For Yankees' Aaron Judge, making history means staying healthy - ESPN

LOS ANGELES — Every two weeks or so, from 2017 through the 2024 season, Richard Schenck visited Aaron Judge to help refine his superstar pupil's swing. But they haven't met at all this season. There hasn't been a need.

«The darn swing is pretty much automatic,» said Schenck, a hitting instructor based in Missouri. «There's no thinking anymore. There's just see ball, hit ball. And when he swings the bat, the good swing comes out. No tuneup needed.»

Thorough upkeeping isn't required as Judge builds on the best 13-month regular-season stretch from a right-handed hitter in Major League Baseball history. There are a few reasons for the New York Yankees slugger's otherworldly success — from swing optimization to accumulated experience — but there's one factor that matters most: Judge, a towering behemoth hampered by injuries early in his career, is staying on the field as he enters his mid-30s.

«I think that's the biggest thing, is getting a chance to just play every single day and I can make those adjustments,» said Judge, who celebrated his 33rd birthday last month and became a father in January. «If I have a couple bad games, I can make an adjustment, figure it out and get to work.

»When you get hurt, your main focus is getting back on the field and when you get back on the field now it's, 'My swing ain't right' because I've missed out on 120, 150 at-bats. So, I think that's been the biggest thing for me."

Judge crushed 52 home runs in 155 games as a rookie in 2017, but injuries followed. From 2018, Judge's second full season, through the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign, the slugger appeared in just 63% of the Yankees' regular-season games. He landed on the injured list four times with wrist, oblique and calf injuries (plus