Struggling or not, Yankees superstar Aaron Judge attracts the new audience MLB needs
NEW YORK -- Aaron Judge is warming up in the outfield, as he done so many times before.
It’s the top of the third inning of Game 1 of the American League Division Series at Yankee Stadium. The atmosphere is filled with the electricity that is postseason baseball in the Bronx, even when the scoreboard reflects a scoreless tie.
A familiar highlight then appears on the jumbotron: the replay of Judge hitting his 62nd home run earlier this month, breaking Roger Maris' American League single-season record and cementing his legacy as the owner of one of baseball’s greatest seasons.
Fans react. Their cheers are deafening. The moment is brief. Judge’s impact is anything but.
Perhaps there's been no bigger sports story in 2022 than Judge and his pursuit of history.Even as he and his New York Yankees teammates find themselves in a battle with the Cleveland Guardians in this division series, each time Judge walks up to the plate, the stadium roars with excitement.
In many ways, Judge, whether he's struggling or not, has made baseball relevant again.
“To have Aaron Judge be one of those central conversations [in sports] is really going to push baseball – because baseball needs big stories in order to captivate the American public," said Daniel Ladik, a marketing professor at Seton Hall University and baseball fan.
"And you can't get a bigger story than No. 99 at the moment.”
This postseason has been unique for Major League Baseball. The league adopted a new wild-card playoff format that added more teams to the mix, looking to make the month of October even more exciting.
In the leadup to the playoffs, Judge’s chase to surpass Maris’ mark captivated fans and airwaves, with broadcasts going as far as cutting from college football games to show his at-bats live during the games.
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For lifelong fans, like Alexia Jorge, a sophomore member of St. Elizabeth University’s baseball team from Lyndhurst, New Jersey, Judge is without a doubt one of the most exciting players in recent memory.
“Aaron Judge has always been a big guy in the face of baseball, even when he was a rookie,” she said. “To see that he's held that standard for however many years he's been in baseball, in the major leagues, it's cool to see. You don't really see that too often.”
Judge, 30, is often the topic of conversation at Jorge's school, especially when it pertains to her friends’ fantasy leagues. One of her teammates has even gone as far as trying to imitate Judge’s powerful swing – which, admittedly, is hard to achieve unless you embody Judge’s stature. He stands at 6 feet, 7 inches, and weighing 282 pounds.
The more eyes Judge brings to the game, the better, said Jorge, who also is coming around to the changes the sport has adopted for 2023. “If it means that more people are gonna watch baseball, more people are gonna like baseball – the better off baseball and Major League Baseball will be, and [that will] hopefully create opportunities,” she said.
Jorge, a Yankees-turned-Astros fan, is rooting for Judge to someday break MLB's single-season home run record of 73 set by Barry Bonds in 2001.
"You want him to do well. Plus, seeing it in my lifetime – [seeing] somebody break a record like that, that's pretty amazing. That doesn't happen," she said. "You're talking about guys like Babe Ruth, Barry Bonds. Then you say: Aaron Judge."
Having baseball be part of the everyday sports conversation shows how the sport is becoming exciting again for fans, said Ladik, who was the methodologist behind university polls that took a deeper look at fan sentiment this season.
According to Ladik, data collected by the university shows that football is the most popular sport in America right now. Baseball remains the second-most popular sport, but basketball is quickly catching up. For that reason, he said, it's important for America's pastime to have players such as Judge continue to become household names.
“Without compelling stories, you're not going to keep the faithful, and you're not going to attract the new,” Ladik said. “Baseball does have a younger demographic problem at the moment. They are having a harder time attracting a younger, Gen Z population – and we see the rule changes that are coming in 2023 … [will] make the game more exciting.”
In September, MLB approved sweeping rules changes that will go into effect next year. They include, among a list of adjustments, a pitch clock that forces pitchers to throw the ball within 20 seconds with runners on base, or 15 seconds with the bases empty. The changes are intended to make the game faster and more entertaining.
It remains to be seen how far the Yankees will go in this postseason, or whether Judge can return toward that upward trajectory he enjoyed all summer long. On Friday afternoon, the Yankees fell, 4-2, to the Guardians in 10 innings. They found themselves tied 1-1 in this best-of-five ALDS with the series shifting to Cleveland.
What is known: Judge's stellar season is one that will remain in the record books, no matter when this season ends.
And many more people know about it.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Aaron Judge: Yankees superstar attracts audience for MLB
