Aaron Boone explains the weather delay during ALDS Game 5
Workers clearing out the dugout of the players treats because the game was called between New York Yankees Cleveland Guardians at Yankee Stadium Monday October 17, 2022 Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
How close did the Yankees and Guardians come to playing Game 5 of the AL Division Series at Yankee Stadium on Monday night before it was rained out?
Very close. Eye black close.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone on Tuesday revealed the inner workings of the discussions between MLB and the teams about whether and when to start Monday’s game. It was eventually called after a delay of about 2 1/2 hours and rescheduled for 4:07 p.m. on Tuesday.
“I mean, we're on Zoom calls,” Boone said. “By the end there what was like every 20 minutes, because we're waiting for that back edge [of the rainstorm]. So at around 8:20, I felt like we were playing at 9:30 . . . and then, oh, this thing [rainstorm] popped up over Newark . . . and then at that point I just don't think MLB would have the appetite for— once you got starters to the field — going for a 10:35-10:40 potential start.”
Boone said by the time of the 9 p.m. Zoom call, “I had players ready to go, eye black on, like ‘what's going on?’ at my door, basically, and it just kept getting pushed back a little bit and then obviously got too far. So we're just like, all right, we're [playing] tomorrow at 4. Let's go.”
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.
