Welcome Back, Aaron Boone

When rosters expand on September 1st, it's usually a time to bring up three groups of people: useful minor leaguers to help for the last month, veteran's toiling in the minor leagues, and young players to give a look for the future. They're all mostly unfamiliar names.

But one guy who was called up on September 1st has a name that most will recognize: Aaron f*#@ing Boone.

He was the hero of the 2003 playoffs, hitting a long home run into the October night to keep The Curse alive for one more year. His impact on the Yankees is still felt because if he would have never blown out his knee in a pickup basketball game after 2003 season, A-Rod may have never been a Yankee. After his stint with the Yankees, Boone has become a journeyman, moving around from team to team.

Yet nothing compares to the journey he completed to make it back this season. Boone had open-heart surgery in March and made it back to the field less than 6 months later. So far he's 0-5 with a HBP.

As someone who had open-heart surgery himself, I am appreciative of the determination it takes to make to back from that surgery, especially to be on the level to actually play Major League Baseball.

Aaron Boone was always going to be in my heart for hitting that home run deep into an October night, but he'll now be in my thoughts as well as I wish him the best coming back from a surgery we both had.