Yankees RF Aaron Judge leads MLB in home runs and will make his first All-Star Game appearance next week, and it "isn't difficult to figure out" that he is the "most popular player on the Yankees’ roster these days,” according to Malika Andrews of the N.Y. TIMES. Riding the subway toward Yankee Stadium on Monday ahead of their series with the Blue Jays, it was "hard to walk 10 feet and not encounter someone in a No. 99 T-shirt or jersey or even a No. 99 onesie." Before Monday’s game, the line of fans “waiting to take pictures” at the Judge’s Chambers section in right field of Yankee Stadium “was 30 minutes long.” After the game against the Blue Jays began, the crowd “roared in delight when the public address announcer bellowed, ‘All rise for No. 99, Aaron Judge.’” Judge was the AL’s leading vote-getter for the All-Star Game, and next Monday night, he “will be the headliner in the home run derby, an event that may be more popular among fans than the All-Star Game itself.” On Monday, fans were “granted an extended look at Judge” as the Yankees “opened the ballpark an hour early -- offering early arrivals a rare chance to see Judge hit some more tape-measure shots” during batting practice. Fans asked about Judge’s “sudden popularity cited his willingness to sign autographs and interact with them and also the fact that he is a homegrown Yankee rather than an established player acquired from elsewhere” (N.Y. TIMES, 7/4).
