Quick thoughts after Aaron Judge hits his 62nd home run

No. 62 for No. 99. (Getty)

There is a new American League single-season home run king. Aaron Judge slugged his 62nd home run of the season Tuesday night (video), breaking the tie with Roger Maris. No. 99 hit No. 62 the day the Yankees improved their record to 99-62. This sport can be cool sometimes.

Maris of course hit 61 home runs while wearing No. 9 in 1961. 61 years later, Judge broke Maris’ record while  wearing No. 99. I say again: this sport can be pretty cool sometimes. The new AL single-season home run leaderboard:

1. Aaron Judge, 2022 Yankee: 62 (and counting!)
2. Roger Maris, 1961 Yankees: 61
3. Babe Ruth, 1927 Yankees: 60
4. Babe Ruth, 1921 Yankees: 59
5. Hank Greenberg, 1938 Tigers: 58
6. Jimmie Foxx, 1932 Athletics: 58

The American League has been around since 1901 and no one in the league’s history has ever hit more homers than Judge this year. Isn’t that crazy? It’s completely crazy. This isn’t a juiced ball season either. No other player has more than 46 home runs this season and no one in the AL has more than 39. Those are normal home run totals. 62 is not. It is historic.

We’ll see what happens Wednesday, but chances are Judge will finish the season with 16 more homers than any other player, which would be that largest margin since 1932. Foxx hit 58 that year and Ruth was the runner up with 41. Simply put, Judge has had one of the most dominant offensive seasons in the sport’s history. A few quick thoughts on No. 62.

1. Judge was pressing. The chase for No. 62 was definitely getting to Judge. He slammed his helmet in frustration after popping up a hanging slider in Game 1 on Tuesday (video) and we never see him do that. He’d missed more than a few hittable pitches the last few games and he was also unusually aggressive. He saw 12 pitches in five at-bats in Game 1 on Tuesday! That’s not Judge.

Judge went 3 for 17 with five walks and seven strikeouts in the five games between Nos. 61 and 62 and it felt an eternity. The Yankees clinched the AL East and a Wild Card Series bye the day before Judge hit No. 61, so these games haven’t mattered, and focus has been on Judge and only Judge. I can’t imagine what it’s like having the whole sport watching you like that.

I gotta think Judge felt a giant weight lifted off his shoulders after hitting No. 62. He has been superhuman this season but he is still only human, and it’s only natural to feel the pressure of the chase. Pressure hasn’t phased this guy much though. Judge turned down over $200M in Spring Training, then went out and broke the league’s home run record. What a king.

“It’s a big relief,” Judge said after hitting No. 62. “Now everybody can sit down and watch a ball game.”

2. The fading Triple Crown chase. Alas and alack, Judge going 3 for 17 between his 61st and 62nd homers all but snuffed out his chance at a Triple Crown. He still has huge leads in home runs and RBI. The batting title is slipping away though. Here is the batting race following Tuesday’s games. I don’t need to carry it out to five digits anymore:

1. Luis Arraez, Twins: .315
2. Aaron Judge, Yankees: .311
3. Xander Bogaerts, Red Sox: .305

If Arraez sits again Wednesday (a thing the Twins have been doing lately), Judge would need to go 4-for-4 in the season finale to win the batting title. Doable? Sure! But I’m not even sure Judge is going to play Wednesday, or play a full nine innings. Maybe it works out, maybe it doesn’t. The Triple Crown would’ve been fun. We’ll have to be happy with 62 homers instead.

3. Past AL leaders. Did you know only four players previously have held the title of AL single-season home run king? I was planning to look this up on my own, but J.J. Cooper beat me to it, so I thank him. Here are the AL’s single-season home run kings over the years:

• Nap Lajoie, Athletics: 1901 (14 homers)
• Socks Seybold, Athletics: 1902-18 (16 homers)
• Babe Ruth, Yankees: 1919-60 (29 homers, then 54, then 59, then 60)
• Roger Maris, Yankees: 1961-2021 (61 homers)
• Aaron Judge, Yankees: 2022 to ??? (62 homers)

Look at those names! Lajoie was the AL’s first superstar and he was so good they named a team after him. Ruth is a transformative figure in baseball history and one of the most famous athletes (maybe the most famous athlete?) in sports history period. Maris was the MVP the year before he hit 61 homers. He was great. Then there’s Judge, the newest name on the list.

The AL’s single-season home run king has been a Yankees right fielder every year since 1921 and that just feels right. The Yankees are baseball’s marquee franchise and right field in the Bronx – even at the old Yankee Stadium – is the sport’s most famous piece of real estate. Home runs are hit there and legends play there.

4. More history against the Rangers. And finally, I just want to take a quick second to point out the Rangers opened their new ballpark three years ago and there’s already been so much history there! But the Rangers have either been on the wrong end of that history, or weren’t involved at all. All these things have happened at Globe Life Field in only three seasons:

• The Dodgers won the 2020 World Series. Texas was the neutral site stadium in the pandemic bubble and the Rangers didn’t make the postseason.
• Joe Musgrove threw the first no-hitter in Padres history.
• Corey Kluber threw the Yankees’ first no-hitter since David Cone’s perfect game.
• Judge set a new AL single-season home run record.

The Texas Rangers, forever baseball’s bystander. Congrats on spending $1.2 billion on a new stadium to get the ambience of The Trop. And congrats, Aaron. A season I will never ever forget.

(Send your requests for Friday's mailbag to RABmailbag at gmail dot com. The random Yankee series is on hiatus, but feel free to send in requests for when it returns.)