Sunday afternoon, Aaron Judge put on a spectacular four hit performance, hitting home runs No. 58 and No. 59. He became the first player since the advent of Statcast to hit five or more bated balls exceeding 110 mph in the same game. Aaron is having an all-time season, not just for the Yankees but in the history of major league baseball.
There will be a lot written during the offseason (especially by yours truly), trying to determine where this season ranks in both Yankees and MLB history. Is this performance by Aaron Judge more impressive than Lou Gehrig’s 1927 season? Is it the greatest season by a righthanded hitter? To be honest, I don’t know yet.
The last 16 games of the season are going to help us answer these questions, as well as a bit of distance to give us the proper perspective. However, I have a bit of advice for Yankees fans over the next 16 games.
Take it all in because we will probably never see this again.
What Aaron Judge is doing is historic. It’s a level of dominance over the league that we have not seen since Babe Ruth. He currently leads the second place in home runs in all of Major League Baseball this season by a difference of 20, a feat that has not been accomplished since Babe Ruth in 1928. It’s been almost 100 years since we’ve seen such a disparity between one slugger and the rest of the league.
Aaron Judge is currently slugging over .700, if he were to end the season at this rate, he would be the first Yankee to do that since Micky Mantle’s triple crown year of 1956 and only the 14th in franchise history (shout out to @ksharp). Judge is also a point away from the American League batting title, which, if he wins, would give him the Yankee’s third triple crown in franchise history and the first since Mantle in 1956.
If that wasn’t enough, Aaron Judge is on pace to obliterate the Yankee and American League’s home run record of 61, set by Roger Maris in 1961 and become the third Yankee and only the third right-handed hitter in MLB history to hit 60 home runs.
For a hitter to accomplish only one of the things stated above would be very special, a season that would live on forever in baseball history. What makes Aaron Judge’s season different is that he is accomplishing all of those things.
I’ve often pulled up Babe Ruth’s Baseball Reference page and just marveled at the seasons he was able to put up. Sometimes sitting there trying to make sense of how one man could be so utterly dominant, asking myself “How is this even possible?”
Other times I would feel a bit sad and envious knowing I would never be able to experience anything like it. There are not many people still alive who had a chance to witness Ruth’s greatness up close and as those memories fade into legend I can now feel as they must’ve felt.
I don’t know if people truly appreciated what they were witnessing back then, but I can tell you that I appreciate what I’m seeing now in Aaron Judge. We don’t know what is going to happen in the future, whether he will stay or go to another team. But even if he stays, we probably won’t see this again, because this is special. This is a season to be admired. A season that should be savored. A season that must be told to our children. A season that is going to pass down in legend for the exploits of Aaron Judge.
Enjoy it while you can Yankee fans, there are 16 games to go.
How many homers Aaron Judge will have?
