Who’s to Judge?

Aaron Judge’s Home Run chase is just another historic baseball moment marred by the sport’s checkered past

In the immediate aftermath of Aaron Judge hammering a Tim Mayza fastball into the Blue Jays bullpen to tie Roger Maris’ American League single-season home run record, there was an inevitable discourse surrounding exactly what it meant.

Of course, tying the AL record for home runs in a season is an incredible feat, and there aren’t many seasons in MLB history that can compare with the mind-boggling campaign Judge has put together. He is on track to win the Triple Crown, and has at times singlehandedly dragged the New York Yankees to what may end up being a 100-win regular season, despite his team falling off a cliff in July.

But the fact of the matter is, when you search up “most home runs in a season” on Google in the future, you will see six seasons that best Judge’s total.

Obviously, Judge can whittle that number down in the remaining games if he continues to keep up his current pace, but there is no reasonable chance that he matches the 73 big flies hit by Barry Bonds in 2001. There is a slim chance that anyone ever does. But it is common knowledge that Bonds, Sammy Sosa, and Mark McGwire, the three men that hold the top three home run hitting seasons, all either tested positive for steroids, or admitted to using them, during their periods of dominance.

And that has led a considerable amount of baseball fans considering Maris’ mark of 61 as the “true” home run record, the clean record. The problem is, Major League Baseball’s record books will still recognize those three as having more regardless, and there has been no concrete ruling from the MLB as to whether or not those records are legitimate or tainted. And more than likely, there will never be an answer from the league itself because in order to acknowledge the competitive advantage those players had, the league itself would have to accept that the playing field at that time was simply unfair. That the integrity of the game was compromised, and those players should be “Pete Rose’d” out of the record books and the league in general.

This admission ever coming is so out of the realm of possibility though, because it would destroy an entire segment of MLB history further, and reignite all of the conversations surrounding just how long former commissioner Bud Selig ignored a clear issue for so long. MLB as an entity has many periods where the integrity of the game was either called into question, or totally lost. The Black Sox scandal is the oldest and most egregious example, but many of the rest, the BALCO era, Biogenesis later on, the recent weird Spider Tack saga, the Astros and Red Sox sign stealing scandals, the ongoing controversy surrounding the literal baseball; have occurred over the last two decades.

If the MLB was to formally wipe away those events, the entire past 25-plus of baseball history will be thrown into question, and perhaps the future of the game as well, which is something the league simply cannot afford. With sports betting and daily fantasy sinking their teeth into mainstream North American sports, there is a necessity for baseball to keep up the veil that their sports is fair and totally impartial on any given night, (please ignore the horrendous umpiring, the composition of the baseball that may vary from game to game, and teams having to play professional events in Tropicana Field). There is now financial incentive for baseball to present it’s product as competitively balanced, whereas in the past, it really didn’t matter.

When someone inevitably comes close to hitting 60 in a season in the future, or even if they somehow get near the immortal 70 mark, there will always be a lingering conversation in the background. No matter how thrilling the chase to 61, (or whatever number Judge may end up with) is, it will be hard to forget that the only reason why the achievement won’t mean more is because there were players in the past, all in a specific era, who had their performances enhanced in a way that just simply will not happen again.

Aaron Judge is doing something that should be celebrated and remembered for years to come, and thankfully it will be, because he plays in the AL, and none of the three sluggers mentioned before did. But the next player may play in the NL, and be swallowed up by the video game numbers of a bygone era. After all, nobody talks about Giancarlo Stanton’s 59 homer season in 2017 anymore, nobody talks about Ryan Howard’s 58 in 2006 either. For the fans of these players obviously, these heroics will not be forgotten, but baseball history is so vast and filled with so many different eras and time periods that there’s just no way to properly spotlight every single historic season throughout its lifespan.

That leaves players who did it the right way; who didn’t take advantage of rampant oversight, negligence, or access to illegal substances, to never truly get the adulation they deserve, except from those who make it a point to champion their greatness.

Aaron Judge’s 2022 season will be remembered as a modern marvel for years to come, but it should mean so much more, and the fact that it doesn’t not only takes away from the moment itself, but moments to come, too.

“How can you not be romantic about baseball” right?

@Russell_28_ on Twitter