Caitlin Clark attends Yankees vs. Rangers, meets Aaron Judge and rest of team before game

Getting snubbed by the U.S. Olympic women’s basketball team did allow WNBA rookie phenom Caitlin Clark to fulfill one goal: meet Aaron Judge.

The No. 1 pick of the Indiana Fever in April’s WNBA Draft was on the field at Yankee Stadium before Game 1 of Saturday’s doubleheader alongside her boyfriend, Connor McCaffery, who was sporting Judge’s No. 99 jersey.

Clark, 22, wearing a pinstriped No. 22 Yankees jersey — she wears No. 22 with the Fever — took pictures on the field and chatted a bit with Anthony Rizzo before the first baseman led her down the dugout tunnel toward the home clubhouse, where she met much of the club. Judge, of course, was among them (the Yankees' X account shortly before the game posted a picture of Clark and Judge posing in one of the training areas near the home clubhouse).

“Really cool. She was impressive,” Aaron Boone said after the Yankees' 8-0 victory in Game 1. “I got to meet her in my office . . . She was pretty impressive, and it was fun to see the amount of our guys that were kind of just star-struck being around her. Pretty cool meeting her, and she brought a good start to the day.”

It was the first trip to Yankee Stadium for Clark, a Des Moines native who starred at the University of Iowa and helped take women’s college basketball to another level of popularity.

Clark spent the top of the third inning in the YES Network booth, then spent the bottom half in the WFAN booth, where trailblazing analyst Suzyn Waldman was especially looking forward to meeting her.

The WNBA has been in a nearly month-long hiatus because of the Olympics. Clark, averaging 17.1 points, 8.2 assists, 5.8 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game, will resume play with the Fever on Friday at home against the Phoenix Mercury.

Another good day for Schmidt

After throwing the first live batting practice session of his rehab on Tuesday, Clarke Schmidt, on the injured list since May 30 with a right lat strain, said he thought  it was “realistic” for him to be major league-ready by the end of the month.

After throwing 25 pitches Saturday in his second live BP — up from the 20 pitches he threw Tuesday — Schmidt said the same. “By the end of the month I think is very realistic,” he said.

Schmidt is slated to throw another live BP on Wednesday, and the Yankees then will decide whether to give him another live BP or send him out on a rehab assignment.

Schmidt still is in the early stages of building his arm back up, but it is a very real possibility that the Yankees will have the latter stages of that buildup occur in the majors, much the way they did with Gerrit Cole. Cole, who started the season on the IL with right elbow inflammation, threw only 62 pitches in his return to the majors June 19.

“Talking with Gerrit, I think he agrees too, he’s felt really good with the buildup,” Schmidt said. “He felt like the buildup was really well-executed, so I feel like it’s a good plan for us as well.”

Speaking before Saturday’s doubleheader, Boone said it had not yet been determined how Schmidt’s pitch buildup will be handled. He added that Schmidt is being built up “as a starter” but that a bullpen role hasn’t been ruled out. Realistically, given Schmidt’s performance before he got hurt — 5-3 with a 2.52 ERA in 11 starts — and the club’s overall rotation struggles since mid-June, sending Schmidt to the bullpen would have to be considered a long shot.

“We’re not necessarily committing to one thing right now,” Boone said. “We’ll see where we are and where he is in two weeks, three weeks, and go from there.”