Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated
I’ve never experienced anything like the atmosphere at Yankee Stadium the last three nights. The Yankees won all three games, the first on a walk-off grand slam and the third via a walk-off RBI single in the 10th inning to clinch a playoff berth. Yet, all of that felt secondary to what didn’t happen—Aaron Judge did not hit his 61st home run to tie Roger Maris for the most homers by an American League player in a single season.
That doesn’t mean we all left disappointed. Far from it, actually. Tom Petty sang that the waiting is the hardest part; in this case, the waiting was thrilling. There was an unmistakable electricity surging through the corridors of the stadium that continued out with us as we boarded the 4 train ever so slowly and rode home from the Bronx through Manhattan. The buzz didn’t dissipate until I transferred to the A train at Fulton Street and returned home to Brooklyn.
