Aaron Judge evoking old Yankee Stadium in post-HR interview will give you chills

It's now been the same amount of time since the magical 2017 Yankees run as it was between the 2009 championship and 2017, which feels impossible. Back then, Judge was a fresh-faced force of thunder, delivering laser after laser in key October moments. Entering Game 3 on Tuesday against the Toronto Blue Jays, he was both the agreed-upon greatest hitter in the game and a maligned postseason presence, eight years removed from directly fueling a run of underdog victories.

Fair? Absolutely not. Nothing about the way Judge has been discussed, with his poor bases-loaded AB in Game 1 overruling his .400+ average this postseason, has been fair. But being a Yankee is all about creating moments. And those moments are tougher to create these days in the new stadium, which opened just before that 2009 title run. The seats don't creak quite so loud. The balconies don't shake. Mickey Mantle was never here. Ruth built something else. It was across the street, and it's gone now.

But, just when you think you've seen it all and the best can't be yet to come, Judge delivers a chill down your spine. He comes to the plate with two runners on against a pitcher throwing 100 MPH inside off the dish and performs an act that feels both totally natural and completely impossible at the exact same time. He hits an unhittable pitch to an unreachable place. He changes his legacy. He shakes the stadium so hard it unearths the bones of the place across the street.

After the game, Judge made it clear to Ken Rosenthal that he knew exactly what he'd done. "Thankfully, the ghost kinda took that one over and kept it fair for us," he smiled, finally one with history.

Yankees' Aaron Judge evoked the ghosts of Old Yankee Stadium with postgame interview after Game 3 vs. Blue Jays

Which ghost visited on Tuesday? Was it Mantle or Maris, checking in on the man who completed the pursuit of 61? Was it Munson, rolling his eyes at the idea that the Yankees — his Yankees — would ever surrender? Was it Gehrig or Ruth, watching a 100 MPH heater break off the black in on Judge's hands and deciding right then and there that they didn't need to watch any more baseball for a while?

The Ghosts of Yankee Stadium haven't been around much since ownership discarded the throbbing mob effect of the old upper deck in favor of the empty moat and fresh crab legs at the new place. But, on Tuesday, Judge communed with the echoes of yesteryear, cementing his greatness with an endorsement from the heroes who came before him.

The ghosts only show up when the comeback feels impossible and requires a bend in the space-time continuum from the otherworldly. And we'd like to thank them for the reminder that they're still allowed to show up from time to time.