Let’s talk records and asterisks.
Aaron Judge has had an historic season for the New York Yankees, and his 62 home runs set an American League record. He is one of only three players, all Yankees, ever to hit 60 home runs or more in an American League season, joining and surpassing Babe Ruth (60 in 1927) and Roger Maris (the previous record holder with 61 in 1961). The only hitters to hit more all came in the National League – Barry Bonds with 73 in 2001, Mark McGwire with 70 in 1998 and 65 in 1999; and Sammy Sosa with 66 in 1998, 64 in 2001 and 63 in 1999.
A lot has been made about HOW these players achieved their marks and whether they should be recognized. Roger Maris Jr., the son of the former AL record holder, wants respect for his father and the “clean” way in which Roger Sr., Babe Ruth and Aaron Judge achieved their marks, as opposed to the “cheating” and “illicit manner” in which Bonds, McGwire and Sosa reached their totals.
Bonds was charged with four counts of perjury and obstruction of justice (convicted of one obstruction count, later overturned in court) in a performance-enhancing-drug investigation. Federal investigators say they have proof that Bonds took PEDs. Others have said Bonds, McGwire and Sosa, may have used illegal “juice,” but they were only implicated, and while the “eye test” and putting two plus two together might affirm the allegations, it has never been proven fully that these players cheated.
Let’s assume what many of us believe … that they did cheat. Let’s go to Bonds, the single-season home run leader. He hit 73 bombs, and even though we believe he was cheating, I never saw anyone as locked in as he was for three straight years. In his 73-homer year of 2001, in 153 games, he hit 73 homers in 476 at bats, a homer every 6.5 at-bats. He was walked 177 times (in 2004, he was walked 232 times) and 35 of them were intentional walks. Even if he did cheat, the man was locked in, Major League Baseball allowed him to play and hit; and they did nothing to take the home runs away. Just as the Houston Astros were outed for cheating when they won the World Series in 2017, their title was not taken away; as such, Bonds’ record stands as the pinnacle. I don’t like it, but he did accomplish it on the field, and he does hold the record. Even Aaron Judge said as much.
To talk about how we look at records involves a player’s persona, attitude and whether he did it fairly. But to some, it also involves the game as it existed when the record was set. Ruth, in 1927, played against only seven teams, with a dead ball, no night games, no 100-mph relievers and no black athletes to play against, but he hit more HRs than any other TEAM that year. Maris hit his 61 against nine teams, with night games, an integrated talent base, an expansion-diluted player-base of talent, and in eight more games than it took Babe. Judge competed against 20 teams (14 in the AL and six National League teams) in smaller-dimension parks, with 95-mph pitchers and deadly sliders commonplace, in an era in which strikeouts are accepted and home runs are the expected batting strategy; and he gets more wrong “strike” calls on him than any other hitter. Does Judge hold the American league record? Yes … and no, as he hit nine home runs against National League teams and 53 against A.L. competition.
But that is today’s game. Just as many argued against then-commissioner Ford Frick’s relegating Maris’ record to being “the 162-game record” vs. Ruth’s “154-game record,” and that an asterisk was attached to Maris’ mark. That is a myth … there never was an asterisk … it was considered a different record, but that was overturned by later commissioner Fay Vincent.
The point is, Ruth set his mark against his competition in the game of his day, Maris set his record in 1961’s atmosphere, Judge set his record this season under today’s regimen and Bonds set his mark on the field as he was allowed to during the steroid era.
We may not like it, but a record IS a record … until someone comes along and breaks it, under the prevailing rules of the day.
What do you think? Is a record always a record or should there be modifications or conditions? Let me know how you feel, at mike.blake@mountvernonnews.com.
