Aaron Judge's mom awestruck by his unreal Yankees season

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Aaron Judge is in the middle of a season so spectacular that even his mom feels awestruck at times.

“You sit there and see the performance and the family just celebrates the moment, and the saying that many of you have used before is a pinching moment,” Judge’s mom, Patty, said Monday at the “ALL RISE” Baseball ProCamp in Forest Hills. “It’s like, ‘Is this really happening?’ It’s just beyond our expectations.”

It has felt for months now that Judge is larger than life — not merely because of his 6-foot-7 stature, but because he is hitting home runs at a record-setting pace and steering the Yankees to the best record in the baseball. He is baseball’s foremost figure.

And it felt that way Monday morning at Forest Hills High School. Hundreds of wide-eyed Little Leaguers donned specialized “All Rise” T-shirts with the number “99” on the back, an homage to their baseball hero who posed for pictures and offered tips during a special camp — which, unsurprisingly, was sold out.

“I’m trying to talk to them about drills or give them instructions, but they want to ask me all the baseball questions, or are kinda starstruck,” Judge said. “It’s pretty humbling for me.”

What sort of questions did they ask?

“How do you hit home runs,” Judge said with a laugh.

There is no person better equipped to answer that question than Judge, who makes the feat seem routine. He is leading the majors with 43 home runs, after yet another blast in Monday’s 7-2 win over the Mariners, nine more than the next-closest competitor, Kyle Schwarber. Only Babe Ruth hit that many homers in the Yankees’ first 102 games before Judge matched him this weekend.

As the calendar flipped to August, Roger Maris’ single-season record of 61 home runs is certainly within reach. And while the record with the PED asterisk — Barry Bonds’ mark of 73 — is further away, the thought of Judge making a bid doesn’t seem improbable.

Do the records creep into Judge’s mind at all, especially after a torrid weekend in which he smacked four home runs and the Yankee Stadium crowd clung to every one of his at-bats?

“Not at all,” Judge said. “That’s a long way away. I’m still stuck in the 40s.”

“Stuck in the 40s” is oxymoronic, but this is how Judge operates life now, as one of the sport’s superstars, as someone with a legitimate shot at breaking a record. It’s the same team-first stance Judge has maintained throughout the season, particularly with regard to his impending free agency, following stalled talks of a potential contract extension.

“I’m focused on helping the team win,” Judge said. “If it happens, it happens. But I’m more worried about bringing a championship to New York, knocking that out first. Then we can worry about the records.”

As Judge spent his morning tossing baseballs to kids and demonstrating how to perform a crow hop, he thought about his own past as a kid growing up in the Bay Area. A Little League shortstop, Judge was drawn to former Giants shortstop Rich Aurilia, along with Bonds and Jeff Kent.

Judge never attended any baseball camps akin to the one he hosted Monday. But he would have jumped at the opportunity to learn at a young age from Bonds himself.

“Those were guys that I looked up to, watched the way they played,” Judge said. “They made the game look easy at times.”

And no one is making baseball look easier right now than Judge.

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