The world is rediscovering Aaron Judge

If someone asks, who is today's face of baseball?, you needn't look beyond the now best-of-three Yankee-Redsock duel. There, you won't find Mike Trout, or Bryce Harper, or the Japanese Babe Ruth, or anybody from the slip-sliding Cubs or money-clogged Dodgers. Study the NY-Boston series, where Mookie Betts and Aaron Judge are battling for the mantle of the game.

And today, I am happy to report that our smiling, gregarious giant is kicking that scrawny little fucker's ass.

Three HRs in three post-season games. The world is taking notice. Last year, Judge's time in the national spotlight came during a prolonged slump, and the general view seemed to be that he might be a 6'7" once-around-the-league, who would Shane Spencer for two months and Zolio Almonte the rest of the way. Today, Judge is on the verge of a career defining October, and stat wonks are pro-rating his numbers had he not missed a quarter of the season. (My take: he'd have 35 HRs, 90 RBIs.) If he and the Yankees keep this up, Judge will not just become king of New York; he'll be the Pepsi-Chrysler-"What's-in-your-wallet?" face of American sports. Jeter, but bigger... in a time when bigger is always better.

(Note to juju gods seeking to poke holes in this post and ruin our chances: I said, if he and the Yankees keep this up. Read carefully, dammit. I am assuming nothing. Nor am I crowing over an apparent Yankee victory last night. In fact, I'm not even assuming the victory will stand, as the league will surely subject it to video review, and may decide to overturn several calls and declare the Redsocks as winners. I am not mocking anybody, not even David Price, who looks like the guy you'd meet on a mountaintop in Tibet, instead of cover boy for a tribal nation of 19-year-old Brett Cavanaughs. I am being respectful. A good sport.)   

I still don't know what to make of last night. Is Price really that weak-assed? Has the long-awaited redemptive breakout for Gary Sanchez really arrived? I still can't shake a sense that we should be heading to New York up 2-0 in the series, and that we should feast on their bullpen at every opportunity (especially with the poisonous knuckleballer Stephen Wright gone.) But if Dellin and El Chapo have their act together - still an "if" - the Yankees have a colossal advantage in the late innings. Last night, when Chapman walked the lead off batter, you could feel a shudder move through the Yankiverse like a South Pacific tsunami. The game-ending ground ball double play was the first one he's thrown all season. I can't explain it. But it happened.

So... it's a day for football, brutal trench war, and I can't help but think once again that the fates of the Yankees and football Giants remain intertwined. Traditionally, I've always believed that the worse the Giants play, the more hope for the Yankees. If that theory holds true, we could run the table this October, because Giants fans are already thinking about drafting first. The Giants sure could use Aaron Judge. Thank God he didn't listen to his high school football coach. It's too late for Saquan Barkley, I guess. That's juju, folks. And right now, the gods are on our side. I think they're intoxicated with Aaron Judge, the face of baseball, the face of sports.