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HERE COMES JUDGE: Aaron Judge joins Mantle, DiMaggio on hallowed grounds at Yankee Stadium
Sports fans and collectors love tradition. We admire teams that manage to uncover excellence—especially at a key position—over a long period of time.
Think Green Bay, where the Packers—after riding Bart Starr to five championships in the 1960s—are into their third decade of worry-free quarterbacking, thanks to Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers and now Jordan Love. Think Boston, where the Celtics have enjoyed a long run of top-shelf small forwards, from John Havlicek to Larry Bird to Paul Pierce to Jayson Tatum. Also in Boston, the Red Sox have fielded a string of estimable left fielders, from Ted Williams to Carl Yastrzemski to Jim Rice to Manny Ramirez.
But no team in sports can match the New York Yankees’ tradition of all-time center fielders. With Aaron Judge having moved full-time from right field to center in 2024, he inherits the hallowed grounds roamed by Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle in generations gone by.
And make no mistake: Judge is more than worthy as a successor, combining an explosive bat with spectacular defense. Judge had another monster season offensively with a .322 batting average and leading the American League with 58 home runs, 144 RBI, along with a league-high .458 on-base percentage and 1.159 OPS.
Importantly, his persona fits perfectly with DiMaggio and Mantle. As with those two legends, Judge has an appealing humility. He almost seems embarrassed by the attention he gets, as Mantle especially was, and would rather talk about his teammates than himself.
These are not the type of swaggering players who show off or pop off. DiMaggio never celebrated his big plays; as he once said, “I’m a ballplayer, not an actor.” Nor was Mantle prone to posturing. “After I hit a home run,” he once said, “I had a habit of running the bases with my head down. I figured the pitcher already felt bad enough without me showing him up rounding the bases.”
Likewise, Judge is one player today who won’t dramatically flip his bat and stand at home plate, admiring the trajectory of his homer, after every bomb.
Furthermore, DiMaggio and Mantle were consummate leaders, each known for setting an on-field example teammates were expected to follow. With Judge, it’s more of the same, but with the added authority of his appointment as team captain.
COLLECTOR ICONS
Like Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio, Judge has climbed into the hearts of collectors. He has become a must-have hobby hero, whether you’re a speculative collector looking for investments or a sentimental collector building an impressive stash.
Mantle, outside of Babe Ruth, is the collectibles market’s most popular figure ever. The timing was just right for Mantle and the hobby: He emerged from Oklahoma and minor-league ball during the formative years of the mainstream baseball card market. For kids of the 1950s, there was no greater pull from a pack than a Mantle. Seven decades later, those same vintage Mantle cards have more appeal than ever—and they’re drawing ever-higher prices.
Mantle was a regular on the autograph circuit in the 1980s and early ’90s. At the time, he was struggling with alcohol—and, as described in the MLB documentary “Mickey Mantle: The Definitive Story,” financial woes. His post-playing days were marked by unsteady income and business start-ups that fell flat. The hobby boom turned up just in time: Mantle discovered the demand for his signature and began traveling to card shows.
It was a revelation for Mantle, who even in his playing days would wonder aloud why people made a fuss over him. He never felt worthy of the adulation he got. But when throngs of fans continued to flock to his every autograph appearance, year after year, he started to get it. By his last couple of years of show signings, Mantle was embracing the reality that fans loved him—no matter what.
(Author’s note: I saw first-hand in 1994 how appreciative Mantle was when encountering adoring fans. He talked about how moved he was to meet trembling fans, totally awestruck, as they came through the long lines. As Mantle told me in an interview at The Jefferson Hotel in Richmond just 14 months before his passing, “I have guys come through and they get tears in their eyes, and they say, ‘Mickey, I’ve waited 30 years to meet you!’ And they’ll have their kids with them and they’ll say, ‘Son, this is Mickey Mantle, the greatest player … .’ Hell, I get goosebumps sometimes just talking to these guys.”)
Mantle’s stature aside, it would be wrong to shortchange DiMaggio. He was to baseball in the 1930s and ’40s as Mantle was to the 1950s and ’60s. However, the sports collectibles arena was smaller during DiMaggio’s day. His career straddled the line between early-1900s tobacco and candy cards and the first widely distributed trading cards, as issued by such companies as Goudey and Play Ball.
DiMaggio nevertheless appeared on a number of late-1930s cards that today sell for tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. But he was a tad early to catch the collecting wave created by Bowman and especially Topps in the 1950s and beyond.
By the 1980s, as the baseball memorabilia market went from hobby to business, DiMaggio was as iconic as any athlete of the time. He wasn’t nearly as active on the show circuit as Mantle, but he got around enough that collectors could land a DiMaggio sig if they were willing to pay the price. How much was that? Some 35 or 40 years ago, a DiMaggio show-signed autograph was typically $100 to $150—even pricier than the $80 a Mantle autograph commanded. (Today, an authenticated baseball signed by Mantle typically sells for upward of $1,000, and DiMaggio-signed baseballs are almost as much.)
At autograph shows of the era, DiMaggio was a sight to see—a consummate professional who exuded class. Always dressed in suit and tie, he drew crowds of reverent fans who, if they weren’t buying his autograph, wanted at least a glimpse of the man. Meeting or even just seeing Joe D. live and in person was something baseball fans would never forget.
And now, decades after the deaths of Mantle (1994) and DiMaggio (1999), here comes Aaron Judge.
ALL RISE
A home-grown Yankee who in 2022 signed a nine-year, $360 million contract, Judge is bigger than life. In fact, physically, he’s significantly larger than Mantle and DiMaggio. Mantle’s playing weight was typically listed at 6-0, 198 pounds. DiMaggio was usually listed at 6-2, 193 pounds. Judge is built like a tight end, standing 6-7 and weighing in at 282 pounds. And he uses his size to great advantage in center field.
DiMaggio was effortless in tracking down fly balls in cavernous old Yankee Stadium. He played with “command, style, and grace,” as the great Los Angeles Times columnist Jim Murray put it. Mantle, with his more muscular build, looked like an uber-athletic halfback patrolling center field. In his prime, he was known for blazing speed that allowed him to run down deep flies most outfielders couldn’t touch.
Judge has qualities of both—the loping strides of Joe D. and the explosive bursts of Mantle—along with his own unique tools. He played center field in college but as he rose through the Yankees’ farm system, he adapted to right field. He has always been ideal for that position: He’s sure-handed, possesses a cannon arm and has the height to snatch would-be homers headed for the short porch at Yankee Stadium.
Before the 2024 season, the Yankees acquired Juan Soto to play right field. Manager Aaron Boone quickly made it known that Judge would be his center fielder.
Aaron actually started more games in center field than in right in 2022 (the year he hit 62 homers). Yet plenty of analysts criticized the move, saying it would make Judge more susceptible to injury. But Judge was all for it, telling more than one reporter that center field gives him “the best seat in the house.”
Now, as regular Yankee watchers know, it’s almost a revelation watching Judge play center field on a daily basis. He’s a natural, covering insane amounts of ground with his long strides and snagging sinking line drives in front of him and side to side. And his arm is no less of a weapon in center than in right field.
Ultimately, there’s something so perfect about the Yankee captain playing that position. In a strange way, it may make him even more collectible than ever. It’ll take years—maybe Hall of Fame honors, even—for Judge to get into the DiMaggio and Mantle stratosphere, but he’s on his way.
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