Bronx, NY: Back from vacation and ready to rock. With the NHL and NBA in the rearview and still a few weeks from NFL training camp, it’s time to focus on baseball. In case you haven’t heard, Aaron Judge is having a pretty good season. With two dingers on Sunday, he’s hitting .356 with 30 dongs, and 67 RBI. While the homers get the attention, there’s another record in Judge’s sites. A record that has stood for over 100 years.
Babe Ruth holds the single season total bases record with 457. Through Sunday, Judge is on pace for 466.
Back in the day, 400 total base seasons were not uncommon. Between 1921 and 1937, 10 players did it a total of 19 times. Lou Gehrig did it five times himself. But then it almost stopped happening for about the next 60 years. From 1938 to 1996, only three players had 400 total base seasons (Stan Musial 1948, Hank Aaron 1959, and Jim Rice 1978).
But then, for some strange reason, it started happening a lot. Five players did it seven times from 1997-2001. I don’t know why those years were so juiced up. The answer is needling at me, but I can’t quite think of it. Sorry, just trying to inject a bit of humor into the situation.
Anyway, it stopped again after 2001 until Ohtani racked up 411 total bases last year. I feel like that should have been a bigger deal. It would have been interesting to see who would have won the MVP if Judge and Ohtani were in the same league. Both had monster years. Interestingly, Ohtani was third in WAR, which is supposed to measure a player’s value, behind Judge and Bobby Witt Jr, because he didn’t play in the field.
Anyway, it will be difficult for Judge to continue his torrid pace and break the record. Especially if the Yankees are playing a lot of meaningful games in the second half, and teams pitch around him. (Tuesday addition: Like last night when the Blue Jays walked him in the eighth inning of a one run game with no outs). But if he can keep up the pace and threaten a 104 year-old record, that would be fun.
Speaking of fun, the erroneously named Angry Ward will be here tomorrow.
