Yankees greats don't like what they're seeing, either: ‘Mental mistakes are unacceptable'

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16 hours ago

NEW YORK — I've often wondered how Aaron Judge feels about the years slipping by without a championship. He's only human. The frustration must be keen, especially this summer with the Yankees going nowhere.
Imagine the thought cloud over Judge's head during Old-Timers' Day on Saturday. He mingled in the clubhouse as the 2000 Bombers were honored for their third straight World Series conquest, the fourth in five years.
And Judge still has none.
His greatest fear is to become a latter-day Don Mattingly, who ended his 14-year career without a ring. Judge still has time – he's 34, still at his physical peak – but the determining factor will be the players around him.
Other than Judge himself, I can't imagine any of the 2025 Yankees making the cut with the Joe Torre-era clubs. And I'm not just talking about talent, it's the poor fundamentals and lack of focus that's dooming manager Aaron Boone's roster.
Pity. They're taking Judge down with them.
Who better to ask than the last group of winners? Pleasantries aside, the former champs were critical of today's counterparts for continuing to self-destruct.
'The mental mistakes are unacceptable,' said former first baseman Tino Martinez. 'The physical mistakes you can accept: You're going to make errors, you're going to strike out. But the mental stuff, you can't have that.
'You can't give away outs, you can't make your pitchers throw extra pitches. You can't do that. You can't do that in the regular season. You definitely can't do it in the postseason.'
Martinez made sure to praise Judge for his dedication and work ethic, which should've inspired the '25 Yankees by now. Instead, the Bombers are barely clinging to the third wild-card spot.
'Aaron sets the example the way (Derek) Jeter did,' Martinez said. 'There's no one more prepared than Aaron Judge. These guys have to follow that. You can't take a day off, you can't be out there thinking about something else.
'Judge is not a rah-rah guy. He's not going to yell at his team, same way Derek wouldn't. They've got to step up on their own.'
Former catcher Jorge Posada was just as blunt, telling SNY, '(The current players) gotta get a little angry. They need to have a chip on their shoulder. You can't be friends with everybody.'
And there was this dose of reality from former second baseman Willie Randolph.
'Teams are not afraid of us anymore,' the former captain told the network.
But the real roadblock isn't necessarily the Dodgers or Blue Jays or the Astros. It's the legacy of Torre's teams that've been so crushing to Boone's clubs since 2018.
Think of what the 2000 Yankees accomplished. Not only did they take down the Mets in the Subway Series, they did so after a mediocre 87-win season. Eight teams won more games than the Yankees during the regular season.
The Bombers racked up 15 losses in their final 18 games in September, including the last seven in a row.
Yet, somehow, Torre's crew was comfortable once the calendar flipped to October.
'It didn't matter how we got to the playoffs,' said former right fielder Paul O'Neill. 'We knew once we got there, no one was going to beat us.'
The Series was over in five games. The Mets played surprisingly well, but I remember what their ace Mike Hampton told me as the Yankees were celebrating yet again.
'We can't say the Yankees were lucky. We'd be lying if we said, 'if only we did this' or 'if only we did that,'' Hampton said. 'Because let's face it, they were great and they were ready for us. They had us perfectly scouted.'
You won't find that swagger in today's clubhouse. The Yankees boast about their talent, which is undeniable. But the winning pedigree is missing. They prefer to talk about process.
They're never going to Torre's Yankees.
'The pressure that the Yankees of today have is the fact that they're trying to get to where we were,' said former center fielder Bernie Williams. 'They have come very close on several occasions, but they still have that thing that they still need to get accomplished.'
Williams added a second, salient thought that addressed Judge's burden: the ticking clock.
'They're not getting any younger,' Williams said. 'Time is kind of running its course on this generation. That's the pressure that they face, that they still haven't gotten. You know, haven't been able to (win a championship.)'
The nostalgia for that era grows stronger every year the Yankees come up short.
Even Doc Gooden, who's been inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame and had his No. 16 retired at Citi Field, couldn't turn down an invitation to the Yankees' Old-Timers' Day.
There Doc was, wearing the pinstripes, in honor of his two rings in the Bronx (1996, 2000) and in memory of the only no-hitter of his career in 1996.
'There was no way I was going to say no to the Yankees,' Gooden said. 'I'm a Met at heart, but I came here out of respect to the Steinbrenner family. George was the one who saved my career.'
Gooden paused long enough to describe a revelation when he stepped into the Old-Timers' clubhouse Saturday morning.
'So I turn around and I'm standing next to Roger Clemens, Mariano Rivera, Bernie Williams,' Gooden said. 'No disrespect to the Mets, but teammates like that, all you can say is, 'Wow.' That's something you never forget.'
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Bob Klapisch may be reached at [e-mail].