We cannot assume that Aaron Judge will go someday be a Hall of Fame inductee or even hold a plaque in Monument Park. The juju gods are bastards. Too many bad things can happen and few are as potentially damaging as a broken wrist. But over the next few days, Judge will hold center stage in the Yankees' most critical stretch of 2018. We've seen what the Yankees look like without him, and the portrait of Dorian Grey looked less distressing. What Judge over the next few weeks - regardless of how compromised he is due to the injury - will define him for years to come. It's not fair, really. But it's baseball.
Of course, if Judge returns and cannot hit, he'll have a surefire excuse: He's got a bum wrist. We watched Mark Teixeira flounder for 18 months, and never reclaim his stardom, due to the same. The original prognosis that Judge would be back in three weeks now looks worthy a malpractice suit. If he goes 0-20, everyone will blame the wrist, as they should. But those 20 ABs will leave a shitload of runners on base, and each one will haunt Judge through the winter and beyond.
But if Judge can deliver - a few walks, a base hit here and there, maybe one or two towering shots - it could be the difference between life and death for this team. It could be the kind of week that someday is remembered in Cooperstown or wherever great Yankee memories live forever.
Okay, yeah... I am Hollywooding... daydreaming of great Yankee victories, the kind that would make us someday look back on the last month and laugh at ourselves for being so morbid. It's a bad habit of mine, and it's why I go off the rail when the Yankees collapse. We are the franchise of the flip, Reggie's three blasts, the dying player who stands at home plate and calls himself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. We are supposed to be the team of hope.
It's not fair to Aaron Judge, expecting him to return and hit well. But hope has been shrinking for weeks, and right now, he's all we've got.
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17 comments:
Oh my. No. Just no. Judge should be shut down unless someone could guarantee a World Series championship if he played. Wrists are nothing to screw around with, and to this point the Boonedogglers have already mismanaged his injury. I would prefer to watch us win multiple championships in the future than watch him aggravate his wrist - or worse - in a losing effort.
I agree with APP. What are you risking playing him now -- for what gain? If the team had sterling pitchers who would enable the NYYs to prosper in the one-game thing and the five-game thing......well, maybe.
That's fantasy, ain't it.
As to "saving" Lorna Boone: My fervent wish is that somehow the mgr will walk or be fired. But I don't believe it will happen. Do you?
And we always have Sonny Gray to become the hero.
Not to mention the mega ice cream sandwich.guy.
And the Bird, coming off the bench to pop=up.
Giancarlo baby. One, two three and take a seat.
We have all the heroes we need.
Let Judge sit until he can darn a sweater.
This type of Hollywooding can, in a fervent fan, cause a Hollywoody.
It would be great to see Judge back at full strength, his wrist problem behind him. But it's not worth destroying his career.
Here's an idea. Let's destroy Ice Cream's career, instead. I'd say Bird or Sonny, but I think they're careers are pretty much destroyed already.
If the gods demand a sacrifice, it should not be Judge.
Hey, what about the Whiffer? Stanton gets his money, we get rid of Stanton. Win-win.
Q: Can Aaron Judge save Aaron Boone?
A: Dear God, let's hope not.
Hey, Judge's career will be destroyed in its own good time, thanks to his marvelous Yankees coaches.
He's well on the way—witness his marvelous .204 road average this year.
No need to rush the job.
IT IS NOW 10 1/2 WEEKS SINCE I CHIPPED A BONE IN MY FOOT ON JULY 4TH.
GRANTED, I AM IN DECENT SHAPE FOR MY AGE, BUT 30 YEARS OLDER THAN JUDGE, BUT IT TOOK ALMOST 9 FULL WEEKS BEFORE I COULD SAY IT FELT ABOUT 90% BETTER.
SWINGING A BAT US SO MUCH MORE VIOLENT THAN WALKING.
I DON'T KNOW....
WE SHOULDN'T EXPECT ANY MIRACLES FROM
JUDGE.
LETS HOPE FOR SOME KEY WALKS, ALTHOUGH THAT WILL REQUIRE SOMEONE TO KNOCK HIM IN.
UH-O...
SHIT.
It really comes down to the nature of the injury. If playing creates the strong to medium possibility of aggravating it then there is no way that he should play.
So follow the money...
I have to think that the Yankees staff is not stupid. In fact, being essentially fueled by greed and the bottom line prevents them from being stupid. Judge is a cash cow for the next seven years or so. Right now he is a front office's wet dream, an underpaid superstar. The last thing they want to do is rush him and damage him permanently.
They've already popped the champagne corks on their three millionth ticket sale and the YES money, and every other dime they squeeze out of the fans. Playoff money is good but the future returns on Judge is better. Especially the playoff money from what is looking like a one and done.
So if they let him play it is because they determined that even if he experiences discomfort he is not going to aggravate it and maybe (because you have to play the games)he gets them going again and they can go deeper.
This is a money call. It's always a money call with these guys. The reward outweighs the risk. All I can say is they'd better be right.
Doug K.
I hear you All-Caps. I've messed up both of my elbows at 45 and although he's 20 or so years younger than me I cannot imagine he's really ready to come back.
In May I bumped one against a doorway (cracked it?) and it was only last month were it stopped hurting so badly. Now it's only a minor pain and for whatever reason I now have a strange bone bump which isn't found on my other elbow.
About 10 years ago I fell and actually broke the other elbow. That took well over 9 months for the major pains to stop and a little over two years for the minor pings of pain to go away. And I still feel all sorts of strange movements going inside of there and it hurts rather quickly if I do too much activity with it.
Basically I just don't see how any athlete is able to be swinging a bat after a few weeks, even if they are so young. He's doing it though a ton of pain or on a ton of painkillers. They really should rest him until Spring Training. His future isn't worth this doomed mess and I doubt he'd be able to pick the team up.
Doug K.,
Gotta respectfully disagree with you on the stupidity factor of the Yankee staff. Unlike his father, who knew very little about actual baseball but couldn't keep his mouth shut or his hands off, Hal is apparently at least smart enough to know he should keep his mouth shut and his hands off. But there is nothing to indicate he either knows about, or cares about, or is interested in, the game of baseball. Cashman is on a stupid streak at the moment, as I think he fears that if he doesn't at least get to the ALDS after being one game away from the WS last year that his wunderkid reputation will take a serious hit. Usually "follow the money" is sound advice, but with the major goal of staying under the luxury tax accomplished, I think "follow the reputation" is probably a better way to look at this. Ma inherited a team that almost went to the WS last year, and by driving it into the ground, he and Cashman are, IMHO, more concerned about their reputations than anything else. Ego is what will drive these two guys to make whatever decisions they make about Judge or Chapman for that matter, not money.
Thursday I go on the DL for arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn meniscus in my left knee. First surgical repair I've ever had. Never broke a bone. The gall bladder is gone, though. Limits the drinking I can to kill the pain of Yankee ineptitude.
apoorplayer,
You make some very good points. So many things come down to money or ego. This may very well be about Cashman's Ego. Of course if he's the idiot that green lights permanently damaging their "face of the Yankees" and more than likely future Captain he'll take a hit for that. But you point is well taken. G-d I hate these guys.
Hope your procedure goes well. Just remember to do the rehab. Take it seriously. A bad knee (or an Un-rehabbed one) has repercussions all the way down the line.
Doug K.
Vampifella,
Not saying your wrong but professional athletes are another species.
If I told you to run full out and then dive head first towards a bag you would be in serious pain for quite a while but these guys do it all the time. They're not like us.
Boxers take punches that would kill us. Guys coming over the middle of a football field get hit by mack trucks coming at top speed who are trained for maximum impact and they shake it off. I have to believe that a baseball player's wrist is one of the more built up parts of their bodies.
At least that's what I'm going to tell myself until Judge grabs his wrist and collapses in a heap. :(
Doug K.
Doug K.
APP,
You sum up the Yankee braintrust's motivation nicely.
Sad, but true.
I hate those guys.
Ice cream sandwich just ole'd a passed ball. This sucks.
If Judge has to die to rid us of Boone, I say that's okay.
Best of luck with the knife, APP. I have friends who have done that, and come back great. And yes, they affirmed what Doug K. says: the rehab is important.
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