Posted on 09/26/2022 11:21:21 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Saturday afternoon, Aaron Judge went homerless, leaving his record at 60 homers, which ties with the greatest and most important player in baseball history, Babe Ruth. Judge still needs two jolts to surpass Roger Maris and take sole leadership of the most home runs in a season in both New York Yankee and American League history. However, while 62 homers are impressive, they still significantly trail Barry Bonds’ 73 homers in 2001. Even if Judge reaches 62 sometime in the next 11 games, he’d still be only seventh on the single-season list trailing Sammy Sosa (63 in 1999, 64 in 2001, and 66-1998) and Mark McGwire (65 in 1999 and 70 in 1998).
Prominent New York media outlets are excited about this story (e.g., Forbes and the New York Times), something that should give fans pause. It’s possible that baseball, using a compliant media, is pushing hard for this “new” record to cleanse the stains from the “Steroid Era,” a time when the league, if it didn’t conspire, nevertheless aggressively ignored.
Thus, Bud Selig, the current Commission of Baseball, insisted he’d never heard of steroids during the drug’s heyday in baseball:
During a news conference at the 2005 All-Star Game in Detroit, Selig tells reporters he was unaware of rumors of steroid use in baseball until 1998, when Mark McGwire broke Roger Maris’ single-season home run mark. “I never even heard about it,” Selig says. “I ran a team and nobody was closer to their players and I never heard any comment from them. It wasn’t until 1998 or ‘99 that I heard the discussion.”
Yet baseball outlawed steroids in 1991....
In 1996 and 1997, Mark McGwire admitted to steroid use when he began his assault on Roger Maris’s Major League record of 61 runs
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
The nastiest part of the new shift rule (that is going to make a big difference) is the ban on infielders playing on the outfield grass.
That will lead to more “Texas league blooper” hits as well as more “seeing eye” hits that make it to the outfield.
Pitchers in the past pitched much longer, and more games. So their stats are skewed in different ways. It's hard to compare stats of the past to today's games. What is the truth is the monster shots some of the guys of legend had in the past.
Go, Judge, go!!
All I care is about is stop interrupting SEC Football to show Judge’s at bats. Nobody cares.
He has a really good shot at the HR record AND the Triple Crown...in a contract year. I think we’re all going to have a hard time wrapping our heads around the numbers in his contract either way but if he hits both those marks then a 10 yr, $45M contract will probably be the starting point.
The only issue I had with the Red Sox pitchers was Waacha’s 4 pitch walk of Judge in the first inning Thursday night.
That move by Waacha was BS. Pitch to the guy.
If he hit 60 home runs while playing for the Florida Marlins or the Colorado Rockies, would it even make the headlines on the sports pages ahead of NFL scores?
...a lot of man-children fans of the Yankees and even more for the Mets.
Agreed on Bonds—maybe steroids got him a few more home runs but he was an incredible player—and steroids can’t help you hit a curve-ball.
Jan. 11,1983, two days after the NY Jets won their opening game and four days before their meeting with the LA Raiders for the second round of the AFC playoffs, the back page of the NY Daily News had just two words
BILLY'S BACK
Judge (number 99) will hit his #61 - 61 years later.
... if they pitch to him.
Go Cardinals, Go Pujols!
Judge caught a break there—Baltimore will probably be out of the wild-card race by the time the Yankees play them—and of course Texas is done.
As for Toronto for the next three games—we will see...
That is not true. There are only a couple dozen of pitchers at best who average 98 or better. That’s like 5% of pitchers.
There’s also the “Al Downing” problem. No pitcher will want his name attached to AJ’s 62nd-in-154.
I remember that well. Excellent point. Very exciting back in 1961 with the competition between Mantle and Maris ... and I was an ORIOLES kid!
A couple dozen pitchers with fastballs averaging 98 mph or more seems like quite a few to me!
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