JUDGE IMPOSING HARSH SENTENCES ON OPPONENTS
Yankees rookie leading AL in home runs, garnering 4.5 million all-star game votes
All rise. The court of public opinion around Yankee Stadium is now in session, Aaron Judge presiding.
From fans dressed in legal robes, white wigs and waving gavels as he comes to the plate to the plethora of No. 99 sweaters, the rookie outfielder is guilty of inciting fervour in the seats and on the streets.
Exhibit A of his dominance this season: Judge leads the American League with 27 home runs, 62 RBI and a .329 batting average after Monday’s 6-3 victory over the Blue Jays. He was also voted to the MLB all-star game, showing up on nearly 4.5 million ballots.
Across the street from the main entrance of the stadium, a clerk at S and A Sports says it usually takes three years for a Yankee to really take hold of the fans’ imagination in terms of wanting his sweater number or any trinket with his name.
Judge, however, appeared out of nowhere and his brand seems everywhere. A Judge sweater in pinstripes sells in the stores around the park for a tidy US$99.
“Nobody wants anyone else’s sweater,” says the guy at S and A, who had racks of Jeter jerseys going stale. The slugger even has his own section at Yankee Stadium, the Judge’s Chambers.
For a guy who was in Triple-A baseball a year ago, the way 2017 has unfolded is quite a story. That it’s happening next door to where the Babe, the Iron Horse, Mantle, Reggie and others made their mark in the Big Apple also adds to his larger-than-life appeal.
“I’m just having fun with everything,” the 6-foot-7 outfielder insisted before Monday’s game against the Toronto Blue Jays. “I’m being paid to play a kids’ game, whether I’m just on the on-deck circle, in the outfield, tossing kids a ball, talking to fans.”
Mostly, it’s game situations that bring a smile to both his and his teammates’ faces. On Sunday, when most of his team was silenced by the Houston Astros, manager Joe Girardi couldn’t contain his grin when Judge pounded a ball hard enough to the warning track that the rightfielder couldn’t get set and a double resulted. That stretched Judge’s on-base streak to 33 consecutive starts — Jeter territory — with Judge scoring 34 runs in that stretch.
As a back-to-back rookie of the month winner, the 25-yearold became the first since Don Mattingly to be so named. He’s definitely not the green string bean that Toronto manager John Gibbons remembers his staff facing at the end of last season.
“We didn’t see him a lot last year, but it looked like he chased pitches out of the zone more than I’ve seen him do this year,” Gibbons said. “We’ve approached him (the same way) a little bit earlier this year and he’s laid off those pitches. The bigger thing, he’s so big and strong, with power to all fields and he uses it.
“It’s the perfect year to take advantage of that short right field here (but) he’s not just going up to hit it as hard as he can. He’s a pretty good (overall) hitter.”
This series and any potential harm he causes the Jays aside, Gibbons thinks Judge is just the story New York and the game need these days.
“He’s just been on fire. He’s a good young kid, a monster (weighing in at 282 pounds). To do what he’s done right away, that’s rare in this game,” Gibbons said.
“He’s not just a slugger. He’s a pretty good defender, he can run enough. I’m like everyone else, you can’t say enough about him.”
Judge and triple-A pal Gary Sanchez, a catcher, are both going to the all-star game, two of five Yankees headed to Miami on July 11. Only Hideki Matsui and Joe DiMaggio ever started the midsummer classic as rookies for New York and Judge was the first Yankee to lead in voting since Jeter in 2009.
“The perfect word for it is surreal,” Judge said. “The best of the best are going to Miami. It’s going to be cool to be around them.”
A lady in Judge attire was an early arrival in line Monday to watch batting practice, carrying a sign representing somewhere in small-town Northern California. Judge’s home is Linden in the northern part of the state, where his parents, both teachers, adopted him the day after he was born.
Linden’s list of famous athletes began and ended with Ervin Zador, a Hungarian water polo player involved in the infamous pool brawl with the Soviets in the 1956 Olympics, who went to live there in his latter years. Now he has some company on that list.
I’m just having fun with everything. I’m being paid to play a kids’ game, whether I’m just on the on-deck circle, in the outfield, tossing kids a ball, talking to fans.