He was one of the last men in the dugout, because he is always one of the last man in the dugout on elimination night, because this has become an annual rite of October for Aaron Judge. 

A team other than the Yankees is celebrating a postseason victory at Yankee Stadium and Judge forces himself to watch all of it, every bit of it, until the celebration moves from the field to the locker room. 

“Just hating,” he would say late Wednesday, “every single moment of it.” 

This isn’t for show, either. Yankees fans know he cares. They know it killed him to miss the Yankees brief five-game tour through the postseason. They have to know by now how each of these postseason failures weigh on him, because they’ve sure happened enough. And every year, especially in those years since he became team captain, the weight increases exponentially.