Aaron Judge hit his 62nd home run of the season last night. Why is that significant? Well that is the American League record for home runs, breaking Roger Maris’s long standing record of 61 set in 1961. But what about Barry Bonds and his 73 HR in 2001? We will come to that.
When growing up MLB coverage was very different to how it is now. Channel 5 was the only way to watch it and they only had two games a week (Sunday/Wednesday). Lots of very late nights in the late 90’s and early 00’s followed. I loved watching the Yankees. It was probably because they were the team on TV all the time and being very successful probably helped as well. I also loved watching the steroid era. Bonds, Sosa, McGwire. The HR chases were spectacular. 20 years later and we fast forward to what Judge, who is a Yankee, achieved last night.
The problem is that MLB has got itself into a horrible stinking mess. Its been on the cards for an awfully long time and is something they have continually failed to address. The official Home Run record is 73 set by Bonds in 2001, then McGwire with 70 in 1998 etc. Judge with 62 home runs is only 7th on the list. However, the player who was top of the list from the non steroid era was Maris on 61. The 6 records above Judge were all from that 1998 – 2001 era where players were juicing for fun and it was normal. Everyone was doing it. The problem is what is the true record? Do we include the steroid era or not? It was clearly a huge outlier statistically in the history of the sport.
The Hall Of Fame fails to recognise the achievements from that era. Bonds wont be in the Hall Of Fame. That in itself is crazy given he has the two most important records. He has the career record of 762 HRs and the single season record of 73 HRs. Yet he isn’t and wont be in the Hall Of Fame. Its as if he didn’t exist. One huge problem exists. We have no idea who juiced or not in that era. Or any other era.
We have players like David Ortiz in the Hall Of Fame who was allegedly part of a list of 100 players who tested positive for Steroids in 2003. New testing was coming in in 2004 and it was agreed to sweep it under the carpet. How is he in the Hall Of Fame but those from the steroid era aren’t? He started in that era. It seems crazy and ridiculously inconsistent.
It’s what I mean when I say MLB has got itself into a ridiculous mess. We have no idea what should be included and what shouldn’t. There have been corked bats, pine tar issues, sign stealing issues, etc. The other big issue was the rampant use of amphetamines for more than half a century until banned in 2005. Clearly a performance enhancing substance. Let’s just ignore that though.
Last night should have been an incredible celebration because it feels like he is now the genuine Home Runs in a season leader. However, it just feels a bit off. You cant just ignore the other records and pretend they don’t exist. MLB just keeps burying its head in the sand. It has to either remove the records of those that they believe cheated or they have to accept that all eras lived under a cloud of varying amounts and the records in place are those that we as fans can look at and use as a reference point. Was last night a special record? Who knows…
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