Seeing is believing! What happened on Sunday afternoon at George Steinbrenner Field in Florida was for Ripley. And it was logical that everyone in the New York Yankees went crazy and could not believe what their eyes had just seen, after the ball shot by the bat of Aaron Judge literally went all the way to the street, and in a totally legal way, during the eighth inning of the game against the Tampa Bay Rays that ended with a 4-0 shutout victory for the Yankees.
The home run that wasn’t
Judge connected so solidly with an Eric Orze changeup that immediately everyone present in the small stadium that is now the home of the Rays, as they do not have the Tropicana Field available, knew that it was a home run for the ages, deep down the left field line, well above and inside the foul pole.
The umpires called the ball foul, and on top of that confirmed their decision after a video review, which caused reactions of real anger from Judge and manager Aaron Boone, who were convinced that this shot should have been Judge’s eighth home run of the season.
Aaron Boone was so angry that after that controversial decision he did not miss the opportunity to go in to yell at the umpires after his batter was struck out with a pitch incredibly out of the strike zone that was called as such by the home plate umpire, Adam Beck. Of course, Boone was kicked off the diamond and added the 40th ejection of his career, not before venting his anger also with third base umpire Scott Barry
Boone and Judge’s contrasting reactions
The reactions of both were replicated by the media as soon as the game was over, and while one criticized the decision too much, the other remained calmer: “The audacity of the decision is remarkable. I understand it’s high, imposing, but then it gets repeated and I guess they couldn’t find enough conclusive evidence, because the posts aren’t that high in a minor league park, so we have to accept it,” Boone said. In contrast to Judge’s words: “I think everyone’s scratching their heads, but there’s nothing I can do about it. They didn’t see it and we just have to move on.”
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