Aaron Judge is doing superlative things this year, as he usually does when he isn’t hurt. Such as launching the ball to places where “normal” hitters just can’t reach on a change-up. I’m not saying that Aaron Judge is abnormal. What I am saying is that he is made for his time.
When you think of someone who is 6’7″ and looks and plays like a linebacker, along with having excellent vision, he is something that will cause baseball to change the game in small pieces, as they did when Bob Gibson made fools of anyone who thought they could get a bat around on his fastball and decided to change the height of the pitching mound. Think about that for more than ten seconds.
Judge has traction that he is going to end up near Ruth and Williams in the pantheon of players that people love to hate, or hate to love, or just get scrutinized. If he can stay healthy.
The interesting thing to me is that if you read the box scores and stats of Ruth and Williams and Bonds, you see that they were players that played at an elevated level for decades. Because I bleed pinstripe blue, I want to feel exalted that when Aaron Judge is having a great season, but I know there is always going to be a stigma because doubt and denial of statistics seems to be the course of baseball analyses.
Put Barry in the hall, and Pete, and Roger, and Sammy, and just get over the incredibly horrible past that baseball wrote all on its own. Money grab with one eye closed to that present day mockery that people weren’t in on the gaming of the system, while comfortably forgetting that the same industry was denying the best players from making a living wage. Heck, even the Supreme Court of the United States got in on the act. AND, denying so many players from joining or staying in the game in the first place because of the color of their skin or the fact that players were legally chattel.
In the mean time, enjoy the Greatest Game Ever Invented.
Category: General Yankees
Millionaire Squabbles
Nothing like trying to retread the tires on your Maybach. h/t DailyBeast.
Tanaka out for a month minimum. In the meantime, Michael Pineda and the Yankees host the Rays and Drew Smyly in a getaway game before the Bombers go to Boston on Friday.
Comment away.
Things Can Only Get Better
After the season opener loss for the Yanks, it has to get better. That’s just simple geometry, man, everything back to the normal. Or mean. Or what did I mean? 161-1 is the new goal. Love opening day, full of all new possibilities. Therefore it has to be a good thing that Ty Hensley is going to get a figure eight knot tied in his arm, right?
Probably Nothing At All
C.C. Sabathia, as part of a group of 12, was booked for a flight to Jamaica but showed up too close to departure for boarding and was denied passage. He and his entourage went on a later flight. Supposedly, he started freaking out when he was told that he couldn’t board.
Been there, been there. From last season to this coming, who doesn’t want to get away?
Hiroki Kuroda is returning to Japan.
Also, nomaas.org is shuttering.
The Yankees are losing too much good shit.
Yankees Re-Sign Chase Headley
Four years, 56M-ish. Hey, that’s Johnny Damon money, even a bargain. They must see something there.
Fatty
Brian Cashman just called ARod fat.
Meaning, the Yankees GM just found a way to make the team a bigger joke.
Goliath Gets Lonely
By the way, who is the Goliath? Betances?
There He Goes, The Fishy Boy
My tormentors are right. I do smell like fish. Plenty of Puerto Caimito kids do. We live by the water, not far from a processing plant that makes fish meal out of sardines — or harina de pescado, as we call it. I am the son of a fisherman. I work on my father’s boat. The smell of fish overpowers everything in Puerto Caimito. Fish keep the local economy from drowning. Fish are what supplies jobs for many of the parents of the kids who are taunting me. I could’ve, should’ve, ignored them.
I do not.
Honorifics
The Yankees will retire(!) #6 for Torre, and likewise put plaques in Monument Park for Goose, Paulie, and Tino. So, that will help this year. Yankee fans need ceremonies to remind them of how lucky they are.
Paying Mo A Visit
Not news, really, just some a good cause and some nostalgia.
Constant Gardner
The Yankees have signed Brett Gardner to a four year extension, $52M, club option for a fifth year. This is most excellent.
The Captain To Retire
Derek Jeter will retire after the 2014 season.
Let the accolades, expositions, and never-ending farewells begin. I’ll start with:
A kid from Kalamazoo
knew what he wanted to do
and did it.
On Second Thought, Yeah, We Cool
Alex Rodriguez drops his lawsuit against the baseball world. What could possibly have changed his mind?
Nobody likes a quitter, they used to say.
Tanaka Signs With The Yankees
Tanaka is coming to The Stadium, according to Ken Rosenthal. What a nice way to start the day.
Details of the contract? Who cares. 7yrs, $155M if you have to a complete pedant.