Shohei Ohtani And Aaron Judge Put On A Show At Yankee Stadium

On Tuesday afternoon several media members waited for Shohei Ohtani at Yankee Stadium on the off chance he would grant a rare pregame interview.

The only words spoken by Ohtani pregame were the loud noises coming from his bat during a rare session of batting practice, featuring several homers including one drive that would have been 475 feet or so if Statcast measured batting practice swings.

Then came the actual show with a smooth swing resulting on a ball landing in the Yankee bullpen for a two-run homer in the series opener Tuesday. And for good measure Ohtani added his first stolen base for 2022, doing so after Yankee manager Aaron Boone highlighted his speed as what aspect of Ohtani’s game stood out the most prominent.

Fittingly Ohtani’s latest wow moment occurred on the 100th anniversary of the original Yankee Stadium opening with Babe Ruth homering against the Red Sox, which is a significantly better memory than the 14th anniversary of the Yankees taking a 22-4 loss to Cleveland in their third game of the current Yankee Stadium.

“It’s a beautiful field. Passionate fans,” Ohtani said Tuesday night. “I always look forward to playing here.”

The intrigue to Ohtani will always be there as a packed media contingent attended Tuesday’s game and subsequent postgame scrum in the hallway on the third base side.

It may seem more prevalent given the fact Ohtani is a free agent after this year, the baseball aspect of the coveted expiring contract in the NBA. All sorts of intrigue persist about whether he will be leave the Angels for someplace with more exposure like New York with the Yankees or the recently free spending Mets, whose GM Billy Eppler happened to sign Ohtani after the 2017 season when he opted not to join the Yankees and the intrigue carries over to what the next contract will look like.

“You want to play against the best,” Judge said. “That’s what it’s all about.”

Last year Judge’s pending free agency was a major focus, at least early on when he rejected the Yankee offer whose terms of $213.5 million were revealed by GM Brian Cashman shortly before the season began.

The gamble paid off as Judge hit 62 homers to break the AL record of 61 to break a 61-year-old mark held by Roger Maris. It led to the Yankees increasing their offer to $360 million, enough for Judge to return and end any speculation about him returning home to the San Francisco Giants, who in a funny coincidence began this season at Yankee Stadium.

A day after Ohtani’s homer and stolen base, he nearly homered again.

This time it was a 411-foot drive that seemed headed over the center field fence and then Judge used his height to leap, get the ball before it bounced on the netting. Then Judge juggled the ball, held on with his bare right hand and gave a quick smile before tossing the ball back to his infielders are turning the potential homer into a 408-foot flyout.

“If I was a good outfielder, I would have caught in on the first try,” Judge joked after his 115th career appearance as a center fielder. “A juggling act there, but we made the play.”

“I’ve seen that a lot,” Angels manager Phil Nevin said of Judge, whom he coached with the Yankees from 2018 to 2021. “He’s a game changer on both sides of the ball.”

And if that was not enough, Judge promptly drove a pitch 412-foot feet into the visiting bullpen in left. That gave him six homers in 18 games, putting him on a 54-homer pace, the same mark Mickey Mantle finished at in 1961 and Ruth’s total in 1928, the year after he homered 60 times.

“I guess he caught it barehanded, brought it back. He made a couple of nice plays tonight, key plays,” said Mike Trout, a five-time Gold Glove winner in center field. “Obviously, he changed the whole game.”

The games did not offer much else beyond Judge and Ohtani. Ohtani struck out twice after his near miss Wednesday and Judge’s blast was his lone hit over the previous two nights.

Still the moments both provided left all those watching craving more.

It could be in the playoffs if the Angels and Yankees face each other and that series would be bigger than the 2002, 2005 and 2009 encounters which had plenty of stars.

Or it could be in the setting of Ohtani actually joining the Yankees, Mets or even the Boston Red Sox, though their recent spending habits may make that possibility seem unlikely.