Booing Aaron Judge

Well, the MLB playoffs took a wild turn on Friday. The seemingly invincible Dodgers once again left something like 493 people on base*, and they have to win today in San Diego or else face a long, cold and lonely winter. Defending World Series champion Atlanta got obliterated by Bryce Harper and company, and now it’s the Phillies who have to be feeling like the moment belongs to them.

*Not an exact figure.

And, in the Bronx, fans booed Aaron Judge.

It’s hard to say how many fans booed him. It probably wasn’t that many. But “BOOOOO” is one of those sounds that carries well, which is probably why people started using it to express disenchantment in the first place and why ghosts have been using it almost exclusively for many years.

Anyway, the boos came after Judge struck out for the seventh time in nine postseason plate appearances against Cleveland — Judge is oh-for-the-postseason so far (he does have one walk), and has put the ball in play only one time, a weak groundout to third in the ninth inning with the score still tied.

Then, this is Aaron Judge’s game. He does strike out a lot. That just comes part and parcel with the whole Being Aaron Judge thing — you know how in “Aladdin,” the genie talks about how his phenomenal cosmic powers are paired with an itty, bitty living space? Well, Aaron Judge’s phenomenal cosmic powers come with strikeouts. In fact, if you come to a random Yankees game just to watch Aaron Judge play, there’s a one-in-10 chance you will see him strike out three times.

Players with the highest percentage of games with three strikeouts:

1. Joey Gallo, 16%

2. Miguel Sano, 15.7%

3. Bo Jackson, 12.5%

4. Chris Davis, 11.4%

5. Mike Zunino, 10.9%

6. Rob Deer, 10.9%

7. Chris Carter, 10.5%

8. Aaron Judge, 10%

Next on the list, by the way, is Giancarlo Stanton, which means that at one point the Yankees had three of these players in the same lineup.

With Judge, the strikeouts are just part of the deal. (Elsa/Getty Images)

And Judge’s percentage of three-strikeout games goes UP in the postseason. Well, of course — he’s going to be facing better pitching. He has struck out three or more times in six of his 36 postseason games so far … and in three of those games he struck out FOUR times.

He has also bashed 11 home runs and scored 25 runs in those 36 games, which ain’t bad. Part and parcel. Everybody should know the deal by now.

But cheering for a team — particularly in the postseason and perhaps even more particularly in the Bronx — is not an exercise in logic. It is a wrestling match with emotion. I feel confident in saying that it was only a small number of people who actually verbalized their BOOOOOs after Aaron Judge struck out again … and equally confident in saying that there were many, many more fans who felt the boos building inside but they managed to keep them in there because Aaron Judge had a season for the ages and doesn’t deserve to hear boos this year no matter how many times he strikes out.

This is part of what makes us human — our ability to hold the boos in.

There were some think pieces and many more Twitter comments lashing out at the people who dared boo Aaron Judge, my favorite being from our pal Joe Sheehan:

Joe Sheehan@joe_sheehan

If you’re a Yankee fan booing Aaron Judge in 2022, sports may not be for you.

7:50 PM · Oct 14, 2022

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20 Reposts · 216 Likes

And I agree — the boos were ridiculous and disrespectful and pretty shortsighted considering Judge becomes a free agent at the end of the season and booing the guy who just set the Yankee home run record is not the best recruiting tool.

But I also think too much can be made of the boos. Aaron Judge has played in New York for seven seasons now. He has struck out 908 times in his career already — that’s more than twice as much as Tony Gwynn struck out in 20 years. He’s heard plenty of boos before, and you know what? He will probably hear plenty more boos in the years ahead. If he can stay healthy for a decade, he could have a real shot not only at home run records galore but also at breaking Reggie Jackson’s seemingly unbreakable record of 2,597 strikeouts in a career.

Part and parcel. Homers and strikeouts. Cheers and boos. We can chide all those fans who let the boos slip out on Friday, but hey, Judge did strike out seven times in two games. I imagine he was booing himself.