All Rise: If Judge Hits 62 Should It Be An MLB Record?

There is a debate going on in the sports world which I’d like to jump in on and it has to do with baseball and the New York Yankees.  Aaron Judge is having a magnificent season and will win the American League MVP and there is no debate over that.

Judge is on pace to surpass Roger Maris as the single-season home run hitter in the history of baseball’s most storied franchise.  Maris hit 61 homers in 1961 and Judge had 54 going into last night’s game with 27 left to play.  At his current pace he would smash 65 home runs by the end of the season which would clearly be a Yankees record.

The debate centers on whether or not Judge passing 61 homers can and should be considered a major league record.  That position is held by Barry Bonds who hit 73 homers in 2001…three more than Mark McGwire in 1998.  As a matter of fact Maris’ 61 homers only puts him 7^th on the all-time list as McGwire twice topped that total and Sammy Sosa did in three times.  So why would there be a debate if Judge finishes let’s say with 65 home runs?

Bonds, McGwire & Sosa are all products of the era when players used performance-enhancing drugs…in other words they cheated.  There are many who believe that should disqualify them and from a moral standpoint I could not agree more.  However it does not work that way when it comes to records as those three are all in the books according to official MLB statistics.

Count me as among those who would rather see Judge or Maris declared the holder of the home run record but it’s not going to happen…that is unless Judge can hit 19 homers in his last 27 games OR break the record in another season.  As it stands now you can debate the subject but unless the commissioner puts an asterisk next to all the drug offenders Bonds will remain the record-holder…as distasteful as that might be.

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