Joe Girardi racked up four World Series titles and a lifetime of memories across 14 years with the Yankees, so his firing in 2017 was a bit of a sore spot for the now-55-year-old.
It was also probably tough to watch the Yankees win 100 games in the team's first two years without Girardi, something he did just once in his decade-long span as New York's manager. Girardi says he's excited to be a Phillie, and I certainly believe him, but there were likely some lingering feelings.
Thankfully, this past offseason, after Girardi accepted the Phillies' manager job, Girardi received a call from current Yankees skip Aaron Boone that made him feel better about the way he left New York.
Boone said this week that he wanted to reach out to Girardi and thank the Yankees legend for leaving him with such a capable team, according to the New York Daily News:
'I think part of the reason that I walked into such a good situation is what Joe was able to do here and the foundation that he laid,' Boone said.
Boone has a point: he walked into a team loaded with young studs like Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, and Didi Gregorius, and found an organization engineered for success. Can you imagine starting a new job with a perfect blueprint for how to immediately impress your boss? Seems nice.
Girardi, for his part, said he appreciated the call from Boone:
MLB
'He reached out and basically just wanted to talk about he was thankful for the job the coaches here did and I was a part of,' Girardi said. 'Obviously, he's really happy with his team, but we helped raise some of those kids and he just told me I did a good job. I thought it was really big of him to make that call and I was not expecting it.'
That's a big-time move from Boone, and it'll make rooting against the Yankees just a little bit tougher this season.
But I'll still do it.
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