On Tuesday, Aaron Judge made a new AL record after hitting 62nd home runs in a single season. While it eclipsed the earlier record of Roger Maris set in 1961, it has set off a new debate clearly demeaning Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, and Sammy Sosa.
Roger Maris Jr. called the Yankees’ slugger “the clean home run king” drawing a line between him and three others, who made more single-season home runs than Aaron Judge but marred in controversy over steroid investigations.
Roger Maris Jr. wasn’t there when Judge broke his father’s record, but that didn’t stop him from saying that Judge holds the “clean” home run record. He tweeted:
“Congratulations to Aaron Judge and his family on Aaron’s historic home run number 62! It has definitely been a baseball season to remember. You are all class and someone who should be revered. For the MAJORITY of the fans, we can now celebrate a new CLEAN HOME RUN KING!!”
The blast by Aaron Judge, who is 30, set a new American League and Yankees single-season record. However, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, and Barry Bonds all had more home runs in the National League, and Bonds holds the MLB record with 73. All three of these records have been called into question because they are linked to using drugs to improve performance. But Aaron Judge is free from any such allegations and achieved this to become MLB’s best hitter by sheer dint of his power hitting.
Maris Jr.’s comment clearly showed it was his father and then Aaron Judge, who leads the MLB league of best hitters. He doesn’t consider tainted power hitters the best in the game.
After seeing Aaron Judge hit No. 61 in Toronto on September 28, Maris Jr. said that “the New York slugger should be the only one, who qualifies to become the single-season home run king, and Bonds, Sosa, and McGwire’s records were not authentic.”
He went on to say:
“It means a lot, not just for me. I think it means a lot for a lot of people that he’s clean, he’s a Yankee, he plays the game the right way and I think he gives people a chance to look at somebody who should be revered for hitting 62 home runs and not just as a guy who did it in the American League”
Maris and his family had been attending all of the Yankees’ home games in recent weeks, as Aaron Judge was getting closer and closer to breaking his father’s record. After he hit the record-tying home run in Toronto, he went over to give the Yankees star’s mother Patty Judge a hug. He did this because he was aware of the stress that the pursuit can put on both the athlete and his family.
After Aaron Judge’s record 62nd homer hit in Tuesday’s Game 2, which the Yankees lost 3-2 to the Rangers, manager Aaron Boone took him out. Maris supported this act of Boone and tweeted:
“I see that Aaron Boone is giving Aaron a much-needed break! He must be exhausted. If Judge stays at 62 home runs, I will say that 62 in 22 sounds great, just like 61 in 61.”
Do you agree that Aaron Judge is better than Sosa, McGwire, and Bonds?
