Big men. Big talk. Big history.
Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge are ready to take on the American League and all the legendary ghosts they will encounter this season in this monumental pairing of baseball giants for the Yankees.
Comparisons are already off the charts with iconic pinstripe tandems. With the hulking Judge standing in the batter’s box and the chiseled Stanton on deck, you can almost picture Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris sitting in the Yankees dugout, waiting to see if their records fall.
Can Judge and Stanton both hit 60 home runs?
“In fairness to history,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman told The Post, “we have to see if they can make history.’’
Alex Rodriguez, who owns 696 home runs, fourth highest in major league history and who once hit 57 home runs in a season, said, “They have an opportunity to be the first right-handed Yankees duo to hit 100 home runs and drive in 300 runs.’’
A-Rod (57) and Rafael Palmeiro (43) combined for 100 home runs with the Rangers in 2002. Maris (61) and Mantle (54) hold the teammate mark with 115 home runs in 1961. The only other Yankee duo to hit the century mark was in 1927, when Ruth (60) and Gehrig (47) combined for 107 home runs.
“The home run power is there and this is a 1-2 combo that could be crazy,’’ said Don Mattingly, who knows something about hitting home runs in the Bronx and was Stanton’s manager the past two years with the Marlins.
“They’ll hit a hundred,’’ Hall of Fame manager Bobby Cox predicted.
What makes Cox so certain?
“I couldn’t hit but I’ve seen enough of it,’’ he said with a smile.
Maybe they will hit 120.
Everyone knows Cox for his days in the Atlanta dugout, but he was a Yankee in 1968, Mantle’s final season.
He believes this is another Mantle-Maris in the making.
“I really do,’’ Cox said. “The publicity is going to be off the charts, the expectations are going to be off the charts. They’re two grown kids. They’re high class, great makeup, they’ll bond. They scare people.’’
And it is not just Judge and Stanton.
Noted Andruw Jones, former Yankee and a star with the Braves: “That is going to be a tough group to pitch to. They are going to run into a lot of home runs. The guy behind them will do a lot of damage too, that will be Gary Sanchez.’’
Judge is no longer on the Big Man Island by himself. Same for Stanton.
Stanton, who has been perfecting his right-field swing all spring, told The Post: “It should be good with Yankee Stadium and that short porch.’’
Neither big man is afraid of big expectations, and this spring Stanton said “it’s definitely possible’’ the duo could be the first teammates to join the 60-60 home run club.
But they also will not be ruled by those expectations.
“It does not matter what historic expectations are out there of me,’’ Stanton told The Post. “I have a higher one for myself. I’m the one who has to put in the work. I don’t just put the jersey on and show up at game time. Aaron is the one who does all the work that he does.
“What we need to do is not read papers. Not worry about, ‘Hey it’s May 1, we’re supposed to have this many home runs. The public needs us to have this many home runs.’ What’s important is how are we in our own game, how are we helping the team. This isn’t a competition who’s going to hit more between me and him. This isn’t who is going to be second, who is going to be third, who cares.’’
Stanton said this is not about Ruth, Gehrig, Mantle or Maris.
“The more you get into that the more it’s a distraction,’’ he said.
This is how he will deal with the home run hype.
“You have to ask questions about it,’’ Stanton said of reporters, “but in one ear and out the other, answer it and get back to what we are about. It’s fun, sure. It’s exciting to be a part of that. You embrace the good time with it, but that’s not the ultimate goal.
“It’s not about me and him.’’
The goal is to win and get the Yankees to the World Series after they fell one win short last season.
The real advantage for Stanton and Judge is now they have another big hitter who must be pitched to, and that will be a big help.
Judge said that will make a difference.
“The biggest thing I enjoy is being around bigger guys, like last year with Matt Holliday or with A-Rod,’’ Judge said. “Those are bigger guys and I can relate to them as a hitter. If you give me a scouting report and the pitcher is 50 percent this or 40 percent this, 10 percent this. That scouting report may work for a [Ronald] Torreyes or [Clint] Frazier or somebody, but it’s not going to work for me. They are not going to pitch Torreyes like they pitch to Matt Holliday. So having another guy like Stanton, we have a chance if he’s hitting in front of me or I’m hitting in front of him, we get to see how we are going to get pitched.
“Even CC [Sabathia] said that when we faced him in live BP, ‘The approach I had against you was the same approach I had against Stanton. I was trying to make the same pitch.’
“It’s a mirror image,’’ Judge said, digging deep into the hitting philosophy. “So for me in my first at-bat, if I notice they are coming hard-in and maybe working more changeups, he can see that and make some plans so when he goes up there he won’t be surprised when he sees some fastballs in and some changeups away. Or same thing for me.’’
The pitcher has to show his hand.
“If I see in a second at-bat where they are really trying to work with that curveball or offspeed pitches early, then I know they are probably going to come after me with something offspeed to maybe get me off-balance,” Judge said. “It’s real cool to have that ability to just kind of watch and observe someone who has the same kind of build.’’
Stanton is putting the knowledge to work.
“What I’ve learned so far,’’ he said, “is I don’t think our cage work needs to be together, meaning me watching him, him watching me. It won’t benefit as much because we are so different in styles. But the approach on pitchers and their process will skyrocket us.”
Skyrocket takes on a whole new meaning when you consider Judge hit 52 home runs last year to lead the AL and Stanton crushed 59 to lead the majors.
“Maybe [swing] paths because of same bat length, same arm length, that will help,’’ Stanton said. “But I think our biggest key is: ‘Why did they do that to you? What were you thinking? And why did they do that to me and what was I thinking?’ That’s what I’ve learned so far.”
You can see this is a big man’s thinking game.
“Those guys are capable of a lot,’’ Cashman said. “It’s a really exciting dynamic to add to this offense. I do remember when Darryl Strawberry was swinging the bat for us and in his heyday with the Mets. Whenever he was at the plate you’d stop and make sure you’d watch that at-bat because he was capable of doing something you don’t normally see.
“These two cats are capable of that kind of stuff, too, they are just a rare breed.’’
A rare breed in the same pinstriped lineup. Look out, legends.
With Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge set to make their debut as teammates, here’s Dan Martin’s look at some other standout duos in sports history.
New York Baseball
Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris
Perhaps the most obvious comparison to Stanton and Judge, Maris was traded to the Yankees from the Kansas City A’s prior to the 1960 season after making his first All-Star appearance. Maris was named MVP in 1960 and 1961 (when he hit 61 homers), with Mantle finishing second in each season before winning the award in 1962.
Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig
The original home run duo, Ruth and Gehrig led the Yankees to three World Series titles, and while the two played together, one of them won the AL home run title 11 times.
Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry
The two young Mets came up a year apart, with Strawberry winning Rookie of the Year in 1983 and Gooden the following year. They played key roles in the 1986 World Series before their careers went downhill quickly.
Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese
The Brooklyn Dodgers infielders were All-Stars for six straight seasons after Robinson’s debut in 1947 integrated MLB.
Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter
Rodriguez came to the Bronx following an MVP season in Texas and after a trade with Boston fell through. He agreed to move to third base, and with Jeter at short, the Yankees won a title in 2009.
New York Sports
Walt Frazier and Earl Monroe
The guards led the Knicks to the 1972-73 NBA title in Monroe’s first full season in New York. The Knicks haven’t won a championship since.
Bryan Trottier and Mike Bossy
The Islanders won four straight Stanley Cups with Trottier and Bossy on a line with Clark Gillies. Trottier led the NHL in assists twice and Bossy led the league in goals twice.
Joe Namath and Don Maynard
Namath had his best season in 1967, when he passed for 4,007 yards, and Maynard — who is with Namath in the Hall of Fame — had 1,434 yards. Both led the NFL.
Lawrence Taylor and Harry Carson
Carson had already made two Pro Bowls when Taylor arrived in 1981 and the linebackers began terrorizing opposing quarterbacks. They made seven straight Pro Bowls together on their way to winning Super Bowl XXV and a spot in the Hall of Fame for each.
Rod Gilbert and Jean Ratelle
Two thirds of the Rangers’ GAG line, along with Vic Hadfield, Gilbert and Ratelle, combined for 206 points in 1971-72 when the Blueshirts reached the Stanley Cup finals. They skated together for more than a decade.
Baseball
Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale
The lefty/righty duo first pitched together in Brooklyn, but in a four-year stretch in Los Angeles they combined to win three Cy Young Awards and two World Series titles.
Willie Mays and Willie McCovey
From 1962-65, Mays and McCovey captured all four NL home run crowns, with McCovey winning two more in 1968 and 1969, on their way to Cooperstown.
Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz
The sluggers helped the Red Sox end their 86-year World Series drought in 2004 and combined to win another in 2007.
Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux
The pitchers were the mainstays in the Braves’ rotation that dominated the NL East for a decade.
Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco
The Bash Brothers got the A’s to three straight World Series from 1988-90 and then became central figures in the steroids scandal that rocked the sport.
Sports
Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
The Lakers won five NBA titles once Johnson joined forces in 1979 with Abdul-Jabbar, who was traded from Milwaukee in 1975.
Bill Russell and Bob Cousy
The center/point guard combo captured six titles in seven years in Boston.
Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal
It might have ended in an ugly divorce, but Bryant and O’Neal won three championships in a row with the Lakers.
Joe Montana and Jerry Rice
Rice put up historic numbers with two Hall of Fame quarterbacks in San Francisco, but he won two Super Bowls with Montana and one with Steve Young.
Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen
The Hall of Famers won six NBA titles — and likely would have won more if Jordan didn’t miss two seasons in the middle of their careers.
–Dan Martin