David Lennon: Yankees' Aaron Boone knows the importance of a healthy heart

There are job-related hazards in baseball, such as a strained hamstring or bruised wrist, and then there are life-interrupting medical issues.

I asked Aaron Boone about his brushes with the latter the other day in the dugout at Yankee Stadium, hours before a game, at a time when he wasn’t perched on the steps, near the rail, absorbed by that night’s stressful episodes.

Boone has the well-earned reputation of being one of the more combative, agitated managers in the majors when it comes to umpires. Statistically, he’s always among the leaders in ejections, and his 51 is second on the active list to the Reds’ Terry Francona, who has 55 — in almost three times as many games (3,931 entering Saturday night) as the Yankees’ manager (1,342). This season, however, Boone’s four-year streak at the top is in jeopardy.

As of Friday, Boone was tied for second with the Cubs’ Craig Counsell and the Padres’ Craig Stammen with five. The Giants’ rookie manager Tony Vitello, fresh from the University of Tennessee, and the Pirates’ Don Kelly both had six.

“I just think, being 53 [years old],” Boone jokingly said about his slip from the top. “Sometimes being like, back it down a little bit.”

At that (relatively) young age, you’d never know that Boone is 17 years removed from the open-heart surgery that repaired a bicuspid aortic valve, a congenital defect, during the final year of his playing career with the Astros. More recently, Boone required a pacemaker, and that procedure was performed in Tampa during spring training before the 2021 season.

The first operation really wasn’t a surprise. Boone was told it would have to be corrected at some point after the discovery was made when he was a USC freshman, part of a routine physical for the baseball team. But the second situation was an example of how many heart problems eventually come to light — especially with physically fit athletes, present and former, high school or pro — after initially being shrugged off before the ailment is effectively diagnosed.

In Boone’s case, he figured the recurring bouts of sluggishness, unusual fatigue and being lightheaded were just part of the seasonal shift from the “winter blues” of the Northeast to the higher-energy ramp-up in the Florida sun. Even playing catch at Steinbrenner Field felt a little off.

On his own, Boone didn’t realize it was that big a deal. But two of his coaches evidently did, as after a Grapefruit League game in Sarasota, Boone did the usual walk to the parking lot with Phil Nevin and Mike Harkey and was winded by the time they got to his car.

Shortly after Boone arrived home, Mike Schuk — the team’s director of sports medicine and rehab — suddenly showed up at his door unannounced.

It was an intervention. Schuk asked him to walk around and monitored his pulse, and that’s when the alarms went off.

“My heartbeat wasn’t rising when I did any movement,” Boone said. “So he was like, ‘I think we need to go in.’ I literally went into the hospital that night.”

Boone still didn’t truly grasp the problem until the doctors told him the next day they were scheduling him for surgery. The transformation was quick. As soon as the anesthesia wore off, Boone was different — in the best way.

“Immediately, I thought, oh, this is what I’m supposed to feel like,” he said.

He was back in the dugout, managing again, three days after the procedure to implant the pacemaker. It was a virtual blip in six weeks of spring training. His previous heart surgery, however, was a far more life-altering experience.

After playing at USC knowing he’d need the valve-corrective surgery at some point, and even being drafted by the Reds — who had their own concerns, being “freaked out” by the heart murmur during the team’s physical — Boone wasn’t really impacted at all until a dozen years into his major-league career.

He was never given a timeline of when the valve would need to be fixed, just told to be ready to get the word eventually.

The word came in 2009 during spring training with the Astros. He did his usual battery of tests at home in California before heading to Kissimmee, Florida, but then got the phone call a few weeks in.

Boone said nothing had changed for him. He still felt asymptomatic. There were no discernible issues. But the doctors viewed the growth of the aorta and believed it was time, so he drove home cross-country, then flew up to Stanford for the surgery.

But not before writing letters to his friends and family, including his pregnant wife, Laura. You know, just in case. This was open-heart surgery, after all, and that tends to make a 36-year-old pro athlete feel somewhat less invincible.

“Ultimately I was able to come back and play in September, kind of finish off my career, which was very rewarding,” Boone said. “But since then, I’ve had a number of conversations with people, or come in contact with people, that have had similar conditions, or young people that have needed heart surgery. So that’s been rewarding to let somebody know that I’ve been through it too.”

Boone’s experience certainly has given him more familiarity regarding heart health. It provided the impetus for his involvement with the “Playing with Heart” program (playingwithheart.com), a partnership with Merck designed to raise awareness about the often silent threat of elevated LDL — also referred to as the “bad” cholesterol levels that can increase the potential risks of heart attack and stroke.

Boone’s own personal heart issues were independent events and not related to LDL cholesterol, but he still understands how problems can remain under the radar until they are checked out. Or even dismissed until someone stresses the severity. As September is “Cholesterol Awareness Month,” the timing is right.

“You can not feel anything,” he said. “You may feel fine, but it’s a very dangerous thing. So we’re just encouraging people to know your number and talk with a doctor to help you with that.”

The Polar Bear returns

Don’t look now, but Pete Alonso makes his return to Citi Field with Monday’s visit by the Orioles, and yes, the scenario is straight out of David Stearns’ worst nightmares.

Alonso has a chance to record his first 40-homer, 100-RBI season since 2023 — he’s at 35 and 99 — and his 142 wRC+ was tied for seventh-best in the majors with Shohei Ohtani. Throw out Alonso’s sluggish start in his new surroundings and, through Friday, he was batting .291 with 23 homers, 63 RBIs and a .937 OPS since June 1.

His 163 wRC+ in that same span ranks third overall, behind only the two favorites for National League and American League MVP — Pete Crow-Armstrong (193) and Yordan Alvarez (168). Alonso also is one of only five players to appear in as many as 147 games this season.

So Alonso has been worth every penny in Season One of his five-year, $155 million deal with the Orioles. As for the Mets, their half-dozen first basemen have a combined minus-0.3 WAR this season, which is tied for second-worst in the majors at the position (Alonso’s is 4.0).

The Mets’ .707 OPS for first base ranks 26th overall and their primary winter signing to be Alonso’s replacement — Jorge Polanco, on a two-year, $40 million contract — made two starts at the position and played 37 games total (.148/.201/.230) before having season-ending ankle surgery.

Expect a raucous welcome back for Alonso, a beloved homegrown slugger who set the franchise home run record in what became his Flushing farewell season. We’re thinking a few extended standing ovations for each at-bat, along with plenty of Alonso chants.

On the flip side, it’s going to be a prime opportunity for the angry fan base to vent their frustration toward Stearns. It’s bubbled up occasionally this year but has cooled some since the Mets’ post-deadline bump. Expect that to heat up to a full boil again Monday, to a level we haven’t witnessed at Citi Field in quite a while, if ever.