Aaron Judge is chasing history. But if he wants the all-time home run record, he’s going to have to catch Barry Bonds's 73. williamfleitch writes on the tiresome argument about the purity of the game
Sixty-five home runs is still pretty good. Photo: Adam Hunger/AP/Shutterstock Just in time to hit free agency this off-season, Aaron Judge is having the best year of his career. He turned down an eight-year, $230 million extension from the Yankees in April, a move that seemed foolish at the time and now looks like a masterstroke. Since then, Judge has become one of those larger-than-life baseball figures whose name transcends the sport.
That’s why for some, a narrative has begun to coalesce around Judge’s epic season: This is for the real record. Because Bonds’s, McGwire’s, and Sosa’s marks are seen as “tainted,” the notion has arisen that if Judge is able to pass Maris’s team and AL mark, he should be the true, bona fide Home Run King.
Those who want to give Judge the record aren’t particularly interested in honoring him. They’re mostly interested in dishonoring Bonds, McGwire, and Sosa, because they think those guys are irredeemable cheaters. Few baseball narratives have lasted longer than the notion that players who tested positive for using performance-enhancing drugs — or even people who very likely used but never tested positive, like, uh, Bonds and McGwire and Sosa — should go down in history as monsters.
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