TAMPA, Fla. – New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone is in his second full week on the bench after having a pacemaker inserted and said he feels “amazing.”
Boone underwent the procedure at St. Joseph Hospital in Tampa, Florida, on March 3 and returned to work after missing just three games.
“Just very different, honestly,” Boone said before Sunday’s road game against the Toronto Blue Jays. “Energy. Even cardio training capabilities. I did a few walks I haven’t done in a few months and I didn’t even realize, oh, this is what it’s supposed to be.”
Boone’s pacemaker is to keep your heart rate from dropping below 50-60 beats per minute or getting too high.
“I still have some arm restrictions,” Boone said. “So I don’t like to lift weights like I normally do, but I hope it’s a few more weeks. But when it comes to moving, energy in the morning and all day, so much the better.”
Boone, 48, underwent open heart surgery on March 26, 2009, while playing for the Houston Astros, a procedure to correct an inflammation of the aorta. The condition was first discovered when I was in college.
He has had annual checkups since then and said the EKGs this winter came back fine, unchanged, but when they monitored him for several weeks it was found that he had a heart rate as low as 30-39 beats per minute, well below the 60-100 considered normal for adults.
“I’m very, very grateful and grateful that we were able to identify it and it came out just as I was told,” Boone said. “I felt very at peace and comfortable with doing it. They told me you will notice a huge difference. Until you go through it and experience it, I guess you don’t realize the difference you notice.”
Boone is entering his fourth season as manager of the Yankees.
In other news, Boone said infielder / outfielder Miguel Andújar (right hand and wrist pain) and wide receiver Robinson Chirinos (broken right wrist) will see a hand specialist Monday. Andujar first felt discomfort swinging in a winter league game. After calming down, the pain returned last week. Chirinos was hit by a pitch on March 10.
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