Aaron Judges entire World Series approach needs to change
LOS ANGELES — Aaron Judge was named American League Player of the Month in May and June and August.Which wonderfully helped him to what is certainly going to be a second AL MVP award this year.But under a different owner named Steinbrenner in a different era, Judge would have been dangerously close to having a Mr.
derisively thrown in front of one of those months by George Steinbrenner, longing for another Mr.October.The Boss felt that once he paid gigantic dollars for a superstar, the exchange rate needed to be gigantic and end in championships.
Which brought resonance that both Dave Winfield and Alex Rodriguez were at Dodger Stadium on Friday night for World Series Game 1.Because they were exactly that prototype of the larger-than-life, high-priced superstar.And when Winfield went 1-for-22 the last time the Yankees and Dodgers met in the World Series in 1981, it eventually led to Steinbrenner dubbing him Mr.
May.And Rodriguez had a postseason outset with the Yankees in which he began well then dead-ended midway through a Red Sox series and went into a multi-October spiral.That downward slide ended in 2009, when Rodriguez was the best hitter on the Yankees’ last champion.
He said he told himself what he would tell Judge now.“You have to divorce yourself from stats,” Rodriguez told The Post in the hours before Game 2.
“That’s just a losing proposition.And one of the most overrated things in sports is October stats.
Forget 4-for-10 with four singles.If Judge does that, the Yankees are going home.
Better to be 2-for-14 and one is a three-run double and one is a two-run homer that changes games.You need moments, not stats.
And once I realized that, it made it so much easier.”Rodriguez was on the field for the Fox pregame show to interview Giancarlo Stanton, who is Exhibit A for moments over stats.He was 4-for-18 in the ALCS (.222) but won MVP of the series because all four hits were meaningful homers.
Then he hit another Friday night, a two-run s...