One has to love how the steady, calm, poised Aaron Judge let his play shift the public discussion. Earlier in the season, there were those trying to knock him, calling him Kevin Maas or Jeremy Lin. Now the debate has shifted to whether or not he is the MVP— as a rookie. It's worth hanging a lantern on what that sheer pivot says about the fine year this young man has put together.
Baseball is one heck of a hard game. Playing in the midst of the Category 5 media maelstrom that Judge has makes his carriage and performance all the more impressive to me.
I'm hard pressed to remember another instance when a veteran said it's an honor to play with a rookie; that says a great deal. “He went through it and just kept working,’’ Todd Frazier said on Monday. “That’s very hard to come back from, but that’s his mentality, his personality. It’s incredible, hitting 50, and for him to be as humble as he is, it’s an honor to play with him.”
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