The Yankees beat the Blue Jays Monday night in Toronto, 7-4, and defending MVP Aaron Judge was one of the biggest stars with a two-home run game. However, there was a stir on social media surrounding Judge’s second homer. First, it was a gargantuan explosion at 462 feet. Here it is in all its glory:
That’s not what set the Twitterverse on fire.
Shortly after Yankees manager Aaron Boone was ejected for arguing over balls and strikes (specifically, defending the judge after a low strike was miscalled), the show Toronto caught the judge looking out of his eye just before the pitches hit the plate and wondered aloud what the hell he was looking at.
This has invariably led to speculation about the Yankees and Judge doing something untoward. Looking back at the receiver is not illegal; it’s just a widely regarded bush league. Either way, it doesn’t look like Judge can watch the receiver. Not without turning the head further. It is certainly not illegal, or even bush league at least, to look into your own dugout while hitting. I guess some will claim the Yankees had a sign-stealing operation or something, and the judge was looking into the dugout to see them pass along the field.
A big problem with this line of thinking is that the Blue Jays used pitchcom. Yes, the technology that allows the pitcher and the catcher to transmit signals without using the catcher’s fingers, as well as a nod or shake from the pitcher.
Anyway, here’s the quick on-air chat, a good shot of the judge’s eyes, and then the judge drops the gavel.
After the game, the judge was asked about it. It took him a second to understand what the journalists were asking him (look here). Then he said: “There was a lot of chirping from our dugout, which I really didn’t like in the situation where it’s a 6-0 game, and I know Boonie was thrown out. I was trying to save Boonie by calling timeout like, ‘Hey, let me work here.’ I was kinda trying to see who was chirping in the dugout. It’s 6-0, like, ‘Boonie got kicked out; let’s just go to work now.'”
Judge further said he liked Boone defending him, but once that was over he wanted his teammates to move on, noting that he said something to a few players in the dugout. As a reminder, Judge was named captain of the Yankees last offseason, the first since Derek Jeter.
Blue Jays pitcher Jay Jackson, who gave up that home run, said the following: by Rob Longley“I won’t say anything against any organization…but for him to peek this whole time, it seemed like it wasn’t just a peek and a readjustment to get back on the pitcher.”
Again, however, the Blue Jays were using pitchcom. Unless the insinuation is that the Yankees somehow hacked into the system and made their batters watch the dugout for information mid-bat, nothing illegal was going on.