Staten Island Little League coach blasts Aaron Judge for no reason, ignores evidence

Of all the things you can say about Aaron Judge's Yankees, the one criticism that falls the flattest is a shot across the bough at his relationship with the city's children. Judge has always been beyond accommodating in both the public eye and away from the camera. No superstar -- nay, megastar -- signs more baseballs or goes further beyond the typical boundary in the name of kindness.

But don't tell that to Staten Island Little League coach Bob Laterza, who somehow got New Yorkers to root against his kids at the Little League World Series on Tuesday night.

Team Florida sent Staten Island packing, but not before Laterza inexplicably roasted Judge in an entitled manner, claiming his team couldn't get a wave out of him during the Little League Classic on Sunday, insinuating the Yankees' captain should've paid more attention to those who "pay salary."

Sorry, you talking about kids or yourself?

Staten Island Little League coach roasts Yankees' Aaron Judge for no reason

Of course, Laterza's complaints only got more unfounded. Not only did he paint Judge as a villain, but he whined that not enough Yankees visited his team. Or not the right ones? Really not sure.

Regardless, the team fulfilled their promise to hang with the Staten Islanders. DJ LeMahieu and Tim Hill visited them at the hotel. Gerrit Cole, Jasson Dominguez, Nick Swisher, Nestor Cortes, and Aaron Boone made time for them at the field. That wasn't enough for Laterza, though, who is such a diehard fan that he couldn't recognize David Cone when the legendary right-hander walked up and congratulated him.

Oh, and not for nothing, but ... look at all these kids Aaron Judge greeted! He even entered the event riding the bus seated next to a lucky Little Leaguer. Sorry that, somehow, Staten Island ended up feeling slighted by meeting many Yankees, but not meeting all of them. No matter how much you do, you can always do more.

Luckily, the Yankees had Judge's back, releasing a statement in response to Laterza's claims on Tuesday afternoon.

“Our entire roster spent the day in Williamsport connecting with as many Little Leaguers as they possibly could prior to our game, including the team from Staten Island,’’ it read, snuffing out Laterza's 15 minutes of fame with a hearty stomp.

The Yankees set up Team Florida for the alley-oop, and thankfully, the Little League World Series can now go back to being a celebration of the game at its core, rather than a sniveling opportunity to craft a checklist of every wave kids didn't receive.