Joe Girardi happy to be back in the booth? YES!

Joe Girardi misses New York — his friends, the buzz, the fans, Yankee Stadium . . . all of it, really.

Now he is back, seven years after a 10-year term as Yankees manager ended when his contract was not renewed and the Yankees moved on to Aaron Boone.

Boone still is the manager, but now Girardi will get to talk about him and his team as part of a new 20-plus-game deal to be a game analyst for the YES Network.

It is a chance not only for Girardi to further his broadcasting career but also for his family to spend the summer in New York. (Girardi lives primarily in South Florida.)

That includes his youngest daughter, Lena, a high school junior who is a Division I basketball prospect and wanted to spend time in New York before leaving for college.

“New York has been a big part of our lives,” Girardi told Newsday recently. “We’re really excited about it. We haven't spent a summer in New York, really, since 2017. We have so many close friends . . . We’re just going to take advantage of this.”

Not that this is some sort of convenient lark professionally. Girardi has woven an extensive media career around his managing jobs and is serious about it.

He worked at YES in 2004 after retiring as a player, managed the Marlins in 2005, returned to YES in 2007, managed the Yankees from 2008-17 and the Phillies from 2020-22, and now is back for a third stint at YES.

He also does studio analysis for Cubs games, a job he began after the Phillies fired him during the ’22 season and which he will continue along with his YES duties.

And he has worked as a national analyst for Fox Sports and MLB Network.

“I love it,” Girardi said. “We get to talk about what we love. You’re part of a team. You get to watch really good baseball. There's something about being at the ballpark and the atmosphere and the crowd.

“And it's a different view than what I'm used to. I'm used to a view from the dugout and I really enjoy it because I think you see a lot more out there, actually.”

Girardi does not expect any awkwardness if he critiques Boone. He also will have no problem talking about players, because Aaron Judge is the only current Yankee who played for him.

Girardi, 59, would like another crack at managing but is focused for now on the job at hand. “I really like the broadcasting and I'm just going to see where it goes this time,” he said.

He already is familiar with YES announcers such as Michael Kay, Paul O’Neill and John Flaherty. He has worked with Kay and he played with O’Neill on three World Series-winning Yankees teams in the late 1990s.

“It’s going to be fun to be in the booth with you this year,” Kay told Girardi during an appearance on Kay’s radio show.

Girardi also is familiar with the grind of preparing, be it in the dugout or booth.

“I love doing the homework,” he said. “I watch a lot and look at numbers a lot, almost like in a sense I'm managing a game. So my preparation is pretty similar.”

Now he has two leagues to follow. “There'll be more homework than last year, I can tell you that,” he said. “I have to be in tune with, really, two home teams.”

With the Yankees, he is starting mostly from scratch.

“I actually like their team,” Girardi said. “Like so many other teams, what's the health [going to be]? But I expect a lot of players to have bounce-back years.

“Their pitching was pretty good last year. When you look at where they ranked, it was definitely good enough to be in the playoffs. But they struggled offensively, and I think they've added a lot to the lineup.”

Girardi saw plenty of Juan Soto when Soto was with the Nationals and Girardi was managing the Phillies.

“I think he’s going to put up big numbers,” Girardi said. “I can't imagine him having a bad year, having had to deal with him managing the Phillies and what I did to try to avoid giving him a favorable matchup.

“I think it's going to be tougher for other clubs because of who hits behind him.”

That presumably will be Judge.

Girardi was the Yankees' manager in their  last World Series appearance, a victory in 2009, and left after a season in which he took the team to Game 7 of the ALCS.

He said when he looks back at his time in the Bronx, it is “very, very positive.”

“I feel very blessed to have worked and played there four years, managed there 10 years, was a bench coach one year, and broadcast two different times there,” he said.

“I miss New York. It's been a huge part of Kim, my wife’s, life and our [three] kids, and we're just really excited to come back.

“Sometimes things take you different places and you lose touch a little bit with what's going on in a place that meant so much to you. I'm glad that we're all reconnecting.”

By Neil Best

neil.best@newsday.com@sportswatch

Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.