The biggest star of the city is Mike Lupica.

Can Lupica go an entire article without bringing up the 2004 ALCS?

Also, there is no such thing as biggest star of the city:

"The nickname for Aaron Judge, of course, is All Rise. Except he keeps sitting down, even though there is no Yankees right now and no baseball."

I get it!

His nickname is "rise" (like a judge, which is his last name), but he "sits" because he is injured.

The turns of phrase are truly genius.


"Judge looked like one of the biggest and brightest stars in baseball. He hit 52 home runs in 2017 and finished second in the MVP voting in the American League."
Correct.

It wasn't long ago.


"So he might have been lucky to get on the field 100 times, after he missed 50 games in 2018 and 60 games in 2019. I’ve pointed this out before, but you know when Mike Trout has missed 50 games in a season?

Never, is when."
 

You know how many times David Wright missed 50 games?

 

I don't know.

 

It was a lot.

 

Didn't bother Lupica because Lupica was in love with the Mets.

 

 

"Jeter played shortstop, for 20 years. He played 19 full seasons. He missed 50 or more games in a season exactly one time, when a broken ankle suffered the previous October wouldn’t heal properly. Then came a quad strain and then came Jeter finally being shut down for good. In the end he played just 17 games in 2013. Other than that, the fewest games he’s ever played in a full Yankee season was 119."

 

What is the bar you're setting here?

 

Mike Trout and Derek Jeter?

 

 

"Maybe Judge does have a ton of Jeter in him. But he seems to have some Mickey Mantle in him, too. Mantle once looked like Superman, too. Until he wasn’t. He kept fighting through injuries, almost all of them to his legs, and finally limped away from the game for good when he was 36."

 

Now Lupica is comparing Judge to Mickey Mantle and acting like a Mantle career would be a disappointment.

 

Mantle is a baseball immortal.

If Judge manages half the career of Mantle, he would be not only the biggest star in New York, but a sure HOFer himself.

 

 

"If there is baseball by summer, imagine what it would be like in the place I started calling Baseball New York a long time ago if we had Alonso hitting homers on his side of the city and Judge hitting them on his side. Neither one of them chasing 50 this season, just each other."

 

"Baseball New York."

 

 

"Judge shouldn’t just be one of the stars of baseball. He should be the biggest star in New York sports right now, because of those 52 during the ’17 season, during which Judge carried the Yankees all the way to Game 7 of the American League Championship Series against the Houston Trash Cans. Mickey Mantle hit 52 in his Triple Crown season of 1956, and then in ’61, when he was chasing Roger Maris and they were both chasing Babe Ruth and Mantle ended up with 54."

 

So I think in a roundabout way you're saying that Alonso has passed Judge as the best player in  "Baseball New York"?

 

Yeah.

 

No one cares.

 

Yankee fans just want Judge to get healthy and, when he does, he'll probably be a great player. Maybe not as good as Alonso, who knows? I think, for any current ballplayer, the juiciness of the baseball will affect their numbers quite a bit.

 

Having said that, it's almost impossible to imagine Judge's career approaching Trout, Jeter, or Mantle.

 

 

Also, if you're going to create a place called Baseball New York, and you want to discuss the current biggest star, it's crazy to not even mention the Baseball New York player who has won back-to-back Cy Young Awards.