With his 61st home run of the season, Aaron Judge has tied Roger Maris’s 61-year old single season home run record, set in 1961. It is a remarkable feat, and not just because it involves the number “61” in three different ways. Judge’s season will go down in history as one of the all-time great ones ever accomplished by a power hitter, and he has etched his name in the record books.
For the American League.
Judge, the third American Leaguer to hit 60 homers in a season, has truly rewritten the American League record books. Fans everywhere are marveling at his incredible achievement, never before exceeded in American League history.
Judge’s record isn’t without controversy, of course. Some have claimed that 61 isn’t the real record, that it’s not a legitimate record. They have claimed that when you consider the context of history, there’s another, better record that everyone should recognize. It’s not that they disrespect Judge or what he’s accomplished, but simply that they don’t feel his homer total is the record.
To that, I say: balderdash. Roger Maris and Aaron Judge’s 61 homers are the American League record. It is plain to see for anyone. Yes, they did it in 162 games instead of 154, but (with apologies to Babe Ruth) they can only play the season that’s in front of them. Maris and Judge did not make the schedule or define what a season is. They simply hit more home runs in a season than anyone else in the history of the American League.
It can be tricky dealing with the kind of person who wants to bury their head in the sand, refusing to acknowledge that the differences between eras don’t delegitimize records. Yes, Ruth had eight fewer games, but he also didn’t face Latino players or split-fingered fastballs or teams with three different relievers who all hit 100 with their two-seamers. You can’t just say, “He didn’t have This, so anyone who did have This is less good, even if they also had to deal with That, Those, and The Other.”
So yes, Roger Maris did hold the real American League single-season home run record, and now he shares that title with Aaron Judge. Judge has 7 more games to break the record and take it for his own, and whether he does it or not it’s undeniable that he’s had a phenomenal, historic season. The American League home run record is one of the most hallowed marks in all of North American sports, and it’s been fun watching Judge chase it, and now finally catch it.
So congratulations again to Aaron Judge, currently the co-owner of the real American League record for most home runs in a single season.
The single season major league home run record is, of course, held by Barry Bonds, who hit 73 home runs in 2001, which is 12 more than Aaron Judge’s current total of 61.