17 touchdowns, 7 home runs, 18 points per game – Aaron Judge might edge out Mahomes and Edwards as high school great
Aaron Judge is arguably the best baseball player in the world.
Okay fine, that's Shohei Ohtani, even Judge admitted himself.
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Sure, Ohtani can hit and pitch, but can he catch a football? Shoot a basketball?
Because Aaron Judge sure can.
Judge was a three-sport star at Linden High School, where he dominated not only on the diamond, but also on the gridiron and hardwood.
During his senior year, Judge recorded 17 touchdowns and 969 receiving yards, both school records.
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He averaged 18 points and 12 rebounds per game in basketball.
And of course, his bread and butter, Judge batted .500 to go along with a 0.88 ERA for the Mother Lode League-champion baseball team.
In other words, Judge was basically Larry Fitzgerald, Vince Carter and Babe Ruth rolled into one.
At least to his tiny northern California town of Linden he was.
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We've all heard the stories of Patrick Mahomes and Anthony Edwards being these multipart superstars in high school, but Judge might have been better than them all.
The 6-foot-7 mammoth turned down opportunities to play football for UCLA, Stanford and Notre Dame and declined to turn pro when the Oakland Athletics drafted him in the 31st round of the 2010 draft.
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Instead, Judge chose to pursue college baseball at Fresno State.
Three years later, he was taken in the first round with the 32nd pick by the New York Yankees.
The rest was history.
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An AL MVP, six All-Star appearances, two-time All-MLB first team appearances and numerous other accolades later, Judge has the most storied franchise in arguably all of sports, on the precipice of immortality.
Judge has led the Yankees to their first World Series appearance since 2009, the last time they won it all.
A franchise that is synonymous with titles, and the most championships in all of sports with 27, is desperate for another.
They are starving for title number twenty-eight.
Judge has them on the doorstep.
The only thing standing in his way is Ohtani's Los Angeles Dodgers.
It is going to be a Fall Classic for the ages.
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If only the high school version of Judge could see him now.
Then again, he'd probably ask how his future self how he manages to play three professional sports, and excel in all of them.