Tyler Austin and Aaron Judge had a historic debut together

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The past 48 hours could be seen as a watershed moment for the New York Yankees. As one era officially came to a close on Friday night, the seeds of another era were planted on Saturday afternoon at Yankee Stadium. Alex Rodriguez’s time as a Yankee — and possibly as a Major League baseball player, even though rumors about a possible move to the Miami Marlins continue to persist — is officially over, and New York is going full steam ahead with their rebuilding process now. The baton has now been handed to the duo of Tyler Austin and Aaron Judge, who both made auspicious debuts with the Yankees on Saturday.

It’s always fun when a rookie kicks off his career with a home run in his very first career at-bat, and that’s exactly what Tyler Austin did when he socked a 92-mph fastball into the seats in right field for a homer on his debut. The crowd at Yankee Stadium was ecstatic, and Austin received a hero’s welcome in the dugout, but not before Aaron Judge was the first to congratulate him at home plate. It’s almost as if Judge saw this as a challenge, because in the very next at-bat, Judge clobbered a 437-foot dinger to dead-center field. The Bronx was electric at that point, and the two rookies had made baseball history in the process.

Austin and Judge are the first pair of teammates in baseball history to hit homers in their first major league at-bats, and they did it in back-to-back fashion. It might not be worth a Yankeeography just yet — that depends on whether or not the two rookies can keep it up at this level — but it’s absolutely an incredible moment for the Yankees during a time of transition. With A-Rod’s retirement this week and Saturday being the day in which the Yankees paid tribute to the 1996 World Series winners, there’s been a lot of focus on the past when it comes to the Bronx Bombers. By the end of the afternoon, Aaron Judge and Tyler Austin made sure that the focus was squarely on the Baby Bombers.