Well, this is either going to make you double down on whatever anger you may harbor toward the manager of the Yankees, or it’ll make you take a step back and declare: “Good, stick to your guns.” 

You will either shake your head with derision at Aaron Boone and say, “He never changes,” or you will shake your head in admiration at Aaron Boone and say, “He never changes.” 

I asked this of Boone on Sunday, before the Yankees lost an entertaining 4-3 game to the Red Sox to close out an entertaining first weekend of the season: 

“Obviously you always want to get off to a quick start for the season. But when you look around your division, all the game you’ll have against pretty strong teams, it is especially imperative to get off to one now?” 

Mind you, at the time the question was asked the Yankees were 2-0 and one of just five teams in the sport who had yet to lose (a number that would be sliced to just one, the Rays, by the close of business Sunday). 

It would’ve been the easiest thing for Boone to hop on that easy train, speak eloquently of setting a tone in April he’d like to carry on through September, maybe a few bonus platitudes at his discretion. 

But Boone didn’t do that. 

Because Boone wouldn’t do that. 

“It’s 162,” he said, with a thin smile on his face. “If you’re going to win the AL East, if you’re going to be a playoff team, you need to concentrate on what you’re doing every day. Regardless of the season you’re going to go through lumps and bumps along the way so every win is precious.” 

It’s small sample size, sure: three games barely gives a tease of what’s to come, let alone a definitive referendum. A night that began with the Yankees paying tribute to Saint Peter’s March Cinderellas ended with Jake Diekman — journeyman lefty, six teams in 11 years — blowing strike three past Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Joey Gallo. 

It was a good start for the Yankees. It is the kind of start that allows you to get your bearings. And Boone’s reply … well, that’s Boone. That’s vintage Boone. That’s quintessential Boone. That’s the Boone who, who is the home office for “even keel,” who sometimes looks like he’d be able to find the bright side in a street mugging. 

“Something about [a hot start] can be settling for a team and an individual,” Boone said. “It allows you to get into the flow of a season without much pressing.” 

Funny, too: if there was one thing he was quick to talk about it was Gallo and his .100 average through his first 10 at-bats — after hitting .160 in 188 at-bats after being traded to the Yankees last year. Gallo is one guy who could use the gaudy beauty of early-season small sample size — say, a .650 average after a week — and not have to be at .033, when it feels like you spend two months just getting even. 

“He’s putting together good at-bats and he’s putting good swings on the ball,” Boone said, and to the anti-Boone brigade that’s probably milquetoast elevated to art. 

That’s Boone. That’s always Boone. It’s actually supposed to be a good thing in a manager. And it has been a good thing for Boone, who won 203 regular-season games in his first two full years on the job, who has made the playoffs all four seasons, who led last year’s team to the finish line despite what felt like an unending pile of brush fires. 

But there are a lot of Yankees fans for whom Billy Martin will forever be the managerial gold standard — brash, angry, outspoken. Billy would’ve held a public temper flogging of the ball that nearly broke Jordan Montgomery’s leg in the first inning. 

Not Boone. That’s never going to be Boone. You might search the whole history of baseball and not find two men more different in every way than Aaron Boone and Billy Martin. 

“We’ve gotten off to slow starts and still won 100 games,” Boone said. “We want to be consistent, or as well as we can be.” 

So no: Boone certainly wasn’t going to get too carried away by a feel-good 2-for-3 start against anyone, even the Yankees’ ancient rivals from Boston. 

“If you are expecting to do special things, the great things won’t be swayed by a great win or a tough loss,” he said 

Yep. That’s Boone. Anything else would be false, phony, bad acting. Maybe that’s not your cup of tea, but Boone’s record as a manager is 330-219, a .602 winning percentage. That’s some tasty tea.