Judging judge
If asked, I usually tell people that I stopped caring about baseball on Oct. 14, 1992. That’s the night Sid Bream, a former Pirate playing for the Atlanta Braves, slid across home plate with the winning run that knocked the Buccos out of the NLCS.
But with all the activity last week surrounding Aaron Judge’s 62nd home run of the season – a blow that erased Roger Maris’ 61-year old record of 61 homers – I think I really began to stop caring on Oct. 13, 1960. That’s the day Bill Mazeroski hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth of the seventh game of the World Series to lift the Pirates, improbably, past the evil-incarnate Yankees.
I was an 11-year-old in 1960. Along with roughly 30 of my classmates, we heard Maz’s homer on a transistor radio that the school’s janitor had brought into the room.
“You take it,” he said, placing the radio on our teacher’s desk. “It’s too much for me!”
Although school dismissal was at 3:30 p.m., our teacher allowed us to stay in the room and listen. At 3:36, Maz hit a 1-0 Ralph Terry fastball over the left field wall of Forbes Field. The classroom erupted in cheers. Then we ran home to tell whoever would listen that the Bucs were world champs. It was a big deal: The Pirates hadn’t won a World Series since 1925 – 35 interminable years. It’s now been 43 years since the Pirates won a Series. Maybe that’s a bigger deal.
Although it thrilled me, Maz’s achievement changed my life not one iota. When I awoke on Oct. 14, 1960, I went straight back to school. Although Maris would break Ruth’s record the next year, I just didn’t care. I was – and still am – a terrible athlete. I suspect this may be the case for all those currently raving about Judge. Although the Yankee outfielder’s feat is remarkable by any standard, life grinds on as usual, and navigating the world of 2022 is significantly more daunting than that of 1960.
Sportswriters and fans have settled into two camps regarding Judge. Some say he broke only the AL record; others say he is the new single-season Home Run King. That’s because although Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa hit 70 and 66 home runs, respectively, in 1998, and Barry Bonds hit 73 in 2001, all three men either admitted to or are suspected of using steroids or other performance enhancing drugs. They weren’t “pure.”
Judge himself has said that he considers 73 home runs the record to beat. He seems, from all that I have seen, a player in the same mold as Maris – low-key, maybe even humble. Sure, Judge may be a bit more intense, but aren’t all athletes these days?
Viewed through the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia, the home run race of 1961 may seem perfect. But even then, baseball purists said Maris’ accomplishment was tainted because he’d needed 162 games to hit 61 home runs, whereas Babe Ruth had set the previous record of 60 in just 154 games. There were even suggestions of adding an asterisk after Maris’ name in record books, although one never appeared. And there were rumors at the time that both Maris and teammate Mickey Mantle, who was hot on Maris’ heels in the race before being injured, might have been taking “vitamin shots.”
Ruth, Maris and Judge – and even McGwire, Sosa and Bonds – all set records. Perhaps in your view those set by McGwire, Sosa and Bonds weren’t “pure.” But when has baseball ever been pure? The 1919 Black Sox game-fixing scandal; George Brett’s pine tar bat; the 1985 Pittsburgh drug trials; the 2017 Houston Astros stealing signs on the way to a World Series victory.
Form your own opinion. I just don’t care about baseball anymore.
For me, there will never be a homer mightier than Maz’s.