Last winter, Aaron Judge had to make the biggest decision of his career. With a historic season of 62 home runs, the great outfielder became a free agent and was obviously courted by a handful of teams.
Among the lot, there were notably the Giants, and for a few minutes, the baseball world was convinced that he had made the decision to join the team of his childhood. That said, Arson Judge ultimately never signed in San Francisco, as we know today.
But that doesn’t stop him from laughing about it now.
What is interesting, on the other hand, it is to hear Judge return on the famous conversation with Hal Steinbrenner which changed everything. It will be remembered that the latter felt that he had not done enough to encourage Judge to return, so he had written to him to find out if he could speak to him again.
The call, which took place in the middle of the night, was fairly quick: Judge made his monetary demands clear to Steinbrenner, who agreed fairly quickly. And once the case was settled, the Yankees owner explained to Judge that Thurman Munson had been his favorite player growing up, and that like Munson, the #99 would become the team’s captain.
And as Judge notes, the announcement left him speechless and downright chilling, to the point where his wife had to bring him down to earth and remind him that he had to answer the caller.
In fact, we agree that few ball fans were surprised to see Judge being named club captain following his big contract. That said, it clearly affected the main interested party, who really seems to have the club logo tattooed on his heart.
As he himself explains, he enjoyed the process of being a free agent, but deep down he never wanted to leave the Yankees.
And clearly no one has any regrets right now, as Judge is once again one of the best players in the league this season. Clearly, he likes the Bronx, and the Bronx likes him a lot in return.
Good for everyone, then.
