{"id":36910,"date":"2025-03-29T03:31:32","date_gmt":"2025-03-29T03:31:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=36910"},"modified":"2025-03-29T03:31:32","modified_gmt":"2025-03-29T03:31:32","slug":"aaron-judge-shared-heartfelt-message-about-brett-gardner-after-yankees-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=36910","title":{"rendered":"Aaron Judge Shared Heartfelt Message About Brett Gardner After Yankees’ Win"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Gardner’s 14-year-old son Miller recently passed away after falling ill on a vacation.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\"Gardner<\/picture><\/figure>\n
Gardner and Judge at Yankee Stadium. \/ Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The New York Yankees played\u2014and won\u2014on Opening Day with heavy hearts after the death of former Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner’s 14-year-old son Miller, who\u00a0tragically passed away after falling ill\u00a0on a family vacation in Costa Rica.<\/p>\n

Prior to the national anthem on Thursday, the Yankees honored Gardner’s son with a\u00a0moment of silence. After the Yankees’ 4-2 win over the Milwaukee Brewers, team captain\u00a0Aaron Judge spoke to reporters\u00a0and shared some heartfelt thoughts about how much Gardner means to him and the organization, adding that the former outfielder’s family has been “on his mind.”<\/p>\n

“I got a lot of phone calls, texts from other guys that when we were young guys coming up\u2014’What do we do? Do we reach out? What’s going on?'” Judge said. “Just because of the way that Brett impacted all of our lives. He may not have been the big superstar with all the All-Stars and MVPs and this and that.<\/p>\n

“But this guy was a leader of all of us. A second dad to some guys. He poured everything into every single guy. If you were having a tough time, he was always there for you to be someone to lean on, someone to joke on. His family\u2014they’ve all been on my mind.”<\/p>\n

During the game, Judge also appeared to make a special tribute to Gardner when the Yankees fans affectionately known as the “Bleacher Creatures”, chanted his name during the traditional roll call in the top of the first inning. When Gardner played for the Yankees, he would acknowledge the fans’ chants with a flex move.<\/p>\n

Over the last few years,\u00a0Judge has been honoring Gardner\u00a0by imitating the flex move when he’s been in center field, the position Gardner played when he first made it to the big leagues with the Yankees.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Judge again paid tribute to Gardner with the move, this time from right field.<\/p>\n

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