Aaron Judge’s march toward 61 continued on Wednesday when he hit his 55th homer of the season in the first game of a doubleheader against the Twins.
Though many believe Judge will be considered the new home run champ if he passes Roger Maris’ mark of 61 due to Barry Bonds PED ties, Judge himself indicated he didn’t agree, saying that Bonds’ 73 homers is still the legitimate milestone.
“The record’s the record,” Judge said after the Yankees swept the twin bill against Minnesota. “That’s what I go by. I watched him as a kid flip the ball into the bay with ease. That hasn’t changed.”
Judge first expressed the sentiment in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, saying, “No one can take that from him.” But Judge said he’s not going after Bonds’ number or Maris’, for that matter.
“I’m not really chasing or looking at anything,” Judge said of his move up the home run leaderboard. “It’s just happening.”
And he doesn’t plan on gunning for 73, either.
“Not really,” Judge said. “That was a pretty unreal year. That’s a hard number to catch.”
Roger Maris Jr., is preparing for Judge to pass his late father’s milestone that was set in 1961 and said it was “disappointing” that Judge didn’t consider Maris’ record as the real one.
“I think a lot of people still look at Dad’s as the real record,” Maris said by phone. “So that was surprising to me.”
And he was somewhat surprised for another reason, since Judge will be a free agent after the season and while he’s going to get a tremendous contract even if he doesn’t hit another homer, he’d likely do even better if he was considered the holder of the true home run record.
“He’s got a lot on the line if that’s what he believes,” Maris said. “So he better start hitting more of them. Maybe he is going after Bonds, with the way he’s killing it lately.”
Wednesday’s homer in game one gave Judge home runs in four straight games. The recent hot streak is also making plans difficult for Maris, who would like to be at the game if Judge is set to get 62.
“This has caught everyone off guard,” Maris said. “He’s definitely killing it. I think we all expected him to get it at this point, but I don’t think anyone saw him going off like this. Anything can happen, but at this point, he looks like he’ll get to the mid-60s. And then, who knows?”
His homer on Wednesday gave Judge the franchise record for a right-handed hitter, previously held by another PED-tainted player, Alex Rodriguez.
And he’s showing no signs of the attention getting to him, which was not the case when Maris was going after Babe Ruth’s record of 60 in 1961.
“It shows how strong and consistent he is,” Maris said. “But the circumstances are way different. Dad was chasing Ruth and had [Mickey] Mantle with him. No one wanted him to get it: The writers, the commissioner, the fans. It seems like everyone is pulling for Judge.”
Including Maris — to a point.
“We like Dad having the record, but records are made to be broken and you have to like greatness and getting to see it,” he said. “You’d be crazy not to applaud what he’s doing.”