New York Post

TROUBLE HEADER

Ball-bonk guy’s foul attitude toward Yanks

- By NATALIE O’NEILL

He’s playing hardball with the The Bombers.

A well-known Brooklyn pizzashop owner landed in the hospital with a concussion after he was hit by Aaron Judge’s foul ball at a Yankees game this week — and now he wants the slugger to make amends by signing it, he told The Post Thursday.

Paul Giannone, 68, of Greenpoint, was sitting in section 117A at the bottom of the seventh as the team played the Seattle Mariners at home Tuesday night when he saw the “high pop” and scrambled to protect his wife, he said.

“As I got up — bang! — it hit me in the head,” said Giannone, better known as Paulie Gee, the man behind the eponymous Greenpoint pizzeria. “I saw stars. People were asking if I knew what day it was, if I knew my name. I bled into my hat.”

Stadium workers gave him ice, someone handed him the offending ball and he was ushered out of the stands to a “standing ovation,” said Giannone, famous for his Neapolitan pies.

He was then taken to NYU Langone, where doctors scanned his brain and held him for roughly two hours.

“I got a concussion,” said Giannone, who posted a photo of himself in a hospital bed, with a swollen noggin on Instagram. “I have a big scab on my head… I still have ringing in my ears.”

A Yankees rep promised to follow up with him about the injury but nobody from the organizati­on has gotten in touch since, he said.

‘Sign the ball’

To make it right, he wants the slugger to sign the noggin-bashing ball, preferably at his pizza shop, which is adorned with vintage Yankees collectors items.

“I want Aaron Judge to sign the ball he hit me with,” said Giannone. “I think that’s fair.”

He added, “I’d love it even more for him to come to my shop.”

Ultimately, he said, the most shocking part of the field-side freak accident is that nobody grabbed the ball from the air before it whacked him, he said.

“I’m surprised nobody got it before it hit me,” he said. “I’m only 5-5.”

A rep for the Yankees didn’t immediatel­y return The Post’s request for comment Thursday.

The Yankees went on to lose the game, 8-6.

 ?? ?? AUTOGRAPH HOUND: Paul Giannone, a pizza-shop owner in Brooklyn, was conked on the head by a high foul ball at Yankee Stadium — and now says batter Aaron Judge (above) should sign it.
AUTOGRAPH HOUND: Paul Giannone, a pizza-shop owner in Brooklyn, was conked on the head by a high foul ball at Yankee Stadium — and now says batter Aaron Judge (above) should sign it.
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