Aaron Judge was talking before Sunday’s game about being a boy in northern California and the experience of watching Barry Bonds. How his father, Wayne, would let him know when the Giants’ most feared hitter was due up and it was time to really focus.
“He just made the game look so easy,” Judge recalled of watching his favorite team and favorite player. “Usually there’s a base open and they walk him in a big spot, and even if there wasn’t a base open, he’d get walked. Then maybe there would be one time a game they would pitch to him, and it would be off the plate, off the plate, up and in. And then they would leave one over the plate, middle away and he would just drive the ball over the fence in left-center. He made it look easy. It was impressive to me as a kid because, yeah, there was all that power, but also the great eye. He knew what he wanted to do and he did it.”
It is pointed out to Judge that he has spent about three-plus months making it look easy. A few hours after this conversation, Blue Jays manager John Schneider would corroborate that by intentionally walking Judge three times — twice without an open base. Just as he had walked him without anyone on base the previous day. In the second inning. With two outs.
“I gotta say no, just because of how I view Bonds and how great he is,” Judge said when asked if he sees similarities in the treatment by other teams. “He’s the best player I think I’ve ever seen. Still, in my mind, I pinch myself as the little kid who was watching him make it look easy, because I am here and it isn’t easy.”