Robert Raymond Boone (born November 19, 1947) is an American former

catcher Catcher is a position in baseball and softball. When a batter takes their turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the ( home) umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. In addition to this primary duty, the cat ...

and

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activitie ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (A ...

(MLB) who was a four-time All-Star. Born in San Diego, California, he is the son of MLB player Ray Boone, and he is the father of two major leaguers: Bret Boone and

Aaron Boone Aaron John Boone (born March 9, 1973) is an American baseball manager and former infielder who is the manager of the New York Yankees in Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously played in MLB for 13 seasons from 1997 through 2009. As a player ...

. All four family members were named All-Stars during their careers.

Professional career

Philadelphia Phillies

Boone was drafted by the

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. Since 2004, the team's home sta ...

in the sixth round (126th overall) of the 1969 amateur draft after attending

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...

where he was admitted to the

Zeta Psi Zeta Psi () is a collegiate fraternity. It was founded in June 1, 1847 at New York University. The organization now comprises fifty-three active chapters and thirty-four inactive chapters, encompassing roughly fifty thousand members, and is a ...

fraternity. He was brought to the majors in late 1972. While Boone never had excellent hitting numbers, he was an excellent defensive catcher, committing only eight errors and allowing only three passed balls in the 1977 season. Boone made the National League All-Star team three times in a Phillies uniform and helped the team win the

1980 World Series The 1980 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) season. The 77th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff played between the National League (NL) champion Philadelphia Phillies and the Amer ...

. In 1981, he batted .211/.279/.295. In 2005, Boone was inducted into the

Philadelphia Baseball Wall of Fame The Philadelphia Baseball Wall of Fame is a collection of plaques, mounted on a brick wall next to the Left Field Gate at Citizens Bank Park, the ballpark of the Philadelphia Phillies. From 1978 to 2003, the Phillies inducted one figure from th ...

California Angels

In 1982, the Phillies decided to trade the veteran catcher to the

California Angels The Los Angeles Angels are an American professional baseball team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Angels compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. Since 1966, the team ...

following an unproductive year from Boone and also as a possible retaliation for Boone's key role in leading the players in negotiations during the 1981 Major League Baseball strike. Boone rebounded by throwing out 21 of the first 34 steal attempts and helping the Angels to the AL West title. In 1983, he made his fourth and final All-Star appearance. On September 30, 1984, Boone caught

Mike Witt's perfect game On Sunday, September 30, 1984, Mike Witt of the California Angels threw a perfect game against the Texas Rangers at Arlington Stadium. It was the 11th perfect game in Major League Baseball history. Witt's perfect game came on the last day of the ...

Kansas City Royals

As a free agent, Boone signed with the

Kansas City Royals The Kansas City Royals are an American professional baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team was founded as an expans ...

, but a broken finger in 1990 led to his retirement at age 42 following his shortened season, in which he batted .239/.336/.265. Boone was a career .254/.315/.346 hitter with 1,838 hits, 105

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

s (HR) and 826

runs batted in A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the b ...

(RBI), in 2,264 games. He was selected an All-Star in 1976, 1978–79, and 1983. Boone was one of the top defensive catchers of his era, winning seven

Gold Glove The Rawlings Gold Glove Award, usually referred to as simply the Gold Glove, is the award given annually to the Major League Baseball (MLB) players judged to have exhibited superior individual fielding performances at each fielding position in b ...

awards. He caught 2,225 games in a 19-year big league career, a record that lasted for three years until

Carlton Fisk Carlton Ernest Fisk (born December 26, 1947), nicknamed "Pudge" and "The Commander", is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a catcher from 1969 to 1993 for the Boston Red Sox (1969, 1971–1980) a ...

passed him (the record currently is held by Iván Rodríguez, with 2,427). Boone caught 117

shutouts In team sports, a shutout ( US) or clean sheet ( UK) is a game in which one team prevents the other from scoring any points. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball. Shutouts are usuall ...

during his career, ranking him tied for 13th all-time in 2010 among major league catchers.

Managerial career

In 1990, just after Boone retired as a player, a group trying to bring an MLB franchise to

Orlando Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures re ...

(called the Orlando SunRays) hired him to be its first manager. The job was contingent on Orlando being awarded a

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

franchise to begin play in 1993; the NL instead chose

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

and

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

. Boone returned to the Royals in 1995 as the team's manager but was let go during the 1997 season after a third straight sub-.500 season. In 2001, he was hired to be the skipper of the

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division and were a charter member of ...

, replacing

Jack McKeon Jack Aloysius McKeon (; born November 23, 1930), nicknamed "Trader Jack," is an American former Major League Baseball manager and front-office executive. In , at age 72, he won a World Series as manager of the Florida Marlins. Two full seasons ...

. However, after another two and a half sub-.500 seasons, the Reds replaced Boone with

Ray Knight Charles Ray Knight (born December 28, 1952) is an American former Major League Baseball infielder best remembered for his time with the Cincinnati Reds and New York Mets. Originally drafted by the Reds in the tenth round of the 1970 Major League ...

, on July 28, 2003.

Managerial record

Personal life

Bob and his family are descendants of

American pioneer American pioneers were European American and African American settlers who migrated westward from the Thirteen Colonies and later United States to settle in and develop areas of North America that had previously been inhabited or used by Nati ...

Daniel Boone Daniel Boone (September 26, 1820) was an American pioneer and frontiersman whose exploits made him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. He became famous for his exploration and settlement of Kentucky, which was then beyond the we ...

. Bob Boone and his wife, Susan Boone, have three sons. Two of his sons,

and Bret Boone, are former

players. Aaron Boone is currently the manager of the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one ...

. Bret's son Jake Boone is an infielder in the

Washington Nationals The Washington Nationals are an American professional baseball team based in Washington, D.C.. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. From 2005 to 2007, the team played in RFK Stadiu ...

minor league system. Bob Boone's extended family have been sportsmen. His mother, Patsy Boone, was a synchronized swimmer who swam with

Esther Williams Esther Jane Williams (August 8, 1921 – June 6, 2013) was an American competitive swimmer and actress. She set regional and national records in her late teens on the Los Angeles Athletic Club swim team. Unable to compete in the 1940 Summer Ol ...

in the movies. His sister Terry Boone was a champion swimmer, and his brother Rod Boone was a college baseball star who played Triple-A ball in the Astros and Royals organizations.

References

External links

Bob Boone
at Baseball Almanac
Bob Boone
at Baseball Gauge {{DEFAULTSORT:Boone, Bob 1947 births Living people Major League Baseball catchers Baseball players from San Diego Philadelphia Phillies players California Angels players Kansas City Royals players Raleigh-Durham Phillies players Eugene Emeralds players Kansas City Royals managers Cincinnati Reds managers National League All-Stars American League All-Stars Gold Glove Award winners Stanford Cardinal baseball players Washington Nationals executives Cincinnati Reds coaches Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks players