Yankees fans in bleachers were relentless with Arson Judge reminders at Opening Day
With Gerrit Cole's dominance, Anthony Volpe's MLB debut, and Gleyber Torres' two-run bomb, it was awfully hard to pick a Player of the Game from the Yankees' Opening Day masterpiece against the San Francisco Giants.
But, at the end of the day ... it had to be Arson Judge. After all, nobody made more of an impression on both fanbases this offseason, and during Thursday's action.
There was a 24-hour period, right around Judge's TIME Magazine profile release and crescendoing with the famed "Arson Judge appears headed to Giants" tweet where it really seemed like he'd be in the other dugout when Opening Day rolled around this year (and yes, MLB knew exactly what they were doing with this particular bit of scheduling). Even Aaron Boone admitted prior to Thursday's game that, during his darkest point of the offseason, he let his mind slip and envision it.
Luckily, for Boone, Hal Steinbrenner closed this particular deal in Italy, making an Opening Day's worth of Arson references salt in the wound for San Francisco rather than painful for Yankees fans.
Yankees fans represented Arson Judge at Opening Day vs Giants
Whew. Thank ... thank goodness it was us who came out on top, both grabbing the Opening Day win and the long-term win in this lil' rivalry.
Yankee fans used the Arson Judge tweet to remind Giants fans of what they'd lost. Turns out, though, they didn't really need reminding.
One ... Giants fan (we think?) came prepared for the game, rocking an Arson Judge jersey in orange and black.
According to that man, per Jomboy Media, the post-tweet glow was "the best seven minutes" of his life. Again, this is a fan of a three-time World Champion in the 2010s. Have some perspective, man. And maybe save the $250 bucks on the authentic jersey next time a free agent spurns you. $500 if he bought the Correa model, too.
Hopefully, the rest of this series is as stress-free as the opening 5-0 win, and nothing close to as stressful as the brief period last December when it felt like Judge was going to kiss a Giants logo while the Yankees unraveled.