Are you mad at Aaron Judge?
Aaron Judge dropped a fly ball in the fifth inning of the 2024 World Series. Then Anthony Volpe turned a routine throw into a vicious short hop. But New York Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole came to the rescue by striking out two batters and getting Mookie Betts to ground weakly to first base for the third … well, the rest is history.
Cole forgot to cover first base, Betts reached safely, and the Los Angeles Dodgers scored five times to tie the game. They eventually won 7-6 and captured another World Series title.
So the question posed here is: Who should Yankees fans blame for the loss? Judge? Volpe? Cole? Aaron Boone? From a Christian standpoint, how about none of the above?
If you do a Google search for “Yankees choke,” you can get your fill with an all-you-can-eat buffet of negativity. But be careful. It can be a slippery slope.
Watch any of the sports talk shows that seem to be on television 24-7 — or check out posts on X from sports personalities, players, and insiders — and a sizeable chunk of their dialogue is directed at the burning question: “Who’s to blame?”
But there’s a problem. And it applies to all sports, not just Yankees fans. It leads to the wrong mindset. When pointing fingers at individuals, it’s more likely to linger on the side of hate as opposed to love.
As a Christian, consider why the blame game is so important in sports. The reason is the tremendous amount of money involved in dissecting what went wrong and who’s responsible. What kind of viewership would ESPN’s Get Up or First Take have if they never talked about these things?
Talk shows thrive on assessing blame. It is what most sports fans want to see and hear. Yankees fans want Judge and others to be publicly held accountable for their errors. Yankees haters want their World Series loss to carry on for days and days.
It’s an endless cycle. Don’t believe it? Search the Internet for “Who’s to blame?” and insert your favorite team after the question, college or pro. Look at the results. The reason this populates so many stories is because this is what people want to see.
The only thing that slows the cycle for a given sport is the end of the season. But even in the offseason, the blame game trickles on until a new season of blame arrives.
But blame is a funny thing because every game is won and lost through a series of someone’s errors. Of course, it can be things like Judge did. But for every strikeout by a pitcher, there’s a batter who swung and missed or didn’t swing. For every home run, there’s a pitch that wasn’t good enough. For every success, there’s a failure.
And another thing about blame is how it lurks. A triumph can turn into blame in the blink of an eye. A good example is the blame cast upon Aaron Boone for using pitcher Nestor Cortes in Game 1. Cortes gave up an epic grand slam to Freddie Freeman that pretty much sealed the Yankees’ fate for the entire series. However, Cortes retired Shohei Ohtani before Freeman homered. Cortes retired the game’s most dangerous hitter, the presumed MVP.
Boone got roasted because Cortes hadn’t pitched in a month. You can’t put him in that situation against Freeman, they said. But Boone put Cortes in the situation against Ohtani, and he got him out with one pitch. Blame has a short memory. As soon as Freeman hit the grand slam, everybody seemed to forget Boone’s decision worked against a more dangerous hitter. (Freeman hit .282 with 22 homers and 89 RBIs this season, while Ohtani batted .310 with 54 homers and 130 RBIs.) Therefore, how could it be a mistake to let Cortes pitch to Freeman when he was good enough to get Ohtani out?
Also, keep in mind earlier in the game the superb play Judge made on a deep fly ball off the bat of Freeman. Again, blame has a short memory.
It seems like sports fans seek to apply blame like it provides relief. But blame never delivers real relief. It only keeps the disappointment simmering. For some people, it can simmer for a lifetime.
That’s sad.
Before jumping on the blame bandwagon, remember this. No Yankees fan feels worse than Cole, Volpe, or Judge. That’s because those guys are Yankees fans, too. But added to their mix, they had a chance to do something about it. So it is multiplied on them.
I get it. Blame comes easy. And in the heat of the moment, it can burst forth quickly. I’m guilty too many times when watching one of my favorite teams. The main thing is trying to keep things in perspective. It’s a challenge, for sure.
But why not show grace to Judge, Volpe, and Cole? Because as Christians we’ve received a far greater measure of grace than what it takes for the outcome of a baseball game.
Ephesians 2:8-9
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.