After a 2-decade hiatus, the ‘Battle of the Boones' resumes in the Bronx

New York Times

20-05-2025

Larry Bowa still remembers the two kids, sons of Philadelphia Phillies catcher Bob Boone, shagging fly balls in the outfield at the old Veterans Stadium.
Mike Schmidt, Greg Luzinski and other Phillies of that era hit the ball hard. When the turf at the Vet got wet, the ball would skip. Players feared one of the kids might get hurt.
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'And they're catching balls like they've been playing in the big leagues for 10 years, catching 'em on one hop, off the wall,' said Bowa, the shortstop for the Phillies' 1980 World Series champions. 'Right then, you knew, they were going to play somewhere.'
Oh, they played, all right. Bret Boone spent 14 years in the majors, younger brother Aaron 12. They were teammates with the Cincinnati Reds in 1997-98, occasional opponents after that. And on Tuesday night, the remarkable story of the first family in baseball history to produce three generations of major leaguers will enter its next phase.
Bret, 56, will be in the visiting dugout at Yankee Stadium, the newly-hired hitting coach of the Texas Rangers. Aaron, 52, will be in the home dugout, in his eighth season managing the New York Yankees.
The Battle of the Boones, in its latest incarnation.
'It's been well over 20 years since we had this kind of situation,' Aaron said. 'It'll be a little fun, a little weird looking at him. I'm sure I'll glance his way a handful of times.'
Brothers being brothers, the competitive juices will stir. As players, their most memorable game against one another took place on May 11, 2000, in Cincinnati, when Bret went 3-for-4 with two homers for the San Diego Padres, only to be topped by Aaron hitting 3-for-5 with a walkoff homer for the Reds.
In their present roles, the emotions are different.
'Once the game starts,' Bret lamented, 'I've never felt less control of anything in my life.'
And yet, there is no place Bret, the more garrulous of the two brothers and host of the Bret Boone Podcast, would rather be (Bret and Aaron also have a younger brother, Matthew, who played minor-league baseball).
'It's in our blood,' said Bret's oldest child, Savannah, who is married to Atlanta Braves shortstop Nick Allen. 'We're surrounded by baseball on all sides.'
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Keeping up with the Boones can be dizzying. Bret and Aaron's grandfather, Ray Boone, was an infielder who played from 1948 to 1960. Their father, Bob, is third in all-time games caught, behind only Iván Rodríguez and Yadier Molina, and also managed for six seasons, including the Reds in 2003, when Aaron was his third baseman.
The next generation includes Bret's son, Jacob, a former minor leaguer who is now special projects coordinator in Major League Baseball's player programs department; Aaron's son, Brandon, a student offensive assistant for Bill Belichick's football team at the University of North Carolina; and, last but not least, Allen, known to his father-in-law as 'Nicky Knocks' and one of the top defenders in the game.
So who will Savannah root for this week when her father's team faces her uncle's?
'I'm pulling for both, but I've got to side with my dad at the end of the day for this matchup,' Savannah said. 'If they were playing the Braves, obviously I've got to go with Nick. It just depends on the circumstances.'
Bret, on the other hand, makes no secret of his motivations.
'When we played against each other, man, I wanted to beat him,' Bret said of Aaron. 'But as long as our team won, on the side I'd think, we're winning, we're kicking their butt tonight, so I'd kind of like it if Aaron gets a hit right here. Throw in a knock, but still lose.'
And when Bret played against teams his father was managing?
'Same thing,' he said. 'Sometimes I'd go to the ballpark and we'd hit early before anybody knew even though he was the manager of the opposing team. Then I loved kicking his butt, too.'
Three weeks ago, the possibility of Bret getting back in uniform this season was nonexistent. If anyone had floated the idea over the Christmas holidays, as the Boone clan gathered in Punta Mita, Mexico, it would have seemed even more absurd.
Not content to lounge by the pool, Bret made his podcast a part of the vacation, interviewing 21 family members for a two-part 'holiday special.' Each segment lasted about one hour, 45 minutes. Video was part of the production. No one was excused.
'It was tough coordinating. I would be like, 'Aunt Laura, you're on deck, get ready,'' Bret said, referring to Aaron's wife. 'You've got the women wanting to do their hair a little bit and look presentable. The boys, they didn't really care. They were all sleeping. They'd been surfing. They didn't give a s— how they looked.'
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Bret delighted in the exchanges, which included some of his nieces and nephews, 'wearing me out.' He saved his mother Sue, the family matriarch, for the end, and could sense her pride in the family she and Bob created.
Still, not everyone was thrilled with the all-day affair.
'It was a pain because it took hours, and everyone was rotating through it, and we were wanting to go to the beach and pool and stuff,' Aaron said, smiling.
Bret's efforts, though, reflected his own passion for family — a passion, Savannah said, that kept him out of baseball for almost two decades following his final season as a major leaguer in 2005.
In his 2016 book, 'Home Game: Big League Stories from My Life in Baseball's First Family,' Bret also acknowledged an alcohol problem helped contribute to the end of his playing career. Aaron said his older brother, 'has been through a lot in his life,' but currently is in 'a really, really good place.'
Bret had four children with his first wife, Suzi — Savannah, 29; Jacob, 26; and twins Isaiah and Judah, 20. He also has three stepdaughters with his second wife, Krista — Isabella, 26; Analiese, 23; and Malia, 17.
'I know he always wanted to get back in the game. He just didn't know when the right time was,' Savannah said. 'Between me, my siblings and my step-siblings, his house was pretty crowded. He didn't want to leave. Especially as the boys and the girls were going through high school, he wanted to be there for them.'
Yet, even with the house quieting down, Bret was not looking for a job in baseball, or even thinking about one. He still is incredulous at the way his opportunity with the Rangers arose. The story, in an age when teams operate with all deliberate speed, taking pride in process-oriented decision-making, is nothing short of astonishing.
Throwing out the first pitch before a game at his alma mater, the University of Southern California, Bret ran into Michael Young, the former infielder who is now a special assistant with the Rangers. He asked Young to send his best to Rangers manager Bruce Bochy, his skipper with the San Diego Padres in 2000, and president of baseball operations Chris Young, the former pitcher. Bochy called a few hours later to ask Bret to take over as his hitting coach, and that was that.
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The news caught the family, not to mention the entire baseball world, by surprise.
'I told Aaron before anybody knew and there was a pause on the phone like, 'Where did this come from?'' Bret recalled. 'I said, 'Aaron, I don't know. I was just hanging out with my dog on the beach. I didn't ask anybody for anything.''
Aaron's hiring by the Yankees in December 2017 was not as sudden, but also a bit of a shock, for he had never managed at any level. In a follow-up conversation with Bret, he was more composed and enthusiastic about his older brother's possibility with the Rangers.
'I think you should do it,' Aaron said.
Bret, honoring the Rangers' request for him to keep the news quiet until the official announcement, initially told only his wife and parents, in addition to Aaron. He then decided to inform Savannah — 'my oldest, the princess' — but only after her husband, the Braves' shortstop, left for the ballpark. Bret has friends with the Braves, including bench coach Walt Weiss. He didn't want Allen worrying about keeping a secret.
So, when Bret called Savannah, he made her promise not to tell Allen until he got home after the game.
Savannah's reaction was similar to her uncle's.
'I was like, 'Are you kidding?''
In the days after he joined the Rangers, Bret received well wishes from former teammates and friends in the game. Many expressed excitement over what they perceived as an old-school hire, believing Bret's perspective as a former player would complement the analytics prevalent in baseball today.
Allen, a current player, said he immediately thought, 'it's a different game now than when he was in it.' But the Rangers aren't asking Bret to dive into the numbers, knowing their other hitting coaches, Justin Viele and Seth Conner, can cover that aspect. And Bret's younger brother is an example of someone who successfully navigates both worlds.
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'Aaron's a better politician than me,' Bret said, joking.
The bigger adjustment for Bret — for any former player who gets into coaching or managing — is the inability to directly impact the outcome of a game.
'When you're out there (as a player), you're like, 'F— it, I might pop a three-run homer,'' Bret said. 'But (with the Rangers) I let my boys go and I'm like, 'All right, get 'em!''
Bret said he counseled Aaron through certain difficult periods with the Yankees, telling him, 'You can't stew over what you have no control over.' Once he got back in the dugout, he quickly realized that was easier said than done.
No longer can Bret find solace in defeat by going say, 2-for-4. Every loss, he said, feels like an 0-for-4. Even if the Rangers win 90 games, he will experience 70 or so such nights.
'When you're on the outside looking in, it's easy to talk Aaron off the ledge,' Bret said. 'But when you're the guy on the ledge, now I know what he's feeling. And I'm not even in the manager position, where everything falls on you. That's the human side I'm going through right now that I forgot about.'
Allen believes his father-in-law will succeed as a coach because he's straightforward and upfront, capable of keeping things simple, armed with a sense of humor. In fact, Allen takes it a step further, saying Bret — like his father and younger brother — is 'really built to be a skipper.'
Bret isn't so sure.
'Manager?' he said. 'I never thought I'd be a hitting coach.'
Then again . . .
'I always thought, if I went back, managing fits my personality the best,' Bret said. 'At this point in my life, I'm open to everything, and I know I've got a lot to give. Would I rule out managing one day? Absolutely not. But it's nothing I'm thinking about right now.'
No, he's thinking about the Rangers' next series, their visit to New York. He was excited to see his son Jacob for the first time since Christmas, and planned to spend time as well with Aaron and his family. And of course, he was excited for the games.
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Bret and Aaron have always been close and supportive of each other, except when they're opponents.
Except this week, when The Battle of the Boones resumes.
'Aaron's going to want to whup us, and I'm going to want to whup him,' Bret said. 'From a team standpoint, that's kind of the way we've always been.'
(Top photo of Aaron, Ray, Bret and Bob Boone at the 2003 MLB All-Star Game: Mark Duncan / Associated Press)