Judge’s March To 62 Homers

Wingack

Yankee Mod
Moderator
SoSH Member
Jul 14, 2005
34,362
In The Quivering Forest
We already have a general Judge thread over in the Yankee sub forum.

But I feel like we are getting to the point where he has a legitimate chance of tying and surpassing Roger Maria’ 61 homers.

Judge has 49 home runs after last night and is currently on pace for 63.

I guess the main question is, not will he do it (he may not), but will Aaron Judge be considered the single season home run record holder by most MLB fans if he hits 62?
 

PC Drunken Friar

Member
SoSH Member
Sep 12, 2003
14,541
South Boston
We already have a general Judge thread over in the Yankee sub forum.

But I feel like we are getting to the point where he has a legitimate chance of tying and surpassing Roger Maria’ 61 homers.

Judge has 49 home runs after last night and is currently on pace for 63.

I guess the main question is, not will he do it (he may not), but will Aaron Judge be considered the single season home run record holder by most MLB fans if he hits 62?
No. Not one bit.
 

MFYankees

New Member
Jul 20, 2017
504
We already have a general Judge thread over in the Yankee sub forum.

But I feel like we are getting to the point where he has a legitimate chance of tying and surpassing Roger Maria’ 61 homers.

Judge has 49 home runs after last night and is currently on pace for 63.

I guess the main question is, not will he do it (he may not), but will Aaron Judge be considered the single season home run record holder by most MLB fans if he hits 62?
Personally, I'd love to see a majority of fans consider 'roider records in the same vein as pitching records from the dead ball era. But that's not the way to bet.
 

Van Everyman

Member
SoSH Member
Apr 30, 2009
26,993
Newton
Do you think most believe that Bonds is the true home run king (both single season and overall)? I don’t think most people do. Maybe just the whole thing is mucked up and ruined now, but I think if Judge hits 62 there will be some people that view him as the true record holder.
I do. They think it’s tainted but see it as the leader. Plus you have McGwire.

Edit: And Sosa
 

DJnVa

Dorito Dawg
SoSH Member
Dec 16, 2010
53,840
I think Bonds will be viewed as the record holder with Judge getting plaudits as well, due to the circumstances.
 

Bob Montgomerys Helmet Hat

has big, douchey shoulders
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Do you think most believe that Bonds is the true home run king (both single season and overall)? I don’t think most people do. Maybe just the whole thing is mucked up and ruined now, but I think if Judge hits 62 there will be some people that view him as the true record holder.
I think it's pretty mucked up. The number 61 certainly does not have the magic that it had before Bonds, McGwire, and Sosa. Tainted as hell, sure, but the fact is, there have been 6 seasons better than 62
 

Comfortably Lomb

Koko the Monkey
SoSH Member
Feb 22, 2004
12,959
The Paris of the 80s
I guess the main question is, not will he do it (he may not), but will Aaron Judge be considered the single season home run record holder by most MLB fans if he hits 62?
No. But a small group of loud fans will scream it online. Asterisks are dumb and so is trying to pretend things didn't happen.

But you know what's awesome? Aaron Judge. An actual likeable Yankee.
 

PC Drunken Friar

Member
SoSH Member
Sep 12, 2003
14,541
South Boston
Do you think most believe that Bonds is the true home run king (both single season and overall)? I don’t think most people do. Maybe just the whole thing is mucked up and ruined now, but I think if Judge hits 62 there will be some people that view him as the true record holder.
Yes, I believe most fans see that he hit 73 and 762. To believe not is not living in reality.
 

Awesome Fossum

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 20, 2005
3,894
Austin, TX
It's certainly not the same as it was pre-1998, but it's still an extremely cool milestone. I'd be extremely into it if a Red Sox player was on pace for it.
 

E5 Yaz

Transcends message boarding
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Apr 25, 2002
90,017
Oregon
If he does it, Judge will set the American League single-season record and no one could dispute that. The tolerance non-Yankee fans will have for the narrative from Yankee fans and some parts of the national media that it's the "real" MLB record will be put to the test.
 

snowmanny

Member
SoSH Member
Dec 8, 2005
15,667
Well it would be an AL record and a team record, and it would be three guys from the same team who had held the AL record for 100 years, so it really would be something and would have some meaning, at least in my eyes.

Steroids, short porch, whatever. But McGwire held the record and Bonds holds the record (and if you want to win a bar bet, for a nanosecond during the 1998 season Sosa held the record).

I think it’s stupid that Melky Cabrera had that batting title taken away. Numbers are numbers.
 

Wingack

Yankee Mod
Moderator
SoSH Member
Jul 14, 2005
34,362
In The Quivering Forest
I think Bonds will be viewed as the record holder with Judge getting plaudits as well, due to the circumstances.
Yeah, I think this is probably correct. It just really stinks that the whole thing is tainted and that we will never have a universally agreed upon home run king that doesn’t have a cloud hanging over him. I do think if he does pass Maris we will have people firing up the debate over who is the legitimate single season record holder and it won’t be just coming from Yankee fans.
 

E5 Yaz

Transcends message boarding
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Apr 25, 2002
90,017
Oregon
I do think if he does pass Maris we will have people firing up the debate over who is the legitimate single season record holder and it won’t be just coming from Yankee fans.
The other side of that coin is that if Judge played, say, for the Rangers, it wouldn't get nearly as much attention. His being a Yankee makes it a brighter spotlight, given the media devotion to NY and, like @snowmanny said, the Ruth-Maris-Judge connection.
 

Van Everyman

Member
SoSH Member
Apr 30, 2009
26,993
Newton
I think it’s stupid that Melky Cabrera had that batting title taken away. Numbers are numbers.
Man, I had totally forgotten about that. The story I found said that Melky himself actually requested MLB not waive the rule on PA (which I gather was within their discretion). Was he pushed into doing that?
 

Wingack

Yankee Mod
Moderator
SoSH Member
Jul 14, 2005
34,362
In The Quivering Forest
The other side of that coin is that if Judge played, say, for the Rangers, it wouldn't get nearly as much attention. His being a Yankee makes it a brighter spotlight, given the media devotion to NY and, like @snowmanny said, the Ruth-Maris-Judge connection.
Yep, completely fair.

But there would still be a legitimate debate on the matter going on among hardcore baseball fans.
 

E5 Yaz

Transcends message boarding
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Apr 25, 2002
90,017
Oregon
Yeah, which is why 61 still feels like the magic number even though it kinda isn’t.
Yeah, 61 doesn't mean a thing to me. Neither does 73. The only home run record breaker that means anything to me was 715.
 

billy ashley

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
1,228
Washington DC
All statistics, including records require context.

60 was a historic accomplishment done in an era in which the quality of competition was terrible relative to present day.

61 was an amazing feat but as others pointed out, it was the first 162 game season. It also occurred during an expansion year, which typically increases offensive output.

73 has context, too.

Judge's season has been incredible regardless of how you view the other seasons. Folks should enjoy it and celebrate it.

But the mlb record is safe.



(Also let's not pretend that players were not using peds prior to the 90s. The doctor who gave Mantle the shot that ended his 61 season regularly sold patients uppers. Ruth once took an injection of goat testosterone. If we are discounting Bonds we gotta discount a lot of other legends, too)
 

Hyde Park Factor

token lebanese
SoSH Member
Jun 14, 2008
2,790
Manchvegas
How many fans know 73 is the record, without looking it up?
My personal take is that someone hit 73 home runs in one season under dubious circumstances. Even though it's the most ever I wish it had never happened (along with the other seasons in which someone hit more than 61 homers). The waters have been forever muddied since the steroid era and it seems like every possible answer to the question "Who is the single season home run leader?" is wrong in some way.
 

tims4wins

PN23's replacement
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
37,057
Hingham, MA
My personal take is that someone hit 73 home runs in one season under dubious circumstances. Even though it's the most ever I wish it had never happened. The waters have been forever muddied since the steroid era and it seems like every possible answer to the question "Who is the single season home run leader?" is wrong in some way.
Personally I don’t wish it never happened. Watching Bonds hit for those 5 or 6 years or whatever it was was incredible. Like appointment TV. He was a force the likes of which we have never seen, PEDs or no. I mean he had more intentional walks one year (or more than one year) than the second closest guy had total walks. He would see like 10 strikes per week and he would hit 3 of them out of the park.
 

snowmanny

Member
SoSH Member
Dec 8, 2005
15,667
Once you eliminate the steroids,and the pre-Jackie Robinson era, and the 1961 expansion season - where there were a lot of ridiculous numbers - you end up with Giancarlo Stanton.
 

jon abbey

Shanghai Warrior
Moderator
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
70,715
It's all a moot point now, because the title of this thread will keep him under 62.
 

Hyde Park Factor

token lebanese
SoSH Member
Jun 14, 2008
2,790
Manchvegas
Personally I don’t wish it never happened. Watching Bonds hit for those 5 or 6 years or whatever it was was incredible. Like appointment TV. He was a force the likes of which we have never seen, PEDs or no. I mean he had more intentional walks one year (or more than one year) than the second closest guy had total walks. He would see like 10 strikes per week and he would hit 3 of them out of the park.
The bolded is where you lose me. Watching Bonds in all his arrogance enabled by a bunch of sycophants was sickening.
 

tims4wins

PN23's replacement
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
37,057
Hingham, MA
The bolded is where you lose me. Watching Bonds in all his arrogance enabled by a bunch of sycophants was sickening.
He was better than any of those other guys to begin with, which is probably why I enjoyed watching him maximize all of his immense talent.

I always thought Sammy Sosa was a fraud though. He tried way too hard in the HR derby.
 

E5 Yaz

Transcends message boarding
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Apr 25, 2002
90,017
Oregon
At the end of the day, the seasonal home run "record" will always depend on personal opinion. Which seems appropriate, given how much baseball fans love to debate
 

cheekydave

Member
SoSH Member
Jun 11, 2004
3,134
Bohoken
I think many more people than we care to admit would consider Judge to be the REAL one season HR champ. He is of yet untainted and has not failed any tests using any known PED, he is also humble, likeable, and even though he is a Yankee, he actually is VERY ...likeable.

The question I really want to know is how much EXTRA will the Yankees have to offer him in dollars and years to re sign him? Kudos to him short of a catastrophic injury for the rest of this baseball year he bet 100% on himself, and he appears to have won.
 

SemperFidelisSox

Member
SoSH Member
May 25, 2008
31,084
Boston, MA
I was looking at Roger Maris’s ‘61 season on B-Ref and was surprised to see he was never intentionally walked that season.

Then I remembered who was hitting behind him.
 

benhogan

Granite Truther
SoSH Member
Nov 2, 2007
20,112
Santa Monica
62 HRs would imply a season record to me.

It ranks up there with 55-game hitting streak, hitting .400 and Triple Crowns. They all get put down in big bold ink

Judge would forever be associated with Maris, Mantle, DiMaggio, Ruth, Williams, Yaz and Cabrera.

If the HOF lets those great PED players (Bonds, Sosa, MM, ARod, Clemens, Manny, etc) in then I'll change my opinion on 73.
 

EvilEmpire

paying for his sins
Moderator
SoSH Member
Apr 9, 2007
17,178
Washington
I don't care about HR records, but I'll be very happy if Judge continues to perform at a level that puts him in the same conversation as baseball legends from years past.
 

E5 Yaz

Transcends message boarding
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Apr 25, 2002
90,017
Oregon
I don't care about HR records, but I'll be very happy if Judge continues to perform at a level that puts him in the same conversation as baseball legends from years past.
That's a very healthy attitude. Why are you posting on this site?
 

mauidano

Mai Tais for everyone!
SoSH Member
Aug 21, 2006
35,626
Maui
I don't care about HR records, but I'll be very happy if Judge continues to perform at a level that puts him in the same conversation as baseball legends from years past.
Judge is the anti-Bonds. A VERY likable guy doing superhuman stuff. He's a lot of fun to watch. Go get it Big Guy!
 

Wingack

Yankee Mod
Moderator
SoSH Member
Jul 14, 2005
34,362
In The Quivering Forest
Judge is the anti-Bonds. A VERY likable guy doing superhuman stuff. He's a lot of fun to watch. Go get it Big Guy!
Also, while of course Judge could be juicing, he has always looked like a physical freak, so it feels like if anyone could legitimately break the record it would be a guy like him.
 

Kliq

Member
SoSH Member
Mar 31, 2013
22,671
Personally I don’t wish it never happened. Watching Bonds hit for those 5 or 6 years or whatever it was was incredible. Like appointment TV. He was a force the likes of which we have never seen, PEDs or no. I mean he had more intentional walks one year (or more than one year) than the second closest guy had total walks. He would see like 10 strikes per week and he would hit 3 of them out of the park.
Another side of the coin is that we have no idea how many pitchers in that era that Bonds faced were also on PED's.
 

snowmanny

Member
SoSH Member
Dec 8, 2005
15,667
Off-topic, but that 1961 season did have some crazy numbers, and apart from the HR total Maris was overall excellent, but others were better:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/awards/awards_1961.shtml

You look at those numbers and it is a shame that Ted Williams couldn’t go one more year, as his OPS was 1.096 in 1960. For reference, in 1960 Cash was .903, Kaline was .781 and Colavito was .791, and you can see from the link above how their numbers blew up with expansion.
 

jon abbey

Shanghai Warrior
Moderator
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
70,715
I generally don’t care about this kind of thing, but it’s amazing how far ahead Judge is on everyone else this year, Schwarber is 2nd in MLB with 35 and Alvarez is second in the AL with just 31.
 

E5 Yaz

Transcends message boarding
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Apr 25, 2002
90,017
Oregon
Off-topic, but that 1961 season did have some crazy numbers, and apart from the HR total Maris was overall excellent, but others were better:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/awards/awards_1961.shtml

You look at those numbers and it is a shame that Ted Williams couldn’t go one more year, as his OPS was 1.096 in 1960. For reference, in 1960 Cash was .903, Kaline was .781 and Colavito was .791, and you can see from the link above how their numbers blew up with expansion.
Did home run totals explode as well?
 

Kliq

Member
SoSH Member
Mar 31, 2013
22,671
I generally don’t care about this kind of thing, but it’s amazing how far ahead Judge is on everyone else this year, Schwarber is 2nd in MLB with 35 and Alvarez is second in the AL with just 31.
If he finishes the season 14 homers clear of the next closest competitor, he will have led baseball in homers by the widest margin since Jimmie Foxx in 1932, when he hit 58 homers (Ruth was next with 41). After that it's just Ruth seasons (with the biggest gap being Ruth leading everyone else by 35 homers in 1920).
 

Murderer's Crow

Dragon Wangler 216
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
23,476
Garden City
i think it removes Marris from the conversation moving forward. The number 61 no longer stays part of the conversation or relevant and the rest is really up to someone’s opinion.

and yes, that’s a big deal. People still consider 61 the number and if Judge beats it, it’s a big deal. It’s not a big deal to everyone but it’s a big deal.
 

mauidano

Mai Tais for everyone!
SoSH Member
Aug 21, 2006
35,626
Maui
You watch Judge and his swing; it is as close to perfect as you will see. He obviously plays to launch angle stuff but it works for his large physique. He is must-see TV just as Ortiz and Manny were for the Sox. I'm pulling for him even as a big Red Sox fan. Such a likeable guy.
 

Sad Sam Jones

Member
SoSH Member
May 5, 2017
2,494
It may not follow logic, but if McGwire, Sosa and Bonds had broken records by one or two home runs, I might look at PEDs as a factor similar to rabbit balls and expansion and consider them more legitimate. Since they demolished previous records, I can't take them seriously and look at it – as someone said above – like pitching records in the dead ball era. It's caused me to just think of everything in context and no longer care about these records I was raised on or brainwashed by MLB to consider as sacrosanct.

The years between the strike and PED testing were those of insane power numbers and I'll take those numbers with a grain of salt, just the same as I know the early 1930s didn't feature some magical crop of great .300 hitters and the late '60s wasn't a renaissance of miraculously dominant pitchers. Maybe Judge would be a step towards "reunifying" a home run record (although as pointed out, it will be an AL record regardless though still not an NL one), but I just can't get that excited about it anymore because the naivete is gone and I know it's pointless to compare numbers across eras.
 

bankshot1

Member
SoSH Member
Feb 12, 2003
24,652
where I was last at
If Mantle had batted ahead of Maris, like he should have, Maris wouldn’t have hit 61 and Mickey might have come close to it
I remember as a 10 YO watching the Maris Mantle '61 HR derby from afar, sensing an almost visceral anti-Maris message in the papers and on TV, as if Roger were stealing something he had no right to. Everyone wanted Mick the Golden Boy to break Ruth's record.

As to Judge hitting 62*, golf clap.

Nice year if he becomes the all-time NYY season HR king, but wake me up when he's at 72 and on the cusp of breaking Bond's record.