Aaron Judge: Yankees hero is a superstar on the field, but off it life is VERY different

Before Aaron Judge was the face of the Yankees, he was just another face — literally.

During his incredible rookie season, Judge spent some time in New York’s bustling Bryant Park Jimmy Fallon segment wearing only glasses as a disguise.

With only the frames up, the outfielder was able to trick unsuspecting Yankees fans he spoke to, and his face wasn’t the only thing they forgot.

“Adam Judge,” a fan said unfairly directly in front of him. “I think he’s going to be a superstar.”

Five years later, that prediction turns out to be true, although Judge no longer enjoys the same anonymity.

The 30-year-old is in the midst of a historic season, with a leading 57 home runs and 21 games left. Four more would match the AL record set by another Yankee, Roger Maris, in 1961.

But while Judge may now be the best player in the sport, it wasn’t always a foregone conclusion that he would even pursue professional baseball.

At Linden High School in Linden, California, Judge excelled as a three-sport athlete, dominating baseball as well as football and basketball.

On the roster, Judge caught 17 touchdowns as a senior, setting a school record for one season while also registering 969 receiving yards.

On the hardwood, Judge was also a force. Growing to a 6-foot-6,205-pound frame by his second year Bleacher reportAs a senior, he would be called a center for all states.

But despite his basketball prowess and football recruiting offers from powerhouses like Stanford and Notre Dame, Judge ultimately chose the sport he now excels at, hitting a .500 average and also prospering as a pitcher during his senior season.

“Growing up, I always thought I was going to be a basketball player because I was so tall,” he told the local newspaper The record after graduating from high school.

“When it came to my junior year, I started getting a lot of letters for football. But when… I went to a lot of baseball camps, I knew I would come here.”

Judge would star at Fresno State before eventually making his way through the minor league system from the Yankees all the way to the majors.

But to reduce Judge’s journey to a classic sports story would be tantamount to ignoring another great fortune in his life, one that came way before his big league performance.

When Judge was just two days old, he was adopted by his parents Patty and Wayne, and the Yankee has said he is “blessed” to have the couple in his life.

“I feel like they kind of picked me out,” Aaron told the… New York Post in 2015 as a young talent.

“I feel like God was the one who brought us together.”

Two years later, when he broke through on an All-Star rookie campaign, he reflected on how his mother Patty helped him get to that point.

“I know I wouldn’t be a New York Yankee if it wasn’t for my mother,” said Judge, who never met his birth parents. MLB.com.

“The guidance she gave me as a child growing up, knowing the difference between right and wrong, how to deal with people and how to go the extra mile and do extra work, things like that. She shaped me into the person I am today.’

And who exactly is that person? It’s a little hard to tell, as Judge is extremely private.

The 30-year-old lives a quiet life outside the baseball diamond, avoiding bars and nightclubs and successfully escaping the gossip columns.

Judge, who also identifies himself as a Christian on his social media accounts, married hometown beloved Samantha Bracksieck last December.

The couple first dated in high school and college before eventually breaking up and later reuniting in 2019.

However, Bracksieck’s “extreme DUI” indictment in 2020 – where she was captured on bodycam footage mentioning her famous boyfriend – put a dent in Judge’s highly valued privacy.

‘[Derek] Jeter was private, but didn’t mind his name being known. He was private with a showboat,” a source told the New York Post after the arrest.

Aaron is the opposite. He is quiet quiet. The arrest had to be a comfort to him.’

Nevertheless, the couple tied the knot in Hawaii last year, as DailyMail.com revealed, with only a handful of close friends and family in attendance in true Judge fashion. The couple made a public outing last week when they competed at the US Open in Queens.

However, in addition to enjoying his privacy, Judge is a generous and humble figure.

He told The Record in 2010 that one of his “favorite things to do” was to clean up trash with his high school basketball teammates, and the slugger has provided grants to schools in New York and New York through his All Rise foundation. California.

“His mom and I just wanted him to be a really good person,” said his adoptive father Wayne.

He has never had contact with his biological parents and has another adopted brother, John, 36, who lives in Korea and teaches English.

“We’re more blessed than he is,” Mother Patty said of Aaron in an interview with the Post in 2015. “Really, it was all meant to be.”

Growing up, Judge’s size was a running joke in the family.

“We joked that he looked like the Michelin Tire baby,” his father said. “It wasn’t long before the 4 ounce formula was just the appetizer and it had to be the oatmeal formula to calm him down.”

Judge has also proven to be a bit of a sneakerhead, wearing Jordans to the 2021 MLB All-Star weekend and also donning custom cleats on several occasions, once honoring baseball pioneer Jackie Robinson.

“The name of the game is now kind of like designing your own cleats, your own little touch and design and your own little style in the game,” he said. Complex this year.

And while the Yankees star is now rich enough to spend about $5,000 on nine pairs of sneakers — like he did on that episode of “Sneaker Shopping” — he’s still looking for more money from the Yankees.

Judge rejected a $213.5 million seven-year extension offer from New York for the season, a mind-boggling amount for most players, but an amount that ultimately proved insufficient for Judge’s value.

After struggling with injuries from 2019-20 and failing to recapture form from his 52-home run rookie season, Judge had a strong 2021 and ultimately opted to play out his contract after accepting the Yankees’ offer. thought too low.

That decision paid off, with Judge now reportedly in line to enforce a $300 million contract in free agency.

The Yankees, it seems, will have to break the bank to keep their New York star.

For now, though, Judge is focused on something else when it comes to his lead squad.

“People want to talk about contracts, I don’t play for that,” he said MLB Network in May.

“I’m playing to get a championship back to New York.”