Aaron Judge Makes Baseball History

Producer: Tori Waschek. Adviser: R. Leung

The crowd went wild Sept. 28 as New York Yankee Aaron Judge hit his 62nd home run this season, breaking a six-decade American League record held by fellow Yankee player Roger Maris. Judge made history as he broke Maris’ 61 home run record in 1961. Before that, Babe Ruth held the record in 1927 with 60 home runs.

Leading up to Tuesday night, Judge was homer-less in his last five games and 17 at-bats. He hit his 62nd home run at Globe Life Field, off of Rangers right-hander Jesus Tinoco. The ball left the field at 100.2 mph and traveled 391 feet. Celebrations occurred across the country from fans, celebrities, other MLB and Hall of Fame baseball players like Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter, and even President Joe Biden. 

The Major League and National League record for home runs in a single season is 73, which was set by Barry Bonds in 2001. Judge has hit the seventh-most home runs in a single season in AL/NL history behind Bonds, Mark McGwire, and Sammy Sosa. This puts Judge on the list for several rankings, including seventh on the single-season home run record board, first on the top 20 single season home runs record for the Yankees, and first on the AL Home Run leaderboard. He won the 2022 American League Most Valuable Player Award. 

Judge will continue to have the chance to make more history as a Yankee since he has agreed to a nine-year, $360 million deal. Since the announcement of his return, the next question is regarding whether he’ll be the team’s first captain since Derek Jeter.