Aaron Judge tied the AL single-season home run record on Wednesday. And that’s great! But it has nothing to do with Barry Bonds or his record. Just stop it already.
Good morning, baseball fans!
I cannot believe, in the year of our Mays 2022, that we are having this conversation. But here we are.
On Wednesday night, Aaron Judge tied Roger Maris for the most home runs in a single season of the American League with 61. It was an impressive feat and my hat is off to him. He deserves all of the accolades and attention he is currently receiving.
What he does not deserve is for people to take this impressive achievement and use it to fan the flames of their narratives about Barry Bonds. This moment is not about Bonds. Judge did not break Bonds’ record, he himself has said that Bonds is the home run king and 73 is the number to beat.
And yet, grumpy people looking to pick fights rather than celebrate a great moment in baseball keep making this about Bonds and not Judge himself.
Roger Maris Jr. on Aaron Judge: “He should be revered for being the actual single-season home run champ. That’s really who he is if he hits 62.” pic.twitter.com/0uCipHHJkU
— YES Network (@YESNetwork) September 29, 2022
You can dislike the fact that different eras of baseball have all had players doing things that wouldn’t fly by today’s standards. You can dislike Barry Bonds, personally. There are a lot of reasons to! But the numbers are the numbers, and rewriting history by trying to slap an asterisk on records 20+ years later is just….sad, really.
At the end of the day, this moment is about Aaron Judge. Who I would love to see beat the actual home run record. Preferably at Oracle Park as a member of the San Francisco Giants. But regardless of all that speculation, he deserves to have this moment be about him, and not about gripes from the past.
What time do the Giants play today?
The Giants start their penultimate series of the year, against the Arizona Diamondbacks, tonight at 7:15 p.m. PT at Oracle Park.