It will forever be true that, on the day Aaron Judge hit homer number 61, his manager was … Anthony Rizzo.
With the New York Yankees having clinched the day before, manager Aaron Boone had Rizzo serve as “guest manager” for the game, which appears to have been one part serious and one part humorous. The way Boone described it before the game: “Rizz is helping me out today,” Boone said, per SI.com. “He helped out with the lineup today, putting it together. He’s gonna help in the decision-making process this game.”
Boone would therefore get to take a little step back, and Rizzo would get to have some fun.
Rizzo certainly had the look down cold:
Wait … wait … wait … ok, proceed:
It seems Gleyber Torres served as bench coach for the game, so clearly the Cubs know how to train up future managers:
The whole thing clearly worked, as the Yankees smoked the Blue Jays, and Aaron Judge finally hit number 61.
We’ve seen Anthony Rizzo having fun over the years with the Cubs, from the time he was taking grounders at third, to his multiple FLAWLESS relief appearances, to the way he embraced becoming the Greatest Leadoff Hitter of All-Time. We never got to see him manage, though.
Er, well, apparently he DID do it under Joe Maddon one time, but I have absolutely no memory of this, and it feels like something I would remember! So I didn’t “see” it. But there’s proof: