The Yankee Way
The praise of Aaron Judge is obnoxiously premature, but also refreshing coming from a franchise so resistant to change.
Many are calling Aaron Judge the next Derek Jeter. Blasphemy? I mean probably. Lets be honest, what truly sets Derek Jeter apart from others of his era are the rings. You can talk about his humility, talent, and leadership all you want, but it’s the brass baby. It’s the bringing back the winning tradition to pinstripes that had been missing since the 70s. By the way, fuck all Yankees fans for thinking a drought means when your team goes a decade without a championship. Most of you are Knicks fans so you should understand what real losing feels like. The point is, Jeter is someone whose comparison can only be measured by winning, much like Jordan or Brady. Not to mention Jeter’s record with women, which judging by the overbite Aaron will never quite be on his level in that department. That being said, Judge is a rare talent, and has the temperament for greatness on that Jeter-like level, and I have to be honest I don’t have a problem with the prematureness of the Judge’s Chamber.
I’m on the fence when it comes to how I feel about the “Yankee Way”, that strictly business, winning above all attitude. Part of me likes it and feels like it sets the bar for exceptional professionalism. The other part feels like it’s unnecessarily boring and a little behind the times. Baseball is already a game that catches shit for being virtually the least progressive sport. I myself am a baseball traditionalist in the worst sense of the word. The level of opposition I felt, when they first started implementing instant replay was frighteningly resistant. See, I’ve always been in love with baseball. So, in my mind it was like, “Why are you fucking with art?” I romanticized this idea of the human element in error, which I still think is valid. But if we have the chance to make the game more fair, and accurate, we should.
I think the Yankee attitude is part of that same feeling of resisting change. I remember when they made Johnny Damon shave his beard and cut his long hair after he went to the Yankees. We had all just fallen in love with him as the caveman who helped break the curse in Boston, now he looked like a guy selling insurance. In short my feeling is this, you wanna hand out foam gavels and give 18 fans robes so they can cheer on their new phenom with shameless pride, go ahead. What is at stake? What’s the worst that could happen? It turns out Aaron Judge isn’t that good and then Yankees fans are embarrassed for having too much fun? Like I said, I understand the resistance of change and continuing of tradition, but you can’t fight time. Right now Judge is the hottest thing in pinstripes we’ve seen in a long time so put a robe on and have a beer, because none of it really matters.
