Judge show rolls into town

Yankees star is having a great season, but let’s not get carried away

The New York Yankees are in town for their final regular-season visit of the year (they may very well be back in October) and in case you hadn’t heard their slugging outfielder, Aaron Judge, is chasing history. Sort of. Judge is having an incredible season, to be sure, with a very good shot at the first Triple Crown (first in the American League in batting average, home runs and RBIs) since Detroit’s Miguel Cabrera in 2012. He’s just about lapping the field in the homers, with nearly 50 per cent more big flies than his closest pursuer, Kyle Schwarber of the Phillies.

He’s also on pace for a 10-WAR season, not seen since Mookie Betts did it four years ago. Mike Trout has done it twice, most recently in 2016.

Judge, a six-foot-seven mountain of a man, is going to add a most valuable player award to a trophy case that already includes 2017 rookie of the year and a pair of Silver Sluggers. Whether it’s warranted based on the year Shohei Ohtani is having for the Angels (top five in ERA and strikeouts as a pitcher, top five in home runs and OPS as a hitter) is a separate argument.

It’s the gushing over Judge that’s more than a bit much.

From this corner, it has more to do with the pinstripes he wears and the desire by so many who cheered on the big bashers of the steroid era to erase what they did a couple of decades ago.

There’s been a lot of ink spilled about Judge’s pursuit of the AL home-run record set by fellow Yankee Roger Maris, who famously hit 61 in 1961 to surpass Babe Ruth. But Maris’s mark had already been surpassed six times. First by Mark McGwire on Sept. 8, 1998, then Sammy Sosa five days later. McGwire would wind up with 70, a record that stood until Barry Bonds hit 73 in 2001.

Think what you will about the Stay Puft Marshmallow Men who destroyed baseballs with unnatural frequency at the turn of the century, but none of them were ever suspended.

Do we know now that they were cheating? We knew McGwire was back then, when a reporter saw a bottle of androstenedione in his locker. We know Bonds was because of the BALCO scandal. Sosa was caught during the 2003 anonymous survey testing that was eventually leaked.

But it’s revisionist history to suggest the entire baseball world wasn’t cheering like crazy for McGwire and Sosa. They were seen as heroes until Bonds made a mockery of what they did. Also, at the time, all eyes were on Ruth and Maris even though McGwire and Sosa were National Leaguers.

Do you remember the grand celebration when McGwire broke the NL record? No? That’s probably because there wasn’t one. The record holder, by the way, had been Hack Wilson of the Cubs, who hit 56 in 1930. I didn’t know that, either.

OK, so it’s because it’s also the Yankees home-run record. Judge has been chasing the mark of an historic franchise.

Well, sure. Who can forget the drama of Cody Bellinger’s 2019 chase of the Dodgers homer mark? He wound up two shy, and of course the Dodgers are such a great and historic franchise that we all know who holds their record.

Again, Judge is having a wonderful season, but an historic one? One of the greatest of all time? Come on. Those declarations are only happening because he’s the focal point of a first-place team that plays in the centre of the baseball universe.

Is Judge going to hit more home runs than Ruth ever did in a season? Yep. But is he going to hit for a higher average? Get on base more? Have a higher slugging percentage? Nope. Ruth’s career batting average and on-base percentage are both higher than Judge’s numbers this season.

If Judge wins the Triple Crown — it’s a tight battle in batting average with Boston’s Xander Bogaerts and Minnesota’s Luis Arráez — he’ll do it with a lower average than Bonds had the year he set the homer record, and likely fewer RBIs.

Over the next three nights, Torontonians may well be witness to history. But if we are, it will be AL home-run history and nothing more, though that in itself is pretty cool.

We just have to live with the hype — because, you know, Yankees. And the best way to combat that is to keep their total of World Series titles in the 21st century at one. And maybe root for Judge, a free agent to be, to wear red socks next season. That would be kind of delicious.

By the way, it’s Shawn Green. The former Blue Jay set the Dodgers home-run record when he hit 49 in 2001. But we all knew that, right?