Aaron Judge put a definitive stamp on one of the great single-season performances by any hitter in baseball history on Tuesday night, smashing his 62nd home run of the year to eclipse Roger Maris’s long-standing American League record and topple one of the most hallowed numbers in all of sports.
Before a crowd at Globe Life Field buzzing in anticipation, the New York Yankees slugger drove a 1-1 slider from Texas Rangers right-hander Jesús Tinoco into the left field seats to lead off the top of the first inning in the second game of a day-night doubleheader. Having bested Babe Ruth’s total of 60 for the 1927 Yankees six days ago, Judge finally surpassed Maris’s 61 in the penultimate game of the regular season – exactly 61 years after his predecessor set the mark for the 1961 Yankees.
