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Nats Add Another Boone
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The tale of Boone's comeback attempt begins in October, when the Nationals asked him to be an instructor here at their instructional league camp, which inevitably led him to move from behind the batting cage to inside it.
"He got in the [batting] cage, and to be honest with you he looked like the all-star Bret Boone," Bowden said. "It was a different guy than [the one] I had seen [at the end of his career]. The bat speed was like he was a kid. We kept looking [at each other and] going, 'Uh-oh.' And even then, we didn't think it was going to go anywhere, but you could tell he was starting to get a little fire."
That "fire" was a crucial component, because, admittedly, at the time Boone walked away from the game in March 2006, his had been extinguished by personal problems that made it impossible to focus on baseball. His exit from the Mets' camp was quiet and tearful.
"I remember we came into the locker room, and he was gone," said Nationals catcher Paul Lo Duca, a member of the Mets at the time. "Everyone was like, 'Where'd Boone go?' "
Without being specific, Boone acknowledged he needed to make changes in his personal life, which he says he has done.
"I'm a different person than I was two years ago," Boone said. "I've always been a guy who likes to go out and have a good time, and maybe at times too good of a time. . . . I took care of some personal business, and I feel I can give this a 100 percent run and we'll see where this takes us.
"It should be very interesting, and probably the biggest challenge I've ever had. It's like I'm a rookie all over again, only I'm not 18 years old."
