17 May 2023, Bengaluru, India
The Yankees defeated the Blue Jays 7-4 on Monday night in Toronto, and the game featured two home runs from reigning MVP Aaron Judge, who was one of the game’s greatest performers. However, Judge’s second home run caused a commotion on social media. It was a massive blast at a height of 462 feet, to start.
Judge was seen staring out the side of his eyes right before pitches came to the plate, just after Yankees manager Aaron Boone was fired for challenging his balls and strikes (particularly, standing up for Judge after a low strike was erroneously called). They speculated aloud about what he was looking at.
This inevitably sparked rumors that Judge and the Yankees were up to something bad. It’s not against the law to look back at the catcher, but it’s often regarded as bush league. Regardless, it doesn’t appear that Judge may be turning to face the catcher. not before cocking his head even more. Peering into your dugout when you’re at the plate is neither unlawful nor in the least-bit bush league.
Some would argue that Judge was seeing the Yankees pass the pitch while they were in the dugout and that they were engaging in some sort of sign theft operation.
The Blue Jays’ usage of pitch com is a major flaw in this theory. Yes, there is equipment that allows the baseball pitcher and catcher to communicate without the catcher using his fingers, in addition to the pitcher’s nod or shake.
Anyway, here is the quick on-air discussion, a lovely shot of Judge’s eyes, and Judge ultimately throwing down the hammer.
Immediately after the game, the Judge was questioned about it. He was unaware of the reporters’ inquiries at the time. Then he said, “There was a fair lot of screaming from our bench, which I didn’t appreciate considering that it was a 6-0 win and I know Boonie got booted. I tried to save Boonie by calling timeout and saying, “Hey, let me work here.” In a sense, my objective was to discover who was causing the noise in the dugout. Since Boonie was ejected, the score is now 6-0; let’s go to work.
Judge went on to say that while he appreciates Boone standing up for him, he wants his teammates to move on from the fight, adding that he said something to a couple of players in the dugout. Judge was named the Yankees’ captain this past offseason, the first since Derek Jeter.
Apparently after giving up the home run, Blue Jays pitcher Jay Jackson remarked, “I’m not going to say anything against any organization… but for him to be glancing over for the duration of a period it appeared as if it was not just an observation and readjusting to get back on the pitcher.”
Unless the inference is that the Yankees infiltrated the system and were forcing their batters to glance at the dugout for data during the middle of at-bats, nothing improper occurred.
[Source : cbssports.com]
