The Yankees were imploding on the inside, but fugitive Aaron Judge is spending a season for the history books.
The 30-year-old is chasing a Triple Crown, and with 55 homerooms as of Wednesday afternoon, he’s on a fast paced To break Roger Maris’ one-season MLS record of 61.
Judge puts up incredible numbers, but fans are also wondering what the most important numbers are: Will the 99 still be a scam next year?
Unless the Yankees sign him for a contract extension, he will become a free agent this winter, leading to rampant speculation about his future, Due to the high stock. This week, Team Leader Randy Levine Tell John Heyman of The Post and Joel Sherman On the “The Show” podcast that the Yankees “know his value and what it means. I don’t know what’s on his mind. All we can do is show him how much we’d like him to remain a Yankee.”
But the judge, who is famous for privacy, did not tilt his hand. In fact, he refused to even talk about Maris’ teacher’s closeness, saying, “I don’t have anything for you. I’m just trying to do everything I can to help us win. I come and I’m ready to go.”
A source noted, “He is a good teammate, but he keeps to himself. He is very guarded.”
And his closed rooms have added even more mystery to the Judge tradition, which began in August 2016 when the 6-foot-7 defender hit the Bronx, hitting Homer during his first major league at bat.
Fans immediately fell in love with his clean image and saw him as a harbinger of future dominance for the team, which has not won a world title since 2009.
The massive corporate franchise has typically grabbed all the attention given to the 2013 first-round pick. During the junior season in 2017, they created judge rooms, a three-row section of the courtroom in the stadium, where fans wear black robes and white wigs. And he gave them reason after reason to cheer, Winning the Home Run DerbyAnd the Breaking the record set by Mark McGuire He was named NBA Rookie of the Year.
All-Star dominance has grown to just four times, and his impressive performance in 2022 helped keep the team’s TV ratings high despite the Bronx Bombers dropping this summer.
“There has been an incredible buzz around Judge’s pursuit of the local record,” Howard Levinson, senior vice president of advertising sales at YES Network, told The Post. “Each judge at the bat is an event in itself, and we’ve seen viewership skyrocket when it’s on the rise. Our season ratings are up significantly compared to last year – 19%.”
The judge’s on-field prowess sparked public interest in his private life, and his reluctance to open up to fans or the media was reminiscent of another Yankee great: Derek Jeter. However, Judge, who describes himself as a Christian on his Instagram profile, is more closed than the famous Shortstop.
“Jeter was special but didn’t mind his name appearing there. It was a private parade boat,” an insider said. He told The Post in 2020. “Aaron is just the opposite. He is calm and calm.”
Also unlike Jeter, he did not look for love in the pages of the US Weekly or the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.
During the junior season, promise Media Strategist Jane Flaumwho alerted the world to their relationship in Halloween Instagram post She shows the pair dressed as Clark Kent and Lois Lane.
But the pair split, and around 2019, Judge went back to his roots: He met Samantha Praxic, 29, whom he first dated during his high school days in Linden, California, a small community 95 miles east of San Francisco.
The town, which holds an annual cherry festival complete with a cherry pie eating contest, unites behind their native son. Even his downtown pizzeria, Pizza Plus, turned his back room into a shrine to Judge and sold T-shirts that read “Straight out of Linden” with his number 99 on the back.
The judge appears to have found his way to Linden by divine intervention. At the age of two days, he was adopted by Patti and Wayne Judge, who were both teachers in town.
“I feel like they kind of chose me.” The judge told The Post in 2015. “I feel that it is God who has represented us together.”
At around the age of ten, Judge, whose older brother John was also adopted, realized that he and his parents weren’t alike.
“So I started asking questions, and they told me I had adopted and answered all my questions, and that was it. I was satisfied with it. It didn’t really bother me because that’s the only parents I know.”
Even as a child, the judge showed signs of his imposing physical presence.
“We were kind of joking that he looked like a Michelin Tire baby,” his father said. “It wasn’t long before four ounces of formula was just an aperitif, and formula had to be with oatmeal to calm it down.”
At Linden High School, Judge excelled in basketball, baseball, and soccer, a sport that earned him scholarships from top programs, including Stanford, Notre Dame, and UCLA.
But Judge told ESPN, “I fell in love with baseball at a young age . . . it drew me in.”
He played baseball at Fresno State, and Praxek followed suit, earning his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in exercise science. Meanwhile, the pair dated during their minor league career and split in 2016.
After the couple quietly reunited, Bracksieck made headlines in 2020, when she was arrested for Arizona’s DUI, dropped her boyfriend’s name during arrest. Sources said at the time that it was Uncharacteristic of Prasekwho, like her boyfriend, flew under the radar.
The couple stayed together and last December, tied the knot in Hawaii.
Recently, they were photographed In the US Open matchThe last part of the pulp may be squeezed out of the big apple.
Last October, the judge said he wanted to To be a Yankee for life. It remains to be seen if the pair plans to move to another city, or whether the Yankees can lure the slow player back in with the payday they anticipate.
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