Posted on 09/28/2022 7:26:46 PM PDT by nickcarraway
New York Yankees star Aaron Judge hit his 61st home run of the season Wednesday night against the Toronto Blue Jays, tying Roger Maris' American League record.
It took Maris until Oct. 1, the final game of the 1961 season, to hit his 61st, which broke Babe Ruth's single-season mark of 60 home runs set in 1927.
Judge did it Sept. 28, in Game No. 155 for New York. A day after the Yankees clinched the American League East title, Judge, batting leadoff as the designated hitter, took Toronto's Tim Mayza deep in the seventh inning with a runner on base. Judge -- who walked in his first at-bat, popped out in his second and grounded out in his third -- had gone seven games without a home run since managing just one solo shot during New York's 6-0 homestand.
He and the Yankees then headed to Toronto looking to make history at Rogers Centre. He went 1-for-3 with a single in the series opener Monday and walked four times in Tuesday's division clincher, before ultimately launching the historic shot Wednesday.
The seven-game homerless drought was a rare case for the select few who've reached such home run heights. Of the previous seven instances in which a player hit 61 home runs, four had reached that mark the next game after hitting 60 and none went more than three games to reach the milestone.
Judge finally got there in the series finale, with Roger Maris Jr. and Judge's mother sitting, front row, on top of the Yankees dugout. And now, the only players in MLB history with more home runs in a season are Barry Bonds (73), Mark McGwire (70, 65) and Sammy Sosa (66, 64, 63) -- all of whom accomplished theirs during the steroid era (1998-2001).
Judge's 2022 tear has been done with zero evidence of performance-enhancing drugs used by the Yankees slugger, which manager Aaron Boone believes puts the All-Star outfielder's numbers beyond those recorded by the others.
"I think it puts it a notch above," Boone said last week. "I got to believe it's right there with some of the best very short list of all-time seasons. I go back to the context of the season, and the more I look at it and dive into it, it's got to be an all-time great season."
At one point, Judge's torrid home run pace matched that of Bonds' 2001 record-setting season, but with less than two weeks left of games, it will take a formidable surge for him now to approach that mark.
Maris' 61 is considered by many to be the "clean" home run record. Judge, a Northern California native who has called Bonds "the greatest hitter of all time," does not devalue his accomplishments.
"That's the record," said Judge, who graduated from Linden High School in San Joaquin County, about an hour and a half east of the San Francisco Bay. "I watched him do it. I stayed up late watching him do it. That's the record. No one can take that from him."
Bonds, for his part, said over the weekend that he could see Judge going on a home run streak after connecting on his 61st.
"Trying to get to that 61 is the hardest one," Bonds said on the KayRod Cast on ESPN2 during Sunday Night Baseball. "Trying to get to that one. Once he gets to it, he's probably going to hit five or six in a row after that. But trying to get to there, that's the hardest one, that 61 is going to be the hardest. It's a big moment on 61."
The Yankees are hoping for more big moments next month. At times appearing as if they'd run away from the American League pack before stumbling through August, New York seems destined for the AL's No. 2 postseason seed behind the Houston Astros. The division title was New York's first since 2019, and 20th overall in franchise history.
Judge was a big reason for the crown, and it's been more than just home runs. He entered Wednesday's action, leading the AL in batting average, home runs and RBI as he looks to become the third Yankees player to win the Triple Crown (Lou Gehrig in 1934, Mickey Mantle in 1956).
Judge's homer gave the Yankees a 5-3 lead, and they took a 6-3 edge into the bottom of the inning. The ball was retrieved by Blue Jays bullpen coach Matt Buschmann after it bounded into the Toronto bullpen.
Nice to see someone not on ‘roids do that.
He will be the home run king, breaking Maris’ record.
He’s having an amazing year. He has 61 homers. Next closest has 40 something.
Aaron Judge was not vaccinated as of March, but I guess at some point he was.
He’s also a class act.
He’s also got a very good shot at the Triple Crown — the league championships in batting average, homeruns, and RBIs. He’s got comfortable leads in the latter two, but a narrow lead (one point going into tonight) in batting average. If he pulls it off, he’ll be the first player in history to hit 60+ homers and win the Triple Crown in the same year.
I remember an incident in which there was a pileup of feuding ballplayers. While Detroit Tiger Miguel Cabrera was pinned , the Yankee Aaron Judge repeatedly took cheap shot punches at his body. Shown on camera.
I will never forgive him.
He is as much thug as any other street bum in that city.
Arrogrant, self-confident, selfish, immoral.
And next season when teams are not allowed to use extreme defensive shifts his average will probably be 30 or 40 points higher.
The ALL-TIME king. Bonds, Sosa and McGwire's "records" should be expunged.
Perhaps he’s been damaged less by the injection than other players, because he got it later than them. Perhaps he wasn’t injected.
Is it easier to hit home runs in the National League for some reason?
I was nine years old when my dad took me to Yankee Stadium on October 1, 1961. My fondest memory.
Smallball leads to more HRs?
He “seems” like a decent guy.
He is going to be a rich guy next season.
I actually haven’t watched any baseball this season, but isn’t he still in contention for the Triple Crown?
Yes.
This is why I say Judge has tied Maris’ MLB record, not the AL record.
Yeah, he is. I pay only passing attention. When the teams bowed to the Rainbow Mafia I lost interest.
Good guy. Well deserved. I’m happy to have witnessed this game on my tv tonight.
I’ve been a Yankee fan since their devastating WS loss to the Pirates in 1960.
I remember that game cuz our first grade teacher had rolled the TV into the classroom and I was probably the only Yankee fan in the classroom. I was sad.
Mickey has always been my hero to this day.
.
Steroids don’t improve bat speed or hand-eye coordination. The primary thing they do is keep players with nagging injuries off of the disabled list - Bonds missed almost the entire 2005 season after he apparently stopped taking them. Steroid use thus has some effect on longevity-based all-time records, but it isn’t like Bonds, McGwire, and Sosa were taking a magic pill that made them hit home run balls farther - which is what the casual fan has been led to believe by the typically hysterical media coverage at the time.
That said, congratulations to Judge - who just pulled off a very difficult accomplishment.
It is impossible to take “cheap shot punches” at someone who threw the first punch. Judge had his teammates back. I just watched the brawl and Cabrera had more of an a$$ whoopin coming than he got.
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