If your team is in the trenches, you've got to be in the trenches with them.
Aaron Judge
I do a lot of planks. I feel like the plank is the most underrated core workout; that's one of my go-to moves.
I know I wouldn't be a New York Yankee if it wasn't for my mom: the guidance she gave me as a kid growing up, knowing the difference from right and wrong, how to treat people and how to go the extra mile and put in extra work, all that kind of stuff.
Sometimes you've got to tip your cap when they're painting stuff on the corner. But you can't give up, got to keep battling and make some adjustments.
The mental game is what separates the good players from the great players. So anything I can do to get that mental edge to help me stay my best, I'm gonna try and do it.
To a certain extent, I enjoy failure. It's part of the game. There's always room to grow; there's room to improve.
When I was in the West Coast watching the Giants, Rich Aurilia was a guy I always liked.
When I'm lifting heavy, doing squats, and doing upper-body workouts, it's mostly about core and stability. But I'll still do deadlifts. I also do tire workouts with these big 600-pound tires, flipping them and stuff like that.
Even though it feels like you are so far away from the big leagues, my love for the game kept me motivated to get through the hard times in the minors.
You're always still trying to win a job. That's everyone's mindset: come in here and fight for your job, win a job.
Just being in a video game is an honor, and being on the cover, I can't really describe it.
I think that is one thing I've picked up: follow a routine, be consistent, and everything is going to fall in place. If you are scrambling around, and you are late for stuff, that adds extra stress, and you have to go out there and hit a 97 mph fastball.
That's one thing that's a passion for me: teaching.
When you're facing a different guy every at-bat, he's coming at you with his best stuff. There's no warm-up; there's no 'see a pitch.' You've got to be locked in from the very first pitch... The biggest thing is do your homework before the game starts.
Repeating, trying to repeat success - it never gets easier.
Everything I do, I'm always playing music. When I wake up in the morning, I'm playing music. When I'm showering, I've got music playing. When I go to the field, music is playing.
I talked to a few schools about playing football, but I had already pretty much made my mind up. I fell in love with baseball at a young age, and I knew that that's what I wanted to do.
For me, all my negative thoughts that I have about, 'How did you miss that pitch? Why did you miss that pitch? You shouldn't have missed that pitch.' I just kind of sit there and kind of crush it up, and once I'm done doing that... I just kind of toss it aside.
The ups and downs, that's baseball life. That's what I live for, play for.
I've always had that mindset of, 'OK, I may be hot this month or doing really well this month, but don't get too high, don't get too low - just enjoy it.' Don't ride the rollercoaster, basically. I always thought about it like, I'm not going to an amusement park, I'm going to a baseball field.
Any time you play shortstop or center field, the majority of the baseballs are hit in the middle of the field.
You never hit a good slider or curveball; you just try to go after the mistakes.
You have to earn your job every day.
To put on the pinstripe - it's extraordinary. Just being able to play one game with the Yankees is quite an honor.
Ever since I got drafted by the Yankees, I've been working on my swing.
If I know it's going over the fence, I am going to start jogging and just get around the bases and get back in the dugout.
I just felt like Adidas was a brand that really fit me. Not only are they on the field, but off the field stuff.
You define great players as guys that are out there grinding, battling every day with their team.
They just brought it up to me and said, 'Hey, this is what we're going to do.' They're going to put out a section and call it Judge's Chambers and give them little judge outfits, and we'll see what happens. I think it turned out great.
For me, it's just about taking it one at-bat, one pitch, one play at a time.
In baseball, you have to remain calm, cool, and collected. In football, you can let out a little anger sometimes. It was a fun game, and I liked it, but I knew in my heart I was going to play baseball.
That mindset never changes. It should never change. If you've been in the league for 14 years or been in the league not even a day, you should have that mindset that you're going to go out there and prove yourself and earn a spot.
I really don't like splitting my workouts into lower body one day, upper body the next day - that makes me I feel like I'm working out every day, and I feel like I'm more tired during the season than I need to be.
If someone throws you a good slider, you're not going to hit it. You've got to always hunt those ones that kind of pop up or hang thigh-high or up.
The biggest thing is, you don't hit the good sliders; you just hit the mistakes. That's what my thing has always been: Just keep hunting mistakes.
My dad was my role model; he always did the right thing.
That's why you get three of them. Say you get one that you don't think is a strike, and they call it on you: that's why you get two more.
I'm not too worried about stats and stuff like that.
I never want to play timid or scared of anything, especially when my pitcher or my teammates are out there going 100 percent.
Defensively, hitting-wise, running the bases. There's always room to improve. That motivates me to get a little better every day.
That's your dream, to play professional baseball. When you get the opportunity like that, getting drafted - especially by Oakland, a California team, pretty close to home - it was tempting. At the time, I just didn't think I was ready or mature enough mentally or physically to start pro ball.
44 is a number I really like.
Being around veteran leaders such as CC Sabathia and Brett Gardner really helped me.
If my barrel meets the ball, I think good things are going to happen.
When you're on the road, fans pay to cheer on their team and boo the other team; that's just part of it. That's what they're supposed to do. I expect it. I think everybody expects that.
I had a lot of fun playing football and basketball, but deep down, the chess match or cat-and-mouse game between the pitcher and batter in baseball really drew me in. It's a thinking man's game, and for me, nothing can compare to that.
There should always be competition. You should never feel comfortable, no matter where you are at. If you are a 10-year veteran, you should not feel comfortable. For me, that kind of just drives me, that kind of unknown of what is going to happen. The unknown is kind of what drives me.
People strike out. I strike out a lot - it happens. Just got to keep working.
Fighting for a job - that's been my mindset every Spring Training.
When I think about 2017, I feel like it was just another year. It was a whirlwind, but I wouldn't have wanted it to play out any other way. I'm glad I was in New York. There's nowhere else I would rather play, and there's no other group of teammates that I would rather be around.
