On Wednesday night, New York Yankees star Aaron Judge made history by hitting his 61st home run of the year, tying the single-season American League record set by Roger Maris back in 1961. Now, with 12 games to go, Judge will try to take full control of the record.
Of course, he needs 12 more homers to tie the real MLB home-run record.
Even if you aren’t a baseball head, you may be aware of Judge’s record chase. Those odds increase exponentially if you’re a fan of college football.
That’s because ESPN has been intermittently cutting away from games when Judge is up to the plate, sometimes showing Judge’s at-bats picture-in-picture with a college football game. Fans took that about as well as you would imagine.
If you’re one of those aforementioned fans, you may be wondering something along the lines of, “Why should I care?” And maybe you shouldn’t! I’m not here to tell you how to live your life.
But for fans unfamiliar with dynamics of Major League Baseball, the Reddit CFB Twitter account had an excellent explainer for the significance of Judge’s feat — in college football terms, of course.
Judge’s 61 home runs tie an AL record, but are way short of the MLB record. Still, people push league records as if they’re important out of a misguided sense of loyalty to the teams they play more. (The SEC)
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) September 29, 2022
The reason the sport wasn’t doing well prior to the ‘90s home run races is a labor strike, which was forced because greedy owners didn’t want the players who made their sport happen to receive as much compensation. (NIL)
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) September 29, 2022
Judge himself seems like a really nice guy, and it’s a great accomplishment for him. ESPN is going to milk every last drop out of this story and put anything else you might be interested in on the back burner. (Still ESPN)
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) September 29, 2022
It all makes perfect sense when you look at it like that. Basically, the Yankees are Texas, and sick dingers are the Longhorns being back.
The Yankees return to the field to take on the Orioles on Friday night as Judge looks for No. 62, and the University of Houston announced that the cut-ins would return during its football game against Tulane — likely to preempt the ire of the fans.
For fans tuning into @UHCougarFB vs. Tulane (6 p.m. CT kickoff): @espn will cut into tonight’s coverage for live look-ins to at-bats for Aaron Judge, who is in pursuit of breaking Roger Maris’s single-season AL home run record.
— Houston Athletics Communications (@UHCougarPR) September 30, 2022
If you’re a Houston fan upset about this, I get it. But just look at it this way: Every time Judge lines out, it’s like Texas lost to Kansas all over again.
