Aaron Judge home run record: New York Yankees slugger hits 61st homer to tie Roger Maris’ 61-year record

CNN
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New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge hit his 61st home run on Wednesday, tying On Sunday, Roger Maris’ single-season American League home run record, set in 1961.

The New York Yankees slugger crushed the record-breaking 7th inning home run against Tim Mayza of the Toronto Blue Jays, sending him over the wall at Rogers Centre.

Maris set the AL record in 1961 while playing for the New York Yankees.

Judge, 30, already tied Babe Ruth’s tally more than 90 years ago and could still surpass Maris’ 61-year-old record, sealing his place among the greatest hitters of all time.

“I keep repeating, Aaron Judge; everyone should just watch and take note,” Yankees head coach Aaron Boone said last week after Judge hit his 60th home run. “I can say that because I’ve been through that, and he showed it: he emphasizes being a great teammate and winning. He knows that everything else will take care of itself.

Coming off his 60th home run last Tuesday, Judge refused to pay too much attention to his record-breaking season.

He told reporters, “I didn’t really think about the numbers or the stats and stuff like that,” Judge said. “I will try to help my team win.”

Judge is the sixth player in Major League history to hit at least 60 home runs in a single season.

Judge is unlikely to achieve the major league single-season record of 73 homers, but many have dismissed the record as it is currently held by Barry Bonds who, along with other players from that era, was involved in performance-enhancing drug scandals and allegedly used steroids. Bonds and Sammy Sosa have denied these allegations.

Judge disagrees, recently telling Sports Illustrated: “Seventy-three is the record in my book. It doesn’t matter what people want to say about that era of baseball, to me they went out there and hit 73 home runs and 70 home runs, and to me that’s what the record is.