Aaron Judge #99 of the New York Yankees hits his 62nd home run of the season towards the Texas Rangers through the first inning in recreation two of a double header at Globe Life Field on Tuesday in Arlington, Texas.
Ron Jenkins/Getty Images
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Ron Jenkins/Getty Images
Aaron Judge #99 of the New York Yankees hits his 62nd home run of the season towards the Texas Rangers through the first inning in recreation two of a double header at Globe Life Field on Tuesday in Arlington, Texas.
Ron Jenkins/Getty Images
For 61 years, Roger Maris’ home run report had stood: 61 home runs, set by the New York Yankee in 1961, untouched as probably the most homers hit in a single season by any American League participant.
Now, all these years later, with a 62nd decisive shot off of Aaron Judge’s bat, a brand new report has taken its place.
Judge, the 30-year-old standout outfielder for the New York Yankees, hit his 62nd home run of the season throughout Tuesday evening’s recreation towards the Texas Rangers.
For a long time, the elder Yankee’s mark stood alone as baseball’s total single-season home run report. Contemporaries like Willie Mays and Hank Aaron could not contact it. Nor might most of the stars that adopted: not Mike Schmidt, not Reggie Jackson, not Ken Griffey Jr.
As an all-MLB report, Maris’s milestone was lastly surpassed through the home run race of 1998, when Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals and Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs (each National League gamers) captured the nation’s consideration of their simultaneous effort to match, then beat, the report.
In 2001, Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants, additionally within the NL, handed them each when he hit 73 homers. Bonds’ feat nonetheless stands at this time on baseball’s report guide because the highest-ever single-season complete.
But for a lot of baseball followers, these McGwire-Sosa-Bonds seasons are tarnished. All three gamers are broadly believed – or in McGwire’s case, have admitted – to have taken performance-enhancing medication throughout these years.
And so, Maris’s report had lived on: Officially, it was the American League report; unofficially, within the minds of many purists, it was the so-called “real” home run report.
Either manner, since MLB started drug testing gamers in 2003, no participant from both league had matched it.
Judge has been a formidable slugger since his first main league at-bat, when he hit a home run on simply his fourth pitch as a Yankee. In his first full season, he set the MLB report for many homers by a rookie with 49 dingers.
Injuries had saved him from reaching that potential – till now.
In his seventh season, the 30-year-old has shattered his earlier bests. In addition to his 62 home runs, Judge has 130 RBIs – greatest within the American League – and his batting common is a formidable .311.