Ian O'Connor

Ian O'Connor

MLB

The night Aaron Judge became a Yankees legend forever

TORONTO — The roof was sealed shut, locking down the building and the drama and making the crack of the bat twice as loud. Aaron Judge had just taken a healthy cut at a full-count sinker traveling 94 miles per hour, sending it roaring 117.4 miles per hour toward a sacred place in baseball history above the left-field wall.

Tim Mayza, Blue Jays lefty, threw his arms out in a show of helplessness and dismay as he tracked the flight path of his eighth and final pitch to Judge, whose mother, Patty, rose in unison with Roger Maris Jr. from their seats in the stands. The ball whizzed by the Rogers Centre press box in the left-field corner at a blindingly fast pace, looking like a lashed 3-iron shot straight out of Tiger Woods’ prime.

The shot crashed beneath a couple of unlucky souls who reached over the railing for their 15 minutes of fame, and came up empty. It crashed above the Sportsbook & Casino sign 394 feet from the plate and bounded into the Toronto bullpen, making it official: 

Over 120 years of Yankees baseball, no man has ever hit more home runs in a single season than Aaron Judge, who tied Roger Maris’ American League record with his 61st in the seventh inning of the Yankees’ 8-3 victory over the Blue Jays, at 9:10 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022.

After Judge rounded second base and headed for third, he pointed toward his mother, who was wearing her adopted son’s pinstriped jersey. Patty Judge was there for Aaron’s Little League games, and for every baby step taken toward greatness after that. She blew him a kiss. What else is a mother to do when her boy just did something even Babe Ruth couldn’t achieve? 

Aaron Judge could have opted out of Wednesday’s game, but made a historic choice to play instead. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post

“I called it,” she appeared to be saying after the home run was in the books. Before she hugged her son in the afterglow outside the Yankees’ clubhouse, she was asked what it felt like to watch him turn the sport upside down.

“We’re not commenting tonight,” she responded politely, before throwing back her head and adding, “We’re just soaking it all in.”

What a long, strange, magical trip it has been. Patty Judge was there in their Linden, Calif., hometown a dozen years ago when the major league scouts visited to take a look at her son, an outsize slugger and pitcher who was causing something of a stir. Here’s a sampling of what some of those evaluators had to say:

Yankees scout: “This guy’s got nothing.”

Yankees star Aaron Judge hit home run No. 61 against the Blue Jays on Wednesday night. Charles Wenzelberg/New York Post

Pirates scout: “This guy f—kin’ sucks.”

Red Sox scout: “They fly my ass out here, and [Judge] can’t even play dead.”

Judge overcame the doubts, improved his game year after year after year and persuaded the Yankees to overlook that first report filed by one of their own, Tim McIntosh, who became a believer during Judge’s rise through the minor leagues.

But nobody could have predicted this moment, this night, this forever place in Yankees mythology.

“If what you did yesterday still seems big today,” Judge writes in his Twitter bio, “then you haven’t done anything today.”

The slugger sure as hell did something Wednesday, thanks to his manager’s decision to play him on the night after the Yankees clinched the division title. Aaron Boone made the right call to bat Judge leadoff as the team’s designated hitter, rather than take him off his feet completely. He made the only call that a manager who adores the game could make.

Judge had gone seven full games without sending a ball over the wall. Boone approached him in the middle of the beer and champagne blast Tuesday night and asked, “What do you think about tomorrow?”

“I want to play,” Judge responded. “Let’s go.”

He did go and deliver on a night no on-site witness will ever forget.

“Pretty incredible,” Judge said. “There were a lot of things Babe Ruth did that I definitely couldn’t do. But to get a chance to sit at 60 for a while there with the Babe was nice. To get a chance to now sit at 61 with another Yankee right fielder … it’s pretty cool.”

Thank heavens Boone kept the sport’s best player and biggest attraction in the lineup.

Everything to know about Aaron Judge and his chase for the home run record:




With the ball in the air, Maris Jr. reached over to Patty Judge to congratulate her and embrace her. Maris Jr. later said that he’d been following Judge in person for nine days, a fitting wait time to watch No. 99 (Judge) finally tie No. 9 (Maris Sr.). Junior also called the Barry Bonds (and Mark McGwire) home-run numbers illegitimate, and declared that if Judge gets to 62, he should be considered the genuine all-time king of the long ball.

“And I think it will happen in New York,” Maris Jr. said.

With one seventh-inning swing, Aaron Judge entered himself into Yankees’ legend. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post

After Judge left the field and embraced his mother, he stopped for a talk with the late slugger’s son.

“Get to New York and hit 62 and knock the top off Yankee Stadium,” Maris Jr. told him.

That’s going to happen, no doubt. But Judge had to get to 61 first, and when he did Wednesday night, he became a legend who outgrew his 6-foot-7, 282-pound measurables. When he stepped into his clubhouse, his teammates and coaches greeted him with applause.

The big man called it an honor to be associated with Maris and Ruth. A hundred years from now, some Yankees superstar will be saying the same thing about Aaron James Judge.