Boone brothers square off at Yankee Stadium in latest family affair

NEW YORK AP Now into their s the Boone brothers are still meeting at the ballpark For the first time in two decades New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone squared off against his older sibling on a big league field Tuesday night when the Texas Rangers came to town for the opener of a three-game series between the past two American League champions Bret Boone was hired May as a hitting coach for the Rangers his first job on a major league staff Aaron Boone is in his eighth season as the Yankees skipper It hasn t happened for us yet in this kind of threshold So certainly good to see him Aaron Boone explained Tuesday afternoon I m sure I ll peek over there at various point during the battle and see what his act looks like Prior to the first pitch at Yankee Stadium the Boone brothers brought the lineup cards to home plate and posed for photos with the umpires They had dinner together Monday night a day off for each gang and both were excited about having their children at the battle helping to make this week a true family affair He certainly paid the bill last night So that s new Bret Boone explained with a grin in the Texas dugout It was nice We don t get to see each other much Last time I saw Aaron was Christmas and he came to San Diego I might pop in Anaheim So it was good It s good catching up and you know there s a little more baseball talk but it s more to see my nieces and nephews Both All-Star infielders the Boone brothers were teammates with the Cincinnati Reds from - and played games against each other in the majors The last one was April when Aaron Boone homered for Cleveland in a - loss at Seattle Bret Boone went for with a sacrifice fly He s very competitive I m very competitive when it comes to this I don t treat it differently Bret Boone mentioned Once all the fun stuff is kind of over it s kind of business Aaron Boone recalled boxing against his older brother in the house when they were young kids growing up in a baseball family He was a great big brother especially when we were little Four years older than me he dragged me with him a lot the New York manager mentioned So I unfailingly say a lot of my athletic growth I give him a lot of credit because when I was years old I was playing and had to keep up with -year-olds And it was either keep up or get stomped So I m pretty appreciative of that He inevitably kind of took me with him Their grandfather Ray and father Bob were both All-Star players in the majors making the Boones the first family to produce three generations of big leaguers Bob Boone also managed the Reds and Kansas City Royals With that lineage in mind Aaron Boone thinks his older brother is well suited for his new job He s in such a good place in his life the younger Boone declared I think he ll be a really steadying force for those guys and I think he has a lot to offer them Look he s got tremendous baseball knowledge He s been in the tournament forever He s passionate about it But I think he ll have a really good presence with those guys Freelance writer Larry Fleisher contributed to this statement AP MLB https apnews com hub mlb Source