NEW YORK — Fans and players quickly jumped to their feet when Aaron Judge swung and connected on a 3-2 sinker in the seventh inning at Rogers Centre in Toronto on Wednesday night.
The line drive record-tying home run grazed past the several gloves in the front row and landed in the Toronto Blue Jays’ bullpen. Pitching coach Matt Buschmann ended up with the baseball, which is estimated to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“Bad news is I’m down here in Florida battling a hurricane, but the good news is I can announce my retirement,” jokingly tweeted Buschmann’s wife, Sara Walsh, a Fox Sports reporter.
But after retrieving the ball, Buschmann passed it along to Yankees reliever Zack Britton who made sure the valuable piece of sports history got back to Judge.
“Oh cool. He just handed that back without checking to see if our house is still here? I’d next like to announce our divorce,” Walsh added on social media.
But Walsh said her husband had no problem handing over history. He told her: “The Judge and Maris family have been flying all over the country. They deserve to have that ball.”
The Judge and Maris families have been following the team in hopes to see the 61-year-old record broken with their own eyes. Last week they were in attendance for the Yankees homestand and witnessed Judge hit his 60th home run in a comeback victory against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Judge’s mother Patty and Maris’ son were in attendance for Wednesday night’s game in Toronto to witness No. 61. They had to wait seven games and 34 plate appearances between the last two homers.
Two fans who brought gloves for the occasion both had a chance to snag the milestone ball before it landed in the bullpen.
Frankie Lasagna, a Toronto restaurant owner, was feet away from being forever associated with the historic moment.
“In the front row I felt like you’ve got the best chance,” Lasagna, one of the two fans closest to the ball, told the Associated Press. “Lo and behold, I was just a few feet away.
“The disbelief comes over you and just the shock and the amazement,″ he added. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, I almost had it.’ ”
Another unlucky fan, who was sporting a Bo Bichette jersey and came even closer than Lasagna, declined an interview request from the AP.
The fan who caught Judge’s 60th home run ball last week opted not to try and cash in as he simply gave the ball back to the Yankees superstar.
The next opportunity to try and hit the sports memorabilia lottery comes Friday night when Judge and the Bombers return to the Bronx.
