This week, “A Day’s Work” takes Wade Boggs, roving baseball ambassador, to Yankee Stadium. This immediately got me hoping that he would be serving as “Post-Alex Rodriguez Grief Counselor,” which given the Yankees’ feelings on the matter would probably be synonymous with “Party Director.” Instead, he’s doing something that serves as something of an A-Rod-fatigue antidote, joining Tony Morante, Director of Yankee Stadium Tours, to take a group through the history and lore of the New York Yankees. First, it must have been a great surprise for that day’s group to be joined by a Hall of Famer who could point out his own role in the team’s history.
A Day’s Work: Wade Boggs gives a Yankee Stadium tour
Wade Boggs and SB Nation have teamed up with Jeep to produce ‘A Day’s Work’, a summer series that profiles some of the most interesting and unique jobs in Major League Baseball stadiums. This week we’re off to the new Yankees Stadium where Boggs met with the stadium’s official tour guide, Tony Morante, who got his first job with the organization over 50 years ago in 1958.
Second, Boggs praises George Steinbrenner and talks with pride about Yankees history. “When you put on the pinstripes,” he says, “there’s a sense of pride.” This is something you typically hear on the YES network and in other Yankees-sponsored programming. It’s easy to be cynical then, because the Yankees are paying for it. Here, though, Boggs is under no pressure to offer any superlatives, and could even have said, “I didn’t think the pinstripes were as slimming as all that.” That he didn’t is a nice antidote to cynicism, and in that sense maybe he’s acting as a Post-Alex Rodriguez Grief Counselor after all -- Steven Goldman
