History will be the Judge, as another record gets crushed

Baseball history was made in Chicago last week, as Aaron Judge, again, with one swing of his massive, nearly-one-meter-long Chandler bat, rewrote the possibilities of America's pastime.

Deep into the series decider with the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday, with a man already on second base, relief pitcher Chad Khul, understandably, decided to intentionally walk the New York Yankees' hottest bat of the week, Juan Soto.

Soto had already gone yard four times in 24 hours to single-handedly drag the Bronx Bombers back from a humiliating 12-2 defeat to the struggling Sox in the opener.

But, that walk meant Khul had to pitch to the Yankees captain, Judge.

Judge, who had been sitting on 299 homers since Aug 11, after tattooing a high fastball from Andrew Chafin of the Texas Rangers into the stands of Yankee Stadium, had already struck out twice, doubled once and walked once. With men on, he came to the plate more in the hope of seeing a decent pitch, than in anticipation of one.

However, after dealing three balls — two low, one high and inside — Khul left a 151 km/h sinker hanging high just outside the right of the zone.

With a seemingly effortless swat, Judge dropped the gavel and sent the ball, like a missile, into deep left field and into the Chicago bullpen.

In doing so, he became the fastest player in MLB history to reach 300 home runs, hitting the milestone in just 955 games, beating the previous fastest, Ralph Kiner of the Pittsburgh Pirates, who brought up the triple century in 1952, by 132 games. Judge also did it in far fewer at-bats. It took Kiner 3,883 plate appearances, while Judge managed it in just 3,431.He also got there 400 at-bats quicker than the legendary Babe Ruth, who hit his 300th homer in his 3,831st plate appearance.

Babe Ruth. Even if you know nothing about baseball, you know that name. Growing up in a predominantly rugby household in Wales, even I had a vague knowledge of who "The Babe" was, long before I developed a genuine love for the game, and mostly due to the glut of baseball-themed movies that arrived on British shores during the 1980s: The Sandlot, Major League, Field of Dreams, to name just a few. Babe was always there.

The thing about Ruth — and the rest of the Murderer's Row, like Lou Gehrig, Mark Koenig and Tony Lazzeri — is that they were ghosts. They were remnants of the long distant past; just jerky black-and-white film footage, or the signature on a movie MacGuffin baseball.

And, while every generation since has had its heroes — Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio, Barry Bonds, Derek Jeter — who have all done great things, it's The Babe's name that stands above them all.

Well, until now.

Judge is that same type of epoch-defining player. With that massive hunk of maple in his huge hands, he's knocking down every record imaginable, especially this season. He currently leads the entire MLB in home runs with 44, runs batted in with 111, and his 1.172 OPS (on base plus slugging) percentage eclipses everyone. In regard to that last stat, as of July 4, Judge was already mixing it with Ruth, Gehrig, Ted Williams and Bonds as only the fifth player to ever hit a 1.430+ OPS in a 50 game span, and he is the first right-hander ever to do so.

If it were not for Kansas City Royals shortstop, Bobby Witt Jr, having 56 more at-bats so far this season, Judge would probably be leading the league's batting average, too.

He is a truly generational player, and, in decades to come, we're going to be so grateful that we were the ones who saw him rake, run and bomb ballparks for fun. People who were inside Guaranteed Rate Field on Wednesday will be talking about Judge's 300 hit to their kids and grandkids, the way their grandparents regaled them with tales of Ruth and Co.

The talk, now, is of how far he can go. At 32, he's a few years older than home run record holder Bonds was when he started his assault on the bleachers of America. Bonds' 762 will be quite a mountain to climb for the Yankees captain, but he could still strike for The Babe's 714, though. Judge's biggest hurdles are time and fitness — to reach Bonds, he'd need to be crushing 66 homers a season if he's to make it before his current Yankees contract expires.

However, he's not going to care too much about that right now, I'd imagine. More pressing is the need to ensure his bat, along with that of partner Soto, stays hot enough to power the Yankees past the Baltimore Orioles, their main division rival in the American League East, and into the postseason without having to endure a wildcard playoff.

The partnership between Judge and Soto has already been compared to that of Gehrig and DiMaggio in 1937, and the only real difference that I can see between the two duos is a pair of World Series rings.

mccarthy@chinadaily.com.cn