The Fox socks one to left! Anthony Volpe hits his first career home run

On the heels of a very depressing series opener on Thursday night, Anthony Volpe channeled his inner Thanos: “Fine. I’ll do it myself.” On a 1-0 count against Twins starter Louie Varland, making his 2023 debut tonight, the Yankees’ rookie shortstop and hope for the future socked his first dinger as a big leaguer to left field.

For anyone wondering, longtime Yankee radio voice John Sterling had his home run call ready for the uber-talented Yankee shortstop, aka “the spectacular oggi”:

Batting first tonight with DJ LeMahieu out, Volpe joined a pretty exclusive list of Yankees who have hit their first career home run whilst atop the vanguard of the Yankee order. He’s only the seventh Yankee ever, and the first since Bobby Richardson, almost 64 years ago, to get knock his first dinger out of the leadoff spot.

It hasn’t been the greatest start for Volpe at the plate, though it’s worth noting that famously mid talents like Mike Trout and Aaron Judge also got off to less-than-notable starts at the dish early in their careers. But he’s been a terror on the bases, and he’s starting to flex his power. After a brutal beatdown last night, there was likely no better start possible for tonight than Volpe’s dinger.

By the way, let’s get back to the captain for a second. Judge being Judge, he went back-to-back with Volpe to immediately give the Yankees a 2-0 lead. That bolsters his career lead over Volpe to 225-1. What a show-off.

And as I wrote this, Meredith Marakovits revealed on YES that the Yankees got the kid’s home run ball back. Congrats to Volpe and his family!