The World Baseball Classic for Captain America — and Yankees captain — Aaron Judge begins Friday night with the first of Team USA’s four games in five days in Pool A play against Brazil in Houston.
Let’s see whether No. 99 and a loaded American squad can build on a smaller scale to the rush of flag-waving support generated by the gold-medal runs of the U.S. men’s and women’s ice hockey squads last month at the Winter Olympics in Milan.
Of course, many eyes will be focused on Judge, who finally is making his debut in the showcase tournament after sitting out the 2023 WBC to focus on his newly minted role as pinstriped captain following his AL-record 62 home runs — and $360 million contract — the previous year.
Judge is taking a different approach this time around and fully embracing his role as one of the unquestioned faces of MLB.