Aurilia learned he was Judge\u2019s favorite player not long after his monster debut in 2017 when Judge won American League Rookie of the Year and finished second for AL MVP.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018Wow,\u2019\u201d Aurilia said he remembered thinking. \u201cWhy is it me?\u2019 That was the question I asked myself. But understanding more about him as time went on, knowing that he grew up in sort of the Bay Area and was a Giants fan. It was kind of an honor.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Aaron](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-832188948-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Rich Aurilia learned he was Aaron Judge\u2019s favorite player soon after Judge\u2019s breakout 2017 season. (Elsa \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
As a Brooklyn native who attended St. John\u2019s University, Aurilia still has lots of friends in New York City, ones he would attend Yankees and New York Mets games with in high school. They all know the story.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo have a lot of people text me and call me and say, \u2018Did you know you were Aaron Judge\u2019s favorite player as a kid?\u2019 It kind of hit me as a surprise,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Although Aurilia didn\u2019t have the star power of Bonds, he carved out an impressive major-league career. He spent 12 seasons with the Giants, two with the Cincinnati Reds, and parts of one season with the Seattle Mariners and San Diego Padres. His breakout year came in 2001, when he led the NL with 206 hits, hit a career-high 37 home runs and made the All-Star team.<\/p>\n
He said he nearly donned pinstripes at the end of his career. Just before he retired in 2010, he talked to the Yankees about an invite to spring training. But the day before camp started, the club told him it wanted to give lots of reps to a young shortstop prospect named Eduardo N\u00fa\u00f1ez. The Yankees didn\u2019t offer Aurilia a contract, and he hung up his cleats. He finished his career with 1,576 hits, 186 home runs, and 18.2 WAR, according to Baseball Reference.<\/p>\n
The Bay Area became home for Aurilia, who shortly after retirement took his current TV gig. The proximity led Giants president and CEO Larry Baer to ask Aurilia to join the club in its secret pitch to try to sign Judge in free agency in December 2022.<\/p>\n
Aurilia was part of a group that included Logan Webb and Brandon Crawford that greeted Judge and tried to sell him on leaving the Yankees for San Francisco. Aurilia said he briefly met Judge\u2019s parents before he talked privately with Judge and his wife, Samantha, for about a half-hour. He said they talked about what Judge was looking for and what he wanted at the time, and what it might be like playing so close to home.<\/p>\n
But before the meeting even started, Aurilia went to shake Judge\u2019s hand for the first time. That\u2019s when he got confirmation he was Judge\u2019s favorite player.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said something to the effect of, \u2018You don\u2019t have to introduce yourself to me,\u2019\u201d Aurilia said. \u201c\u2018I know who you are. I watched you play my whole life growing up. You were my favorite player.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Aurilia paused after recalling the memory.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was kind of a good feeling,\u201d he said. \u201cA really nice feeling. For me, I follow his career a bit because he\u2019s one of the best players in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Aaron](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_9941-scaled-e1774399038117.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Aaron Judge and Rich Aurilia talked earlier this month before Team USA faced the Giants in an exhibition game. (Courtesy of Alex Pavlovic)<\/p>\n
Aurilia and Judge met for a second time recently \u2014 and Aurilia was able to tell Judge how he feels about him.<\/p>\n
New Giants manager Tony Vitello and president of baseball operations Buster Posey invited Aurilia to spring training in Scottsdale, Ariz., to be a guest instructor. On March 3, Team USA faced the Giants in an exhibition before the start of the World Baseball Classic<\/a>.<\/p>\n Aurilia was shagging fly balls in the outfield when he saw Judge head toward the batting cages. So he walked toward the dugout, and when Judge saw him, he immediately recognized him.<\/p>\n \u201cHe reiterated to me, \u2018Hey, man. You were my idol as a kid,\u2019\u201d Aurilia said.<\/p>\n This time, Aurilia was ready.<\/p>\n \u201cDude, you\u2019re my\u00a0idol now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 Sometimes Rich Aurilia still scratches his head over it. Aaron Judge \u2014 the captain of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,369,2329,99],"class_list":["post-544005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-san-francisco-giants","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}