New York Yankees

Aaron Judge now has his own official cheering section

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

Sports Illustrated, Dan Gartland/Sports Illustrated

The Yankees have found their next star in Aaron Judge. He's appearing on The Tonight Show. He's on the cover of Sports Illustrated. And now he's got his own team-sanctioned cheering section.

Fans have been dressing up as jurists in Judge's honor for weeks now, even taking the show on the road to Kansas City, but now the Yankees have made it official with “The Judge's Chambers,” a bank of seats in rightfield ensconced in faux mahogany.

The seats will be filled at random by 18 fans from elsewhere in the stadium. The team will loan them the judge's robes (with the Yankees logo on the front and Judge's No. 99 on the back) but they get to keep the “All Rise” foam gavel.

Compare that the original group of beer-grasping hooligans that put on the robes earlier this month.

The new cheering section looks like a lot of fun, and a lot less irritating to sit next to than the dozen or so jabronis with tallboys. It's also great that the Yankees are embracing a star player other than Derek Jeter for the first time since 1996.

But these are the Yankees, which means they'll probably try to turn this into a money making venture. The last thing I want is for this to become “The Judge's Chambers, Presented by Cellino & Barnes.”