As Aaron Judge Chases History, Former Slugger Mark McGwire Weighs In On Baseball’s Home Run Records

Red Sox reliever Matt Barnes uncorked a 95-mph fastball up and over the middle of the plate, the kind of pitch that Yankees MVP candidate Aaron Judge has devoured for much of the 2022 baseball season.

But although Judge connected on Barnes’ offering and the 43,000-plus Yankee Stadium fans rose and cheered — anticipating Judge’s 61st trip around the bases this year — the baseball dropped into the glove of Sox centerfielder Enrique Hernandez after traveling an estimated 404 feet. A long fly ball for an out.

Entering Friday, the mammoth Yankee outfielder has 13 games left to tie or surpass Maris’ American League single-season home run mark of 61 set in 1961.

“I truly believe (Judge) will get close to 65 if not 65 (homers),” said Mark McGwire, the former Oakland A’s and St. Louis Cardinals slugger, in a phone interview.

Even as Judge tries to tie Maris or hit greater than 61 home runs before the ‘22 regular season concludes, the debate has already begun: if Judge reaches 62 or more, would his final mark represent a “legitimate” single-season home run record? In a Sports Illustrated report published earlier this month, Judge told baseball writer Tom Verducci that Barry Bonds, in Judge’s mind, is still the single-season king.

Bonds hit 73 homers in 2001.

“Seventy-three is the record,” Judge told Verducci. “In my book. No matter what people want to say about that era of baseball, for me, they went out there and hit 73 homers and 70 homers, and that to me is what the record is. The AL record is 61, so that is one I can kind of try to go after. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, it’s been a fun year so far.”

Bonds, also the career home run king (762), like McGwire and Sammy Sosa, has links to performance-enhancing drugs and to baseball’s so-called “Steroid Era,” which included a decades-plus stretch of time before Major League Baseball had a drug-testing program. Bonds’ 73 homers came only three years after McGwire and Sosa waged a home run battle that ended with McGwire hitting 70 and Sosa smacking 66.

McGwire admitted to his steroid and PED use during his major league career in a 2010 interview with Bob Costas, five years after he and Sosa testified before a congressional committee investigating steroid use in baseball and sports and after a New York Daily News exclusive report was published which identified McGwire’s steroid supplier. In the Costas interview, McGwire said he used PEDs for recovery from injuries and “health purposes,” and also said, “I wish I’d never played in that era.” He apologized to the Maris family in the interview.

Bonds ultimately went to trial in connection with his grand jury testimony in the federal BALCO steroids-trafficking case. He was convicted by a jury on one obstruction count, but the conviction was eventually overturned by a federal appeals court. Bonds was not elected to the Hall of Fame this past winter, his 10th and final appearance on the writers’ ballot.

“That is the (single-season) record, 73 is the record,” said McGwire in the phone interview. “That’s just the bottom line. I really believe in the next five years, (Judge) will break Barry’s record. Then he has it.

“For (Judge) to say that (in the SI story), I think that’s fantastic,” added McGwire. “Barry has the record — he has the all-time record. That is it. That’s in the record books. Obviously there’s going to be naysayers all the time, no matter what. It is what it is.”

A representative for Bonds did not return a message for comment.

Of the critics who label McGwire’s and Bonds’ home run achievements as tainted, McGwire said: “Everybody has an opinion. It’s magnified even more because of social media, but listen, they’ve never put a uniform on, they’ve never hit 65 home runs, they’ve never hit 70 home runs, never hit 73 home runs. They have no idea what it takes. You just don’t go to the plate and somebody sets it on a tee for you. It is because of a lot of hard work, a lot of intelligence in the mind, understanding what you need to do at the plate.

“There’s always going to be naysayers no matter what we’re gonna talk about in any sport, anything in life. That’s just the way things are,” said McGwire.

The Maris children were on hand Thursday night at Yankee Stadium to see if Judge would match their father’s milestone, and Roger Maris Jr. said the family had “mixed emotions” about Judge passing Maris Sr.’s 61 mark.

“Once again, we like the record. We’re proud of the record,” Maris Jr. told Fox’s Ken Rosenthal. “But I think it’s kind of inevitable, (Judge) is probably going to break it at this point the way he’s hitting the ball, the way he’s hitting the ball the last couple of weeks.”

Judge, 30, is not only blasting homers at will, he’s also in contention for baseball’s hallowed triple crown (highest batting average, leader in home runs and RBI), and has — in McGwire’s opinion — “put that Yankee organization on his back” to get them into the postseason.

“Truly an MVP, without-a-doubt, season, and he’s done it from day one,” said McGwire. “The Yankees would not be in the position that they are in right now if he was not doing what he was doing. That’s what an MVP does. I couldn’t be happier for him.”

Judge turned down the Yankees’ offer earlier this year — a seven-year extension at $30.5 million per year, plus whatever he makes in arbitration for 2022 — and is set to enter free agency. He’ll likely have no shortage of MLB team suitors, according to McGwire.

“Obviously (Judge) is going to be a very, very wealthy man after this season, being a free agent,” said McGwire. “There are going to be five to six Brinks trucks backing up to his house to drop off all the money.”

When Alex Rodriguez signed a new contract with the Yankees in 2007, he also sealed a marketing agreement with the club that would pay him $6 million bonuses for each home run milestone he passed — Willie Mays’ 660, Babe Ruth’s 714 and so on. But Rodriguez’s own PED sins were exposed — in 2009 and again in 2013 — and the home run bonus money became a contentious issue when he returned to the Yankees after serving his 2014 season-long doping suspension. The Yankees reportedly declared Rodriguez would not be paid that money.

The Yankees are not believed to have negotiated any kind of home run bonus package in their last offer to Judge, although it’s possible another team could do so during his free agency journey. Entering Friday, Judge has 218 career homers.

McGwire is four years removed from his last MLB job, as the Padres’ bench coach, but he said he still follows baseball on TV, and now through the young careers of his two sons, Mason and Max. Mason McGwire, a right-handed pitcher, was drafted by the Chicago Cubs earlier this year.

As for the spotlight and scrutiny, McGwire said he is content watching Judge own the baseball headlines now and for however long the outfielder’s career lasts.

“I’ve never met him personally. Hopefully someday I will,” said McGwire of Judge. “When he broke the rookie home run record, 49, the record I had set in 1987, a former player that I coached, Matt Holliday (who was on the Yankees in 2017 when Judge hit 52 homers), hooked me up with talking to Judge. I called him up and congratulated him on breaking my record.

“I just love the way (Judge) goes about the game. Every aspect of the game,” said McGwire. “He wants to talk about the team and a good win. I totally get that. That’s what we all play the game for. The individual accomplishments come because of hard work, and being in the right situation at the right time.”