Aaron Judge has enough on his plate. The New York Yankees captain is trying to get back to a World Series, is suing an interior designer, and becoming a first-time dad. Now, politicians are using him as an example in their budget battle.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a New Yorker who is also a Yankees fan, said he uses Judge as inspiration as he opposes President Donald Trump’s plan to pause billions of dollars in federal grants and loans.
Jeffries is inspired by Judge’s patient approach to the plate. He says he would pick and choose his battles against President Trump.
“One of the reasons that he’s a great hitter is because he does not swing at every pitch. He waits for the right one, and then he swings. We’re not going to swing at every pitch; we’re going to swing at the ones that matter,” Jeffries said.
Yankees slugger Aaron Judge.
Brad Penner-Imagn Images
This might come as a surprise to Judge.
The 32-year-old has worked hard to avoid controversial topics on and off the baseball field throughout his career. In fact, the conservative magazine The National Review praised him in 2017 for his lack of public politics.
“Aaron Judge is the one judge in this country that both conservatives and liberals can unite behind, except, of course, for those who are Boston Red Sox fans,” the magazine proclaimed.
Judge spoke for the team in 2020 as they participated in a pre-game Black Lives Matter show of support.
“We’ve got a lot of guys in this clubhouse with different beliefs, different feelings and different walks of life,” Judge said. “We wanted to respect all that. As a team, we came to the united decision to kneel right before the anthem.”
Judge saves his statements for the baseball field, where he will try to get the Yankees their first World Series championship since 2009.
Last year, the reigning American League MVP fell short. He had a forgettable October, hitting just .164, as the Yankees got to the World Series, but they were easily knocked out by the Los Angeles Dodgers.
