Judge’s Homer Chase Leads to MLB’s Raucous Playoff On-Ramp

It took a while, but Aaron Judge hit his 62nd homer just a day before the end of the regular season. Judge’s successful quest for the American League record not only created some valuable new collectibles, it helped Major League Baseball recover from the wake of labor strife, the second time a home run chase has given the game such a boost in recent history.

The last time came after the strike that wiped out the 1994 postseason and delayed the start of the 1995 season. The sport was still languishing at the gate three years later when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa made the first assault on Roger Maris’ record of 61.

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McGwire finished that 1998 season with 70, Sosa 66. The excitement they generated brought baseball back from the brink—that is, until later allegations that McGwire and Sosa used steroids ultimately shook the sport.

This time, Judge carried the New York Yankees to their first American League East title since 2019, and at the same time lifted MLB out of a malaise caused by an offseason lockout that delayed both the start of spring training and the regular season, causing months of shoddy play and fan disinterest. All 162 games were eventually played in a compacted schedule.

In another milestone chase, Albert Pujols surprised everyone by becoming the fourth player to reach the 700-homer plateau, finishing his career with 703, 11 behind Babe Ruth’s 714. But all eyes were on Judge.

“It would’ve been great to [hit No. 62] at Yankee Stadium in front of our home fans,” Judge told the media after Tuesday’s game. “But Yankee fans travel well. There were a lot of Yankee fans here tonight. Being able to share that experience with the fans, that’s what it’s all about for me.”

MLB reported that the total attendance for all 46 games last weekend was 1.64 million, making it the best attended weekend since the games of Aug. 14-16, 2015, drew $1.66 million.

Now, it’s on to the playoffs, newly expanded to 12 teams, with ESPN carrying all four best-of-three Wild Card Series this weekend, beginning Friday. The games will be played in the home ballparks of the third-best division winner or the team with the better record. Four games are guaranteed for each of Friday and Saturday, with any series-deciders on Sunday.

The division series in both leagues then begin on Tuesday. Collectively bargained in the recent labor agreement, the new format has already proven to be a boon for MLB, involving more teams and their fan bases.

In the National League, the division winners include historically successful teams: the Los Angeles Dodgers, Atlanta Braves and St. Louis Cardinals. The Dodgers, with a club-record 111 wins, and the defending World Series champion Atlanta Braves with 101 wins, get the first-round byes.

The Cardinals, boasting 93 wins and the worst record among the first-place teams, host the Philadelphia Phillies in a Wild Card Series. The Mets, with 101 wins, missed out on the NL East title on the penultimate day of the season, but will play host to San Diego. The Padres, despite finishing the season 22 games behind the Dodgers in the NL West, made the playoffs in a full season for the first time since 2006.

“I’m just glad we made it,” Bob Melvin, who came over from the moribund Oakland A’s to manage the Padres this season, said Wednesday in a postgame media conference after the matchups were decided. “[The Mets] have a really good team. We’ll see some really good starting pitchers. They will as well. It should be fun.”

In the American League, the 106-win Houston Astros and 99-win Yankees—to match Judge’s jersey—earned the first-round byes. The Cleveland Guardians, who won the AL Central with 92 wins, host the Tampa Bay Rays in the Wild Card Series.

The Blue Jays play in Toronto against the Seattle Mariners, who broke their own playoff drought dating back to 2001, Ichiro Suzuki’s first season playing in the U.S.

“We’re not done yet,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said earlier in the week after his club clinched that spot.

“We came all this way together,” general manager Jerry Dipoto added. “From the ground up to here.”

For MLB, the fact that Judge’s chase of the Maris AL and Yankees home run records set in 1961 extended over the course of 12 days proved to be a godsend. It became a carnival of sellout crowds, big merchandise and concessions sales, and national cutaways mostly to the YES Network. Fox, TBS and ESPN also broadcast Judge games, and MLB Network carried feeds of all of them.

It started on Sept. 20 at Yankee Stadium when Judge led off the ninth inning with his team trailing the Pittsburgh Pirates by four runs. Judge homered to tie Ruth at 60 in New York’s 147th game (it took Ruth 154 games in 1927). Before the inning was out, Giancarlo Stanton hit a walk-off grand slam, giving the Yanks the win.

At that point, the sky seemed to be the limit, including the single-season mark of 73 set by Barry Bonds in 2001.

“Go for it,” Bonds said in an exclusive telephone interview with Sportico. “The way he swings he might as well hit one a day and get past me. I don’t care. Why not?”

That wasn’t to be. Judge stalled eight games before hitting No. 61 in Toronto on Sept. 28. It then took six more games before he launched his 62nd on the third pitch of the nightcap of a doubleheader in Arlington, Texas, on Tuesday night.

It was game No. 161, the same number of games it took Maris to hit his 61 homers, 61 years ago. Neat symmetry. The ball, bat and jersey Judge used in the big at bat were estimated on the open market to total $3 million.

But the anticipation kept the crowds coming. In their last eight home games, the Yanks drew 408,552 total fans. A family of four averages a minimum of $350 to attend a Yankee game, according to Team Marketing Report, which means those games generated about $40 million in revenue, not including club seats or luxury boxes,

While that all can’t be attributed to Judge—the Yanks averaged the third-best MLB home attendance of 40,207 for the season—the acute interest and uptick in revenue over the season’s final weeks should be taken into consideration when the Yankees try to re-sign Judge as a free agent this offseason.

Judge earned a quaint $19 million for all his heroics this year. He turned down a seven-year offer worth $213.5 million just prior to the season.

Now it’s hard to quantify how much he’s worth.

“He’s still young,” Bonds said. “But does his potential look great? Woo. Is he going to make a lot of money? Woo.”

The chase never visibly affected Judge. When asked what he’ll remember most about the past two weeks, he said, “The fans.”

“The constant support at Yankee Stadium on every pitch of every at bat,” he added. “They’re booing pitchers throwing balls, which I’ve never seen before. I got a base hit the other night, and I was booed for a single. Little moments like that you look back on.”

After a delayed start, it turned out to be a baseball season to look back on.

With assistance from Kurt Badenhausen.

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