OPINION: The MLB Single-Season Home Run Record is 73, People (Roger Maris Jr.) Need to Deal With It
Roger Maris Jr. has made it very clear he believes the MLB single-season home run record is 61, currently held by his father and Aaron Judge, not the 73 Barry Bonds hit in the 2001 season. Sounds like he needs to deal with it.
Barry Bonds, holder of the all-time and single-season home run record, taking a swing in a 4-1 San Francisco Giants win over the Cincinnati Reds on August 25, 2006 (Credit: Kevin Rushforth © - Flickr. Flickr Creative Commons. Creative Commons License)
Whoa, that’s a bit of a harsh title, isn’t it? Although I could’ve used nicer language I truly believe people (like Roger Maris Jr.) need to stop talking about home run records because they’re starting to embarrass themselves.
“Seventy-three is the record in my book. No matter what people want to say about that era of baseball, for me, [Barry Bonds] went out there and hit 73 homers… and that to me is what the record is.” Those are the words of Aaron Judge who recently gave an interview to Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci. Although many, including Roger Maris Jr, are ready to crown Aaron Judge the new single-season home run king, Judge himself (who is at the time of writing one home run away from breaking Roger Maris’ American League record for most home runs in a single season, currently set at 61), doesn’t believe that hitting home run 62 would make him the single-season home run champion.
Judge grew up in Linden, California as a San Francisco Giants fan, he watched Barry Bonds play, he watched Barry Bonds break records, and as evident by the interview with Tom Verducci, Judge counts Bonds’ achievements as legitimate, despite the cloud of steroid use over Bonds' head.
MLB also recognizes the achievements of Bonds and other players who have received the label of steroid user. As it stands Judge’s 61 home runs so far this season is tied for seventh with Maris for most home runs in a single season, with seasons from Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, and Bonds making up the top six places.
Although Sosa, McGwire, and Bonds are considered by many to be steroid users whose achievements and records are illegitimate. You can’t just remove them from the history of baseball though, you have to understand the era they played in.
Roger Maris Jr. is someone who views the records of the steroid users as illegitimate, and due to Aaron Judge chasing and tying his father’s record he has had the opportunity to share his opinions recently.
After Judge tied his father’s record on September 29, in a game against the Toronto Blue Jays in Toronto, Maris Jr. spoke to the media and was able to share his thoughts. “It means a lot, not just for me. I think it means a lot for a lot of people that he’s clean, he’s a Yankee, he plays the game the right way and I think he gives people a chance to look at somebody who should be revered for hitting 62 home runs and not just as a guy who did it in the American League…He should be revered and celebrated just like the single-season home run champ, not just like he’s the American League home run champ”. Adding on, “He should be revered for being the actual single-season home run champ. That's really who he is if he hits 62 and I think that's what needs to happen. I think baseball needs to look at the records and I think baseball should do something”.
When specifically asked if he viewed the achievements of Bonds, McGwire, and Sosa as illegitimate, Maris Jr. confirmed that he did, “I do. I think most people do”.
On October 2, with Judge still sitting at 61, Maris Jr. tweed an idea of his:
The idea comes from the fact that when his father broke Babe Ruth’s single-season home run record then Commissioner of Baseball Ford Frick had an asterisk put next to Maris as he had broken Ruth’s record in a season that had 162 games, and when Ruth did it the MLB season was 154 games.
However, the argument breaks down as in 1991 the asterisk was removed, and Maris was recognized as the single-season home run king.
Unless Maris Jr. is proposing to also put the asterisk back next to his father’s name (which I can almost assure you, dear reader, he is not), why does it make sense to create a separate home run list for “illegitimate” PED users records?
Although batters that use PEDs have advantages over batters that don’t use PEDs, the era in which Bonds, McGwire, and Sosa played was full of players that used PEDs, it was called the steroid era after all. It wasn’t just batters too, pitchers were accused and called out for alleged use of PEDs as well, and Bonds still would beat them!
Even against pitchers who we believe took steroids like Eric Gagne, Bonds was able to do damage. If everyone is using steroids how unequal is it really?
MLB didn’t even do anything to try and stop steroid use until 2003 when they released a memo saying that testing would begin. If anything, from the start of the steroid era until 2003 MLB encouraged the use of steroids by doing nothing about them, and why would MLB? The steroid era saw a huge spike in MLB attendance.
That’s just the era it was. I don’t believe it’s fair to try and strike a whole era of baseball from the record books. In my opinion, hitters like Bonds, McGwire, and Sosa still went out there and performed, PEDs help, but they aren’t a magic gateway to success, and while facing opposition who were also doping they still accomplished great feats.
And at the end of the day, MLB is going to acknowledge those feats because they happened.
As the steroid era came to a close we started to be more critical of steroid users, and rightfully so, but we can’t change the past, we can’t ignore the past, and there’s no reason to do so. We also can’t know if Ruth would’ve hit 62 or 63 or 64 or more if he played in a 162 game season. We just can’t know if Bonds would’ve never hit more than 61 if things were different. All we have is what happened, and we put the numbers in a list. Roger Maris hit more home runs than Babe Ruth, “but it was in more games”, it doesn’t matter he still hit more. Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, and Barry Bonds hit more home runs than Roger Maris, “but they’re linked to PED usage”. They. Still. Hit. More. That’s just the way it works and it’s not going to change. Should we put an asterisk next to Will White’s name because we’ve learned that throwing 680 innings in a season isn’t good for the human body since the 1800s and nobody is going to pass him? These records are set, you might not like them, you might disagree, but the facts are that with whatever help, these records happened. You can’t change what happened.
If Roger Maris Jr. and those who think alike want to view certain players’ accomplishments as invalid then sure, obviously they’re allowed to do it, but that doesn’t change the history, it doesn’t change the actual record. If we do it becomes a slippery slope, what about the alleged PED use of other all-timers like Hank Aaron? What do you do about World Series won by teams full of players who were said to be juicing? Do we take away the Cincinnati Reds’ 1919 World Series win because the Chicago White Sox threw the series? if we start with Bonds, Sosa, and McGwire, where do we end? Things happened, we can’t change them.
Aaron Judge has had an insanely, insanely, impressive season, and breaking the American League home run record would be amazing, it’s a huge record to break, a huge accomplishment. Still, he will not be the single-season home run king for all of the MLB. Bonds, McGwire, and Sosa are still ahead. We just can’t change, ignore, or try to discredit what has happened.
