Intent on teaching a lesson, Mike Batesole remembers calling on a new recruit before Fresno State’s first day of practice in 2011. “Hey big man, stand up,” the former Bulldogs baseball coach told the freshman with their entire team watching. “So you had 17 touchdowns in high school last year, didn’t you?” “Yeah,” the newbie replied.
“And you scored 18 points a game on the basketball team, right?” Batesole continued. Once again, the freshman answered in the affirmative. “And you hit .
500, right?” Batesole peppered. After another confirmation, the old school coach dropped the hammer. “I said, ‘Sit down.
Nobody bleepin’ cares,’” Batesole recalled in an interview with the Daily News. “Just to get the point right out of gate that this is about your teammates. You’re here for us.
We’re not here for you.” Asked how Aaron Judge , the freshman in question, responded to that back-and-forth, Batesole chuckled. “He sat down with that big, beautiful smile that he has,” he said.
Years later, Batesole’s efforts at instilling a team-first attitude remain with Judge. Even in the midst of another MVP-caliber season, the Yankees superstar’s first instinct is to always shine a light on others and self-criticize. Asking him to talk about his league-leading stats or the historic company he regularly joins can feel like pulling teeth .
“This game will humble you in a minute,” Judge told The News. “If I mess up, I’ll talk about me all the time. But the good stuff? People have done it before.
People have better careers, better numbers. For me to sit here and talk about myself, that takes away from the whole aspect of this team and what we’re trying to accomplish. So I never want it to be about me and what I’m doing.
It’s about what us, the Yankees, are doing.” Judge made a few exceptions to his no self-recognition policy after crushing his 300th career home run in the Yankees’ win on Wednesday. But even then, he tried to downplay his personal milestone despite achieving it at a record-setting pace .
“That’s just the way he is,” Austin Wells said. “That’s why he’s the captain of the team. He’s worried about winning and it’s up to us to be excited for him and happy for him.
I know it means a lot to him. Winning means more.” Judge’s approach is understandable given his position as team captain.
But with reporters often writing stories centered on the outfielder, it can also prove challenging. Which is why creative questions are occasionally asked of Judge. Such was the case on June 22, when Judge had 24 homers in his last 50 games.
Aware of his reluctance to discuss his own success, The News asked Judge what he would think if he saw another player on such a tear. “I gotta see it,” Judge said, avoiding any possibility of sounding boastful in a postgame scrum. A few moments later, with cameras and recorders no longer pointed at him, Judge cracked a joke with The News.
“One day, you’ll get me,” he said, flashing the same smile that Batesole mentioned. “Me” is one of the words Judge and other teammates were forbidden from using at Fresno State. “I,” “my” and mine” were also on the restricted list.
Uttering those words during practice, games and interviews led to fines under Batesole. “That was one of the first things we learned as freshmen,” Judge said. “Because he would read all the newspapers.
He would read anything that we did, and if you ever talked like, ‘Oh yeah, I felt really good in my at-bat and the homer felt great’ and all this kind of stuff, we always had kangaroo court. That week he’d be like, ‘Judge, you’re fined two bucks for this. Here’s another two bucks for I and then there’s five bucks for the me in this last sentence.
’ He always ran up the tab pretty good. It taught you pretty quick this game is not all about you.” Judge went on to say that he ran out of money quickly.
“I was in the red a lot in college,” he said. “So it was a lot of calls to my parents like, ‘Hey, could you throw a couple more bucks in my bank account?'” However, Batesole said that “it was really hard to get” Judge, so the Bulldogs always laughed at his rare fines. Batesole also said that fines for using prohibited words cost only $1, though players kept track of other clubhouse infractions in a suggestion box of sorts.
Once practice ended each Friday, the team held court. As if the trials and fines were not enough, Batesole had another way of reminding his players of his team-first policy. During his tenure, Fresno State’s facilities featured signs that read “41st.
” That number represented all the players and coaches on the team — and that every single one of them should come before the individual looking at the sign. Judge heard a similar message when he joined the Yankees after the 2013 draft. Now he’s the one preaching it.
“It takes all of us,” Judge said. “It’s not just one guy. I always loved that.
That’s what it’s all about. It’s how you win. It’s a group effort.
” Asked if he’s proud of Judge for still cherishing his values, Batesole said “it makes me feel like 1 billionth of one atom of me is in the big leagues.” However, the coach wanted to make it clear that Judge’s attitude predated his arrival at Fresno State. “It started with Wayne and Patty,” Batesole said, referring to Judge’s parents, who met at Fresno State.
“He showed up an amazing, humble kid, eager to learn. His proprioception and the way that he adapts and adjusts was off the chart. All’s we did was try to provide him an environment where those kinds of things could come out.
” Batesole had the same hope for all his players at Fresno State. He claimed the program’s “No. 1 goal” wasn’t winning, but for his guys to make “lifelong friends.
” That, he said, served as the impetus for his desire to weed out selfishness. “You look up 20 years later, who gives a crap if you played in the big leagues?” Batesole asked. “Does that make you a better person? I’ve known, coached and played with a lot of guys who played in the big leagues.
Some of them are punks. Some of them are awesome dudes, just like electricians and plumbers and anybody else. But what matters is what kind of friend and what kind of teammate you are 10 years, 20 years after you’re done playing.
Is one of your college teammates the best man in your wedding? When you still have funks and problems in your marriage, are those the guys you call? “And that’s who [Judge] is and what he hopefully got out of it.” Now positioned as the Yankees’ leader for the foreseeable future, Judge wants to pass along the same lessons Batesole taught on his first day of college practice. If all goes according to plan, the Yankees’ next wave of leaders will do the same.
“I just try to set a good example, especially with the young guys coming up behind me and the next generation,” Judge said. “I just want to show them that it’s not just you. You may come up and have a good couple weeks and have a good year.
You may have a good whatever, but it takes a whole team. Just try to reiterate that. Hopefully the next guy coming behind me reiterates the same message, and then hopefully I did something good.
”.
