Before Aaron Judge was the face of the Yankees, he was just another face – quite literally.
During his incredible 2017 rookie season, Judge sat in New York’s bustling Bryant Park for a Jimmy Fallon segment merely wearing a pair of glasses as a disguise.
With just the frames on, the outfielder was able to fool unsuspecting Yankees fans he spoke to into thinking he was just another MLB devotee – and his face wasn’t the only thing they were forgetting.
‘Adam Judge,’ one fan responded when Judge flashed a picture of himself. ‘I think he’s gonna be a superstar.’
To many, such a mistake might have been a blow to their ego. But Judge seemed to revel in the anonymity that he was then afforded.
Still, five years, and one record-breaking rookie season later, the baseball star has proven that fan’s prediction to be true. Judge, 30, is now one of the most successful athletes in the MLB.
But while he has gained the kind of sporting superstardom that many can only dream of – he has also lost the anonymity that he enjoyed as an unknown rookie, something that has no doubt been a tough pill to swallow for a man who protects his privacy so fiercely.
Aaron Judge has already hit 57 home runs this season, and looks well on his way to an MVP
When he tied the knot with his longtime girlfriend Samantha Bracksieck in an intimate Hawaii ceremony in December 2021, he did so in front of an incredibly select group of close friends and family in an attempt to keep the event as private as possible. Yet fans still got a glimpse at the couple’s nuptials when images of the happy couple were shared around the world – along with sweet snaps of them soaking up the sun ahead of their big day.
The 30-year-old is in the midst of a historic season, with a league-leading 57 home runs with 19 games left to play. Four more would tie the AL record set by another Yankee, Roger Maris, in 1961.
But while Judge is now arguably the greatest player in the sport, it wasn’t always a foregone conclusion he’d even pursue pro baseball.
At Linden High School in Linden, California, Judge excelled as a three-sport athlete, dominating baseball as well as football and basketball.
On the gridiron, Judge caught 17 touchdowns as a senior, setting a single-season school record while also recording 969 receiving yards.
On the hardwood, Judge was a force as well. Growing into a 6-foot-6, 205 pound frame by his sophomore year according to Bleacher Report, he would go on to be named an all-state center as a senior.
But despite his basketball prowess, and football recruiting offers from powerhouses like Stanford and Notre Dame, Judge eventually settled on the sport he now excels at, as he hit a .500 average and also thrived as a pitcher during his senor season.
‘Growing up I always thought I’d be a basketball player because I was so tall,’ he told local newspaper The Record after graduating from high school.
‘When it came to my junior year, I started getting a lot of letters for football. But once … I started going to a lot of baseball camps I knew this is what I’m going to go with.’
Judge would go on to star at Fresno State before eventually working his way through the Yankees minor league system up to the majors.
But to reduce Judge’s journey to a classic grit-and-grind sports tale would be to ignore another major fortune in his life, one that came far before his big league exploits.
When Judge was just two days old, he was adopted by his parents Patty and Wayne, and the Yankee has said he’s ‘blessed’ to have the pair in his life.
Judge was adopted by his parents Patty and Wayne, and has never met his biological parents
Judge brought his parents and wife Samantha Bracksieck to All-Star Weekend this year in LA
‘I feel they kind of picked me,’ Aaron told the New York Post in 2015 as a young prospect.
‘I feel that God was the one that matched us together.’
Two years later, as he broke through during an All-Star rookie campaign, he reflected on how his mom Patty helped him get to that point.
‘I know I wouldn’t be a New York Yankee if it wasn’t for my mom,’ Judge, who has never met his biological parents, told MLB.com.
‘The guidance she gave me as a kid growing up, knowing the difference from right and wrong, how to treat people and how to go the extra mile and put in extra work, all that kind of stuff. She’s molded me into the person that I am today.’
And who is that person, exactly? It’s somewhat hard to say, as Judge is extremely private.
The 30-year-old lives a low-key life off the baseball diamond, avoiding bars and nightclubs and successfully steering clear of the gossip columns.
Judge, who also identifies himself as a Christian on his social media accounts, married hometown sweetheart Samantha Bracksieck last December.
Judge and Bracksieck were married in Hawaii last December after dating for years
Bracksieck and Judge are seen just days before their wedding, which was held in Maui
The pair first dated in high school and college before eventually breaking up and later reuniting in 2019.
However, Bracksieck’s ‘extreme DUI’ charge in 2020 – where she was captured on body cam footage name-dropping her famous boyfriend – put a dent into Judge’s much-valued privacy.
‘[Derek] Jeter was private but didn’t mind his name being out there. He was showboat private,’ a source told the New York Post after the arrest.
‘Aaron is the total opposite. He is quiet quiet. The arrest had to be a gut punch to him.’
Nonetheless, the couple tied the knot in Hawaii last year, as DailyMail.com revealed, with just a handful of close friends and family in attendance in true Judge fashion. The couple made a public outing last week as they took in the US Open in Queens.
Bracksieck and Judge took in the US Open last week in Flushing, New York
Aside from enjoying his privacy, however, Judge cuts a generous and humble figure.
He told The Record in 2010 that one of his ‘favorite things to do’ was volunteering to pick up garbage with his high school basketball teammates, and the slugger has provided grants to schools in New York and California through his All Rise foundation.
‘His mother and I just wanted him to be a really good person,’ his adoptive father Wayne said.
He has never had any contact with his biological parents, and has another adopted brother, John, 36, who lives in Korea teaching English.
‘We’re more blessed than he is,’ mom Patty said of Aaron in an interview with the Post back in 2015. ‘Really, it was all meant to be.’
When he was growing up, Judge’s size was a running joke within the family.
‘We kind of joked that he looked like the Michelin Tire baby,’ his father said. ‘It wasn’t long before the 4 ounces of formula was just the appetizer and it had to be the formula with the oatmeal to pacify him.’
Judge has also proved to be a bit of a sneakerhead, wearing Jordans during the MLB All-Star weekend in 2021 and also donning custom cleats on various occasions, once honoring baseball pioneer Jackie Robinson.
‘The name of the game now is kind of designing your own cleats, putting your own little touch and design, and your own little style in the game,’ he told Complex this year.
And though the Yankees star is now wealthy enough to spend about $5,000 on nine pairs of sneakers – as he did in that episode of ‘Sneaker Shopping’ – he’s still in search of more money from the Yankees.
Judge rejected a seven-year, $213.5million extension offer from New York before the season, an eyewatering sum to most players but one that has ultimately proved insufficient to Judge’s value.
Judge turned down a hefty contract offer from the Yankees and is now set to get even more
After struggling with injuries from 2019-20 and failing to recapture the form of his 52-home run rookie season, Judge had a strong 2021 and ultimately chose to play out his contract after deeming the Yankees’ offer too low.
That decision has paid off, with Judge now reportedly in line to command a $300m contract in free agency.
The Yankees, it looks like, will have to break the bank to keep their star in New York.
At least for now though, Judge is focused on something else when it comes to his division-leading squad.
‘People wanna talk about contracts, that’s not what I’m playing for,’ he told MLB Network in May.
‘I’m playing to bring a championship back here to New York.’
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