Blue Jays pregame show wanted team to ‘send a message’ to Aaron Judge

The Blue Jays pregame show did not mince words in their appraisal of the Aaron Judge “drama” with the Yankees. 

There has been a maelstrom of controversy surrounding the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees of late after Aaron Judge was caught “side-eyeing” the bench before hitting two home runs in game one of a four-game series between the two clubs.

“Side-eyeing” is in quotations for one simple reason: Judge is innocent here. Sometimes the best power hitters in the game hit home runs; not every sideways glance or momentary twitch of the eye is a conspiracy to defame the rules of our most sacred American sport.

That said, the Toronto Blue Jays’ pregame show had, shall we call it a different perspective on the matter, thanks to Caleb Joseph.

Blue Jays’ broadcast implies Aaron Judge should be intentionally hit by pitch

https://twitter.com/DJLeMVP/status/1658658273644380161

While perspectives will always differ on issues such as this, to imply the need to bean Aaron Judge with a baseball is a step too far. Baseball is famous for its unwritten rules and the justice tied to them, but it’s 2023. We probably shouldn’t promote the intentional assault of a player with a high-speed projectile.

Naturally, tensions between the two fanbases reached a new boiling point in game two when Judge, rather than being hit by a pitch, decided to hit another home run. In the same game, Yankees pitcher Domingo Germán was ejected for a sticky substance on his pitching hand — perhaps the wrong time for such a poor error in judgement.

There are two games left in the series for this drama to play out further, but one has to imagine last night’s dinger was Judge getting the last laugh. As a non-baseball parallel, Dillon Brooks of the Memphis Grizzlies was recently lambasted for “poking the bear” by calling out LeBron James before the Grizzlies’ playoff series with the Lakers. The Grizzlies lost; you don’t poke the bear. It certainly feels like Toronto poked the bear with this Aaron Judge debacle.

Toronto and New York are currently deadlocked in the AL East standings. Both are 7.5 games out of first place; both have a lot to gain from this series. If Judge can continue his heroics and keep stacking wins for New York, the Blue Jays could come out of this looking much worse than before.