Yankees fans are eager to see star slugger Aaron Judge break the American League’s home run record – a feat the player is poised to accomplish any day now after racking up 60 home runs so far this season.
“It’s going to happen in the next day or two, I think,” said Jason Kotz, a lifelong fan from New Jersey who sported a Judge jersey outside of Yankee Stadium in the Bronx on Monday afternoon.
After hitting his 60th home run in last week’s game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Judge’s home run tally had remained stagnant for five games. But that could all end as early as Monday evening, when the Yankees are scheduled to play the Toronto Blue Jays.
With one more home run, Judge will tie Yankees great Roger Maris’ record of 61 home runs in a season, set in 1961. And with two more home runs – which Judge has been known to hit in a single game – the star outfielder will set a new record for the American League.
“He just needed to take a minute, settle in, and swing the bat,” Kotz said.
Kotz has watched Judge’s ascent from the minor leagues to the American League’s leading hitter. For him, it’s been like watching an icon be made, he said.
In the six decades since Maris set the league’s record, a select few players have hit more home runs in a single season. But some of those leading records were set during the sport’s infamous steroids era, which has sparked debate in some baseball circles over their legitimacy.
Now, with 10 games left in the season for the Yankees, fans are eager to see Judge match and then smash the 61 home run record – and they hope to be in the stands when he does.
Amanda Fandino and her husband Sergio Barraza had planned a visit to New York from their home in Arizona just to see Judge play. At the two games the couple saw against the Boston Red Sox over the weekend, they said the anticipation for a Judge home run hung heavy in the air.
“Every time he came up to bat, it was quiet in the stadium,” Fandino said. “It was just an amazing feeling to know we could almost witness that.”
For Fandino, whose two young sons are both named after Yankees players – Jeter and Jacoby – the record on the line has changed the stakes of the season. At each game, history is on the line, she said.
“Being here, being able to almost witness it, I mean it was a dream come true, it really was,” said Fandino.
If, and perhaps when, Judge scores his 62nd home run, it’ll be a moment that fans said will define the team, and the league, for years to come.
Nick Murray, who has been a Yankees fan for more than 50 years, said he remembers how significant the Maris record was for his generation. Now, he’s glad the next generation of fans will get to see a new record made.
“There’s a long, long history of Yankees with records,” said Murray. “It would be great to add Judge to that list.”
