SAN FRANCISCO — Sometimes Rich Aurilia still scratches his head over it. Aaron Judge — the captain of the New York Yankees, one of the best hitters of all time and the most popular player in today’s game not named Shohei Ohtani — chose him.
Growing up as a San Francisco Giants devotee in Linden, Calif., about 90 minutes from Oracle Park, the powerful Judge could have idolized slugging legends like Barry Bonds or Jeff Kent.
Nah. For the 6-foot-7 Judge, his guy was Aurilia, a scrappy 6-foot shortstop who played 15 seasons in the majors and made exactly one All-Star team.
“Yeah,” Aurilia said in a phone interview Tuesday afternoon, “it’s pretty crazy.”
When the Yankees face the Giants on Opening Day on Wednesday night, the 54-year-old Aurilia won’t be in the house. He was invited to hang out for the game. But as an analyst for NBC Sports Bay Area, he’ll be on studio duty for Friday afternoon’s matchup anyway, and he might swing by the field before heading to work. While he’s there, he might check in with Judge, with whom he’s developed a friendly relationship.
“He just seems like a genuine guy,” Aurilia said, “like a nice guy.”
For Judge, connecting with Aurilia as a kid was easy.
Judge’s father, Wayne, wore No. 35 when he played recreational basketball. Judge would root on his dad from the bleachers.
Guess what Aurilia’s number was with the Giants?
“So,” Aurilia said, “he started watching me play and liked the way that I played.”
“I copied his stance when I was in Little League,” Judge told NJ.com’s Randy Miller in 2017. “I was the tallest kid and I was crouched down like Aurilia. It was funny.”
Aurilia learned he was Judge’s favorite player not long after his monster debut in 2017 when Judge won American League Rookie of the Year and finished second for AL MVP.
“‘Wow,’” Aurilia said he remembered thinking. “Why is it me?’ That was the question I asked myself. But understanding more about him as time went on, knowing that he grew up in sort of the Bay Area and was a Giants fan. It was kind of an honor.”
Rich Aurilia learned he was Aaron Judge’s favorite player soon after Judge’s breakout 2017 season. (Elsa / Getty Images)
As a Brooklyn native who attended St. John’s University, Aurilia still has lots of friends in New York City, ones he would attend Yankees and New York Mets games with in high school. They all know the story.
“To have a lot of people text me and call me and say, ‘Did you know you were Aaron Judge’s favorite player as a kid?’ It kind of hit me as a surprise,” he said.
Although Aurilia didn’t have the star power of Bonds, he carved out an impressive major-league career. He spent 12 seasons with the Giants, two with the Cincinnati Reds, and parts of one season with the Seattle Mariners and San Diego Padres. His breakout year came in 2001, when he led the NL with 206 hits, hit a career-high 37 home runs and made the All-Star team.
He said he nearly donned pinstripes at the end of his career. Just before he retired in 2010, he talked to the Yankees about an invite to spring training. But the day before camp started, the club told him it wanted to give lots of reps to a young shortstop prospect named Eduardo Núñez. The Yankees didn’t offer Aurilia a contract, and he hung up his cleats. He finished his career with 1,576 hits, 186 home runs, and 18.2 WAR, according to Baseball Reference.
The Bay Area became home for Aurilia, who shortly after retirement took his current TV gig. The proximity led Giants president and CEO Larry Baer to ask Aurilia to join the club in its secret pitch to try to sign Judge in free agency in December 2022.
Aurilia was part of a group that included Logan Webb and Brandon Crawford that greeted Judge and tried to sell him on leaving the Yankees for San Francisco. Aurilia said he briefly met Judge’s parents before he talked privately with Judge and his wife, Samantha, for about a half-hour. He said they talked about what Judge was looking for and what he wanted at the time, and what it might be like playing so close to home.
But before the meeting even started, Aurilia went to shake Judge’s hand for the first time. That’s when he got confirmation he was Judge’s favorite player.
“He said something to the effect of, ‘You don’t have to introduce yourself to me,’” Aurilia said. “‘I know who you are. I watched you play my whole life growing up. You were my favorite player.’”
Aurilia paused after recalling the memory.
“That was kind of a good feeling,” he said. “A really nice feeling. For me, I follow his career a bit because he’s one of the best players in the game.”
Aaron Judge and Rich Aurilia talked earlier this month before Team USA faced the Giants in an exhibition game. (Courtesy of Alex Pavlovic)
Aurilia and Judge met for a second time recently — and Aurilia was able to tell Judge how he feels about him.
New Giants manager Tony Vitello and president of baseball operations Buster Posey invited Aurilia to spring training in Scottsdale, Ariz., to be a guest instructor. On March 3, Team USA faced the Giants in an exhibition before the start of the World Baseball Classic.
Aurilia was shagging fly balls in the outfield when he saw Judge head toward the batting cages. So he walked toward the dugout, and when Judge saw him, he immediately recognized him.
“He reiterated to me, ‘Hey, man. You were my idol as a kid,’” Aurilia said.
This time, Aurilia was ready.
“Dude, you’re my idol now.”