the same time, we're making adjustments, so it was fun.”
Boone, before Tuesday night’s game, said of managing against Mendoza: “Yes, a little odd, because we know each other so well. Been through so much together. So it'll be a little odd at first. But it's one of those things that once the game gets movin’, that part of it kind of goes away.”
Boone and Mendoza really do know each other well. When Boone was hired as Yankees manager before the 2018 season, he added Mendoza as a quality control and infield coach. Two years later, Mendoza became Boone’s righthand man as bench coach.
“When I got hired and we were hiring out my staff,” Boone said, “(Mendoza was) one of the first people I met at the winter meetings. He came and met with me and I think we kind of hit it off right away, and it was very early on that my respect for him as a baseball guy — and as a person — was just really high. Then when I moved him to the bench, part of it was I thought we were going to lose him to a bench coach job and I wasn't about to lose him. He's a great coach, now manager, great person, and just someone you have such tremendous respect for.”
Not surprisingly, the feeling is mutual.
“What a great human being,” Mendoza said. “He cares about people, and he's very steady. He's consistent. It doesn't matter how well the team is playing or how hard is at times. He's the same person, and you appreciate that, especially when it's hard, that your leader is going to show up with the same attitude, and he's not going to go through the roller coaster whether you're playing well or not.
“So I learned that from him. But at the end of the day, he's a great human being. As far as managing, pretty similar as far as our preparation goes. But he's got his style, I’ve got my style.”
Mendoza followed Boone’s teachings when he didn’t panic when the Mets started 0-5 or when they had a May swoon. The Mets’ recent upturn had them going into Wednesday needing a victory to reach .500 for the first time since May 7.
Mendoza spent 15 years in the Yankees organization before joining the Mets with the wholehearted endorsement of Boone and general manager Brian Cashman. This time, Boone couldn’t stop someone else from hiring Mendoza. He welcomed it.
Said Mendoza: “There's so many great people there, from top to bottom. Not only players, coaches, but front office, grounds crew, you name it. You spend so much time with an organization that you develop so many relationships, and that's what stood out to me, the quality of the people. And once I'm over here now, we’ve got really good people here with the Mets.
“I was there for a lot of years. I went through the ups and downs, but I learned a lot. I feel like being there prepared me to be in this position that I'm in right now. Obviously, a lot of people have a lot to do with where I'm at right now, so I'll always be grateful for that.”
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.