NEW YORK – Anthony Volpe never saw Derek Jeter hit a World Series home run.
Or, at least, he has no real memory of those things.
Jeter, the legendary Yankee nicknamed Mr. October, ran three times in the Fall Classic. Two arrived in the year 2000, before Volpe existed on this earthly plane. And the other, Jeter’s iconic outing in Game 4 of the 2001 World Series, occurred when the current Yankees shortstop was 176 days old.
But for Volpe, a lifelong Yankees fan born in New York and raised in New Jersey, those moments feel like memories.
And with his childhood idol, the idol of so many baseball lovers of a certain age, in the building for Game 4 of this World Series, Volpe provided an unforgettable postseason moment with his team’s 11-4 victory. With a single swing, the boy who filled his childhood bedroom with everything Yankee lived his wildest dream while keeping his team’s season alive.
With the bases loaded in the bottom of the third inning and the hosts trailing a run, Volpe launched a slider on the first pitch from Dodgers reliever Daniel Hudson into the left field stands for a game-changer, energy-changer and potentially serial. big hit The crowd, which had nothing to celebrate for the first 11.5 innings of the Fall Classic they watched, exploded.
“It seemed like the fans were ready to explode last night,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said after the game. “And we just fell behind and couldn’t score. It’s like you can finally see the biggest hit at Yankee Stadium in a World Series game.”
Volpe also went crazy.
As the ball cleared the wall, the baby-faced 23-year-old let out a cathartic roar. When he arrived at the plate, a trio of teammates were waiting for him with smiles on their faces. Again, Volpe couldn’t stop screaming, understandably. It had given the Yankees, down 3-0 in the series, a 5-2 lead, their first series lead since Freddie Freeman walked away from Game 1 with his own grand slam.
“I think I almost fainted as soon as I saw him go over the fence,” Volpe, who attended the 2009 World Series parade as a nonentity with his family, revealed in his postgame press conference.
Most importantly, Volpe gave the team, the audience, and this entire series a much-needed jolt.
This championship showdown, billed as a classic between the sport’s two biggest giants, appeared to be in serious danger of fizzling out before it could catch fire. Game 1 was historic, but the Dodgers’ comfortable victories in Games 2 and 3 presented the Yankees with a historic task that was never accomplished: overcoming a 3-0 deficit in the World Series. It seemed as imposing as it was improbable. Consequently, the energy around Yankee Stadium before Tuesday’s Game 4 was noticeably more subdued. Fewer people clogged the concourse outside the yard before the first pitch. Ticket prices had plummeted. Hope was elsewhere, already enjoying her vacation.
But Volpe gave his fellow Yankees fans a reason to believe.
“Taking the lead early was important tonight,” said catcher Austin Wells, who hit his own home run in the sixth inning. “And (Volpe) gave us that with that swing, and it was huge.”
It was by far the Yankees’ biggest swing in this World Series, and the biggest moment of the young shortstop’s career.
After making the Major League team out of spring training last year as a 21-year-old, Volpe started 308 games in 2023 and 2024, the third-most games started by a player in his first two MLB seasons. The two players who precede him on that list are Hideki Matsui, who debuted in the United States at the age of 29 with immense professional experience in Japan, and Albert Pujols. That shows how much this franchise has depended on this player and what the Yankees think about his chances of becoming a key piece. Because while Volpe has provided defensive stability in the most important position in the box, his offensive game has been more of a hypothesis than a simulation.
A single swing in late October will not, by itself, turn Volpe into a dynamic offensive player. A combination of work, patience, good training, experience and physical maturation could help Volpe reach his ceiling. He is still only 23 years old; there is a lot of time. And Jeter’s shadow is unfair but inevitable. But Volpe’s huge, fast-paced smash on Tuesday was a perfect reminder that this kid might still have magic in his bones.
“We’ve seen it all the time, even last year as a rookie: He’s a Yankee through and through,” Yankees captain Aaron Judge told Yahoo Sports.
“It’s in his blood,” added outfielder Alex Verdugo.
The Volpe family’s Yankee fandom dates back generations, when Anthony’s great-grandfather returned from World War II and connected with his son by listening to Yankees games on the radio together. That love was then passed on to Anthony’s father, Michael, and Anthony himself.
“It’s crazy to think about it,” the Game 4 hero admitted when asked how he felt about living his dream. “It’s my dream, but it was all my friends’ dreams, all my cousins’ dreams, probably my sister’s dreams too.”
In the end, Volpe’s swing could end up as a blip in a blowout Dodgers victory, a footnote overshadowed by royal blue confetti. The odds, for the Yankees, remain formidable. But even if the Yankees don’t pull off the impossible and defeat the Dodgers, Volpe’s swing should stand the test of time.
It’s too good a story not to.