Linden celebrates Yankees star Aaron Judge's return to Sacramento
LINDEN – In a small town east of Stockton, with just over 2,000 residents, is Linden.
It's known for its Cherry Festival, but also, a person you may have heard of before.
"Every time they go in there, they're like, 'Oh my god, Aaron Judge,'" Pizza Plus Manager Emilie Lamb said. "We stand by that counter and we hear it all the time."
This weekend, Judge will be close to where he grew up.
Only 45 miles away, he'll be playing against the Athletics in the city where he was born for the first time.
"A lot of people from Lindon are gonna be at the game," Pizza Plus Manager Jake Osterlie shared. "I wish I could be there."
Lamb and Osterlie went to the same high school as Judge, Linden High School.
Seeing him on the big screen, sometimes repping their alma mater on his cleats, is never not surreal.
"There's so much just these kinds of stereotypes about small towns that everyone stays, nobody leaves, nothing ever happens," Lamb said. "I mean, we're a prime example of stuff happening, even though we're in a small town, so that's just great. It provides us with a lot of inspiration."
"And of all places for him to go, New York," Osterlie added. "To go from Linden to New York, it's really cool. It's really cool."
The town bursts with Judge pride, even putting his name in bold letters on their welcome sign.
But it's not just the people who live here who are proud to be from Linden.
"He [gave us] a whole bag and like, a bunch of stuff for us when he was still with Adidas for our basketball team," Osterlie remembered. "He played with us before the game a little bit. So it was, it was really cool."
At the end of the day, the lights don't only shine bright in New York City.
"He's definitely one of those people that, once he became famous to the level that he did, he never took where he came from for granted," Lamb said. "So we almost all feel like, honored that he still talks about it. We have our little 15 minutes of fame just because we live here."
