2024-08-27 15:20:02
It has now become more than Aaron Judge chasing his own Yankees home run record — and an American League record — of 62 home runs. It’s more than Judge trying to become the first Yankee and the first in his league to hit more than 60 homers twice, something even Babe Ruth never did. And it’s even more than Judge getting to 51 — as he did on Sunday, when he hit two more — and once again setting himself up to have September at-bats that all baseball fans will want to stop to watch as he chases history again — in this case, his own.
Because it’s not just the home runs from No. 99 of the Yankees, as much as they’re the headline. It’s what he’s done basically over these past 100 games, what feels like Judge’s own personal century within this one baseball season. And what he has done is to be as great a hitter over this stretch as the game has ever seen, in any era.
“I’m running out of words,” manager Aaron Boone said on Sunday after another home run barrage from his team, not just Judge but Juan Soto and Giancarlo Stanton, too.
This all really started at the end of April, when Judge wasn’t doing much of anything and actually heard boos at Yankee Stadium, and he hasn’t really stopped since. In a season in which Shohei Ohtani might get to 50 homers himself and has already hit 40 to go with 40 stolen bases, when Soto is doing what he’s doing for the Yankees hitting ahead of Judge and Bobby Witt Jr. is doing what he’s doing for the Royals, Judge has put himself head and shoulders above the rest of baseball the way Babe Ruth once did in the 1920s — even in the same batting order with Lou Gehrig.
The beauty of sports is arguments about greatness and eras, and other streaks of greatness across baseball history, certainly all the way back to Ruth and Gehrig. But about this, there can’t be much debate:
No hitter has ever looked more dominant than Judge has looked across the past four months (he was still batting under .200 on May 2, remember), or been more of a presence at home plate than he has. According to Elias, the only other player to produce 45 homers and 100 RBIs with a batting average over .375 in 100 games — as Judge just did — was Barry Bonds in 2001. And we all know how history has, well, judged what Bonds did that year on his way to 73 home runs.
With 31 games left in the Yankees regular season, Judge is already at 51 homers, 122 RBIs, a .736 slugging percentage and an OPS of 1.201. When Ruth hit his 60 in 1927, he also ended up with 165 RBIs, a .772 slugging percentage and an OPS of 1.258. When Ted Williams was the last player to hit .400 for a season — he got to .406 the last day — he had a .735 slugging percentage and an OPS of 1.287 in 1941. During Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting that same year, he hit .408, with 15 homers and 55 RBIs (and, oh by the way, struck out just five times).
There were, of course, videogame numbers from a time in baseball at the end of the last century and beginning of this one from Bonds, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and even Alex Rodriguez. But all of that is covered by the shadow and specter and even shame of performance-enhancing drugs.
Now, two decades later, comes Judge, no shadow falling over him — just this huge spotlight all over again, as he has looked like the greatest hitter of them all. This is a player once described by his former manager Joe Girardi as looking like a tight end, doing what he’s doing, slugging himself into the record books as someone who’s now hit 50 or more homers three times in his career and joining a club that includes Ruth along with McGwire, Sosa and Rodriguez.
Here is how Judge joked about what he’s been doing over these past four months, during this 100-game stretch, on Friday night against the Rockies, after he’d hit No. 49:
“I’m trying to get locked in. Once we get locked in, I’ll let you guys know.”
He is the biggest star we have in sports right now in a season where there are plenty of other stars like Ohtani, Witt and Soto. Even when pro football is back in September, there is going to be the same kind of spotlight on Judge that there was in September 2022, when he was chasing Ruth’s 60 and Roger Maris’ 61, and finally passing them both on his way to 62.
“A remarkable player,” Rockies manager Bud Black said after watching Judge hit three homers in three games against his team at Yankee Stadium this past weekend, the latest chapters in this amazing 100-game stretch that’s also seen Judge post an on-base percentage of over .500.
“I’m trying not to [think about the home run record],” Judge said the other day.
He can leave that to the rest of us. And putting what he’s doing into proper historical perspective, all we know for sure right now is this: No. 99 is the one.
