Was Donnie the last Yankee home-grown slugger? He doesn't quite fit that mold, though. Perennial MVP candidate (in his prime), sure, but not in the same category as, say, your Mantles or Thomes (who never played for the Yanks).
Anyway, a sports website I read often had a cool article called "The Majesty of Watching Aaron Judge Mash." It highlights five homers that show different facets of the kid's homer game, if such a thing exists.
they also had some cool links to photos, which I will shamelessly hijack and display here.
Like, here's a guy and his little brother, playing on opposite teams:
No wait, that's the (former) behemoth known as Ryan Howard, an otherwise huge human being who doesn't seem to be good at baseball anymore. In fact, he's retired, unless any contender wants an otherwise huge first baseman who used to be great at crushing baseballs.
I'd imagine it's rare when he's overshadowed.
How about: here's a guy and his son, dressed in matching baseball outfits:
The video clips of the homers are pretty cool, and it's fresh to have youth that can ball...and I'm dutifully ignoring the small sample size of all this, but it pretty cool the Yanks are making these kinds of stories instead of this or this kind.
And I know those are both A-Rod articles, and I don't really mean to poop on his time as a Yankee, because it was rather fantastic, beyond the ugliness...just sayin' this a bit more fun and less full of baggage.
Every time young Mr Judge lays off a low-and-away slider, I quick celebrate because it's the pitch that resulted in his striking our 42 times in 84 at-bats last year. Having followed Judge since the day he was drafted in 2013 (he was actually picked in the first round after the Yanks took Eric Jagielo), I have been doing a Snoopy-like happy dance since his home run in his first major league at-bat. And unless you didn't notice, no one tries for the extra base when he's playing the ball in right field, either.
ReplyDeleteOne thing to bear in mind: as of this writing the Yanks are 17-9 and in sole possession of first place, and they're doing it without Bird and Sanchez, who are the last two sluggers the Yankees developed. Before that, you have to go back to ... Brett Gardner? Let's not forget, however, Cano, and the glorious Williams/Jeter/Posada days.
One last note I'll leave you with: click this link (it's a double-A player in Trenton) and pay close attention to the school he attended: http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=t567&player_id=657446#/career/R/hitting/2017/ALL