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“Aaron is nothing if not thoughtful,” said Kuty. “He didn’t put that hoodie on because he thought it was cool. It was a real message.”
Perhaps, though Judge remained coy when asked about the sweatshirt. Whatever his intentions, he was ready to go under the lights at Rogers Centre, lining Kevin Gausman’s fourth pitch for a leadoff single before coming around to score the game’s first run. The Blue Jays were challenging Judge, but they were being more cautious. As Gausman said, “I just don’t want to be an answer to a trivia question. Obviously, he’s a great player. He’s had an unbelievable season, so you pitch him smart. I’ll take my chances facing some of the other guys.”
Judge walked and struck out twice as the contest proceeded into extra innings, not exactly what the Yankees hoped for after a fatiguing travel day. Judge’s spot came up in the tenth inning with two men on, but Blue Jays manager John Schneider signaled for an intentional walk, loading the bases to bring up Anthony Rizzo instead.
Schneider even told home plate umpire Laz Diaz not to ask for a batch of specially marked baseballs: “You don’t have to change them out. We’re just going to walk him.” Diaz still followed protocol, requesting the balls. The gamble worked; Rizzo chopped a grounder that first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. smothered, ending the inning.
“Game on the line; that’s where you want to hit,” Judge said. “That’s why I’m doing all the work, to put myself in a position to go out there and help the team out and help us get a win right there. But I trust every single guy in our lineup and every single guy on our bench.”
A few minutes later, Clarke Schmidt surrendered a walk-off hit to Guerrero, sealing a 3–2 Jays win. Boone had permitted Schmidt to face Guerrero with first base open instead of issuing an intentional walk to catcher Alejandro Kirk, which the manager called a “pick your poison” situation. Later, Boone would offer a glimpse inside the Yankees’ machinations. Undoubtedly, Vlad Jr. was more well known than the squat Kirk, but Boone pointed to Kirk’s better batting average, better numbers with runners in scoring position, and better stats in September. The outcome hadn’t been optimal, but there was logic behind the choice.
“It overwhelmingly stacked up to say, I think we’ll take our chances [with Guerrero],” Boone said.
* * *
One day after the “New York or Nowhere” sweatshirt sparked attention, Judge’s attire again contained a significant development—this time, after the game.
With his dripping ball cap turned backward, Judge beamed and popped the cork of another bubbly bottle in Rogers Centre’s visiting clubhouse, dousing his teammates with delight. Appearing as though he’d gone for a fully clothed swim, Judge sported a soaked T-shirt that declared in bold white letters: “The East Is Ours.”
When the Yankees first gathered as a complete squad six months prior, savoring a sunny spring afternoon that ended their winter of lockout-related uncertainty, Boone had outlined the expectations. The first objective was to secure the American League East title, and with a 5–2 win over Toronto, they had done so. Though Judge tied a career high with four walks, kept in the ballpark for a seventh straight game, he said that the moment felt big—“especially for a lot of guys in that room that haven’t had a chance to clinch a division.”
The Yankees splashed the night away with a loud and lively party, packed shoulder to shoulder in a dressing area that bore a passing resemblance to a Manhattan railroad apartment. Plastic sheeting covered each locker and hip-hop music blared as players donned ski goggles and double-fisted from Budweiser cans, providing icy-cold baths for anyone nearby. Gleyber Torres strutted about the room wearing a New York City firefighter’s helmet, and rookie Oswaldo Cabrera shouted: “I’m living the dream!”
“We can say we’re the best team in the best division this year, and it wasn’t easy,” Boone said. “Everyone in that room knows that. We took everyone’s punches; we had some low moments. But tonight is to be celebrated. It’s not easy going through the American League East and to survive.… This is step one, and we want to win a championship. That’s our goal.”
Someone called for the players to hurry to the diamond, where players and coaches gathered between the mound and home plate, capturing the moment with a photograph. Amid the hollers, Boone sidled up to Judge, holstering a direct question. Judge had now played four dozen consecutive games; there had been a few team off days mixed in and Judge wasn’t exactly threatening Cal Ripken Jr.’s record, but it seemed notable in the load-management era of baseball, especially near the end of a long season and with the added drama of a home run chase.
“You want a day tomorrow?” Boone asked his star.
Judge did not hesitate.
“Nah,” he replied. “I’m in there.”
Fair enough. As promised, Judge’s name appeared in the lineup for the second game of three in Toronto, though it hadn’t completely been Boone’s call. During Boone’s lone season with the Yankees as a player in 2003, he’d been amused by Joe Torre’s tradition of having a veteran serve as a guest manager near the end of each season.
In ’03, Roger Clemens took the reins for the Yanks’ 162nd game. Clemens even trudged out of the dugout to execute a pitching change that day; David Wells, handing over the baseball as he remained in line for his two hundredth career win, told Clemens that he should have walked more slowly to make it seem authentic. “Now I know why the skipper gets ulcers,” Clemens had said that day, leaning back in the leather office chair behind Torre’s desk. “I can’t see myself doing this, but it was fun.”
With the acrid smell of stale champagne still baked into the carpet of Rogers Centre’s visiting clubhouse, Boone tapped Anthony Rizzo as his guest manager for the evening, inviting Rizzo into the manager’s office to go over the lineup behind Gerrit Cole. They agreed on Judge first as the designated hitter, then continued with Oswaldo Cabrera batting second and Josh Donaldson third.
Rizzo had a suggestion at shortstop, one that would serve as a prelude for events to come. When the Yankees promoted Oswald Peraza from Triple-A in early September, there had been no set plan to work the prospect into action; the thinking was that he might pinch-hit or pinch-run late in blowouts, but mostly the move was to provide the twenty-two-year-old Peraza with an opportunity to take in the big-league experience.
“If nothing else,” Boone said, “we wanted him to be in our environment and be around the team, and hopefully along the way he’d get some playing time.”
Many fans didn’t want to hear it, but a conservative front office had no appetite to throw an untested rookie into the heat of a pennant race. As Hal Steinbrenner would remark the following spring, while discussing Anthony Volpe’s prospects for cracking the roster: “Look, we’re always concerned about our minor league players; are they truly ready? Because this is not New York, and this is not the regular season.” Isiah Kiner-Falefa would remain the starting shortstop through September, with Boone having spent a good portion of the summer attempting to shield Kiner-Falefa from criticism, stating that the team’s internal metrics painted him as a “top five to seven defensive shortstop” in the league.
But now that the division had been clinched, Rizzo lobbied for Peraza to start, deciding to bat him in the cleanup spot. Rizzo was taking his task seriously; once the lineup card was complete, he paced through the clubhouse, communicating with each relief pitcher. Nestor Cortes and Gleyber Torres showed up wearing wristwatches, part of their assigned role as Rizzo’s “coaches,” and Boone was delighted when Rizzo asked a clubhouse worker to shred the sleeves off a hooded sweatshirt, replicating Boone’s game-day attire.
The new-look lineup pounced on Toronto starter Mitch White for three first-inning runs, including a run-scoring single by Peraza; Rizzo cheered and swiped his left index finger through the air after Peraza’s hit cleared the infield, slapping hands with Cortes to celebrate. The Blue Jays, still fighting for position with Wild Card spots up for grabs, would punch back. Toronto scored three sixth-inning runs off of Cole to tie the game, prompting Blue Jays manager John Schneider to call to the bullpen in the seventh inning.
His choice was lefty Tim Mayza, who’d been credited with the win in the extra-inning series opener, having issued an intentional walk to Judge before inducing Rizzo to ground out. This time, he would have a chance to face Judge.
HOMER #61: September 28 vs. Toronto Blue Jays’ Tim Mayza (7th inning, two-run)
Exit velocity: 117.4 mph. Distance: 394 feet. Launch angle: 22 degrees. HR in 29 of 30 MLB parks.
As Mayza completed his warm-up tosses, Judge stood near the steps of the first-base dugout, chomping on gum as he eyed the lefty with intent. The thirty-year-old Mayza hailed from the Philadelphia suburb of Red Hill, a twelfth-round pick in the 2013 draft who featured a sinker and slider combination.
His career path had also included several notable run-ins with the Yankees. In September 2019, Mayza had been facing New York when he threw a pitch that sailed behind shortstop Didi Gregorius. Mayza crumpled to the ground in pain; his left ulnar collateral ligament had ruptured, requiring reconstructive surgery. Mayza rehabbed through the COVID-19 pandemic and made it back to the big leagues in 2021, pitching a scoreless inning at Yankee Stadium in his return.
Aaron Hicks was batting ahead of Judge, and the switch-hitter stood in the right-handed batter’s box, his more productive side. Mayza got ahead with a couple of strikes, and Hicks lined the third pitch into center field for a clean single. The crowd buzzed as Judge walked toward home plate; many did not stand for the at-bat, as they had in the Bronx, but they recorded with their phones nevertheless.
Mayza wanted to keep the ball down; he’d throw nothing but sinkers in this at-bat. Months later, Mayza would focus his off-season work on honing his slider; he didn’t have enough confidence in the pitch to try it with Judge at the plate. “I wanted to challenge him and try getting the ball on the ground, especially with a guy on first,” Mayza said.
Judge looked at the first sinker, then waved at another for a strike. The third sailed outside, and Judge fouled the fourth back with a healthy cut, denting an advertisement behind the plate for Valvoline motor oil. Mayza’s 2-2 offering came close to the bottom of the zone; Mayza desperately wanted it called a strike, as did catcher Danny Jansen, who framed it nicely.
Judge had been rung up on more than his share of similar pitches over the years, as Boone’s ejection tally could attest. This time, home plate umpire Brian O’Nora did not flinch. Judge fouled off the next two pitches as the battle reached eight.
Mayza came set at the belt again, raising his right leg to begin his delivery. The pitch came in down the middle and Judge walloped it to left field; Mayza flung his arms out, knowing he’d just surrendered a historic drive.
“He put together a pretty good at-bat,” Mayza said. “I made one mistake and he took advantage. Congratulations to him.”
On the YES Network, Michael Kay announced: “Drilled deep to left field! This could be it! See ya! He’s done it! No. 61! He’s been chasing history and now he makes it! He and Roger Maris are tied with 61 home runs, the most anybody has ever hit in a single season in American League history!”
There was a tribute in Kay’s call, an homage to Phil Rizzuto, who’d stamped his voice onto Maris’s 61st. “When he got to 59, I was sitting at the stadium and I called up Rizzuto’s call of Maris’s 61st on YouTube,” Kay said. “I listened to it a couple of times. The exact line was ‘This could be it, way back there.’ I wanted to include that parenthetical statement as an homage to Rizzuto and Maris, but the ball that Judge hit out for 61 was a line drive. People think you can script things, but you can’t. It just got out too quick, so all I could say was, ‘This could be it!’ ”
At age eighty-four, travel had become more challenging for John Sterling, and the broadcasting ironman who called every pitch of Derek Jeter’s career had reluctantly trimmed his schedule. His deep baritone remained strong, and though he was initially scheduled to miss the Toronto series, Sterling refused to miss an opportunity to call history.
At the crack of the bat, Sterling delivered: “It is high! It is far! It is gone! No. 61! He ties Roger Maris for the American League single-season record with 61 home runs! It’s a two-run Judge-ian blast! Here comes the Judge! A two-run blast and the Yankees take a 5–3 lead on No. 61 for Judge!”
“I couldn’t miss any games where this guy may set the record,” Sterling said. “You can go weeks without hitting a home run. Sometimes the coverage is so ridiculous. It’s not that easy to hit a home run. When he hit it, I have to admit, it’s maybe one of the most thrilling things I’ve broadcast, and I’ve done four sports for now more than fifty years.”
Seated next to Sterling, Suzyn Waldman watched the action and felt “almost as if the whole building let out a collective sigh. At least he was going to be there—he had tied Roger. It really got to me. You don’t see history every day, and we were watching history for a whole year.”
As Judge trotted toward first base, television cameras captured Patty Judge and Roger Maris Jr., side by side in the front row. Mom raised her hands high, sporting an expression that seemed to be one of delight and relief. Almost instantly, Maris hugged her.
“Without a doubt, she became the absolute star of that whole moment,” said Troy Benjamin, the YES Network producer. “I mean, the kisses, a baseball mom—everybody loves a mother. She became the story of the season for us. Sixty-one, where she was sitting right above the dugout, it made for great TV.” While that was happening in the seats, Judge’s teammates spilled out of the dugout, applauding as he completed a tour around the bases. Boone said that he hung back from the celebration, trying to “take little pictures in my head of people’s reactions.” He’d later recount Judge’s 2022 season as “an all-time great season,” akin to performances by Babe Ruth, Jim Brown, Michael Jordan, or Wayne Gretzky. The players each hugged Judge, laughing and sharing a few personal congratulations.
Finally, Boone saw an opening to embrace his star, telling him, “I’m so happy for you.” Judge did not miss a beat.
“We’re not done yet,” he replied. “We’ve got a lot left to do.”
* * *
The coveted No. 61 ball was said to be worth as much as $2 million, by one estimate, and it was nearly caught by two fans seated in the front row of Section 137. Judge’s drive smacked a concrete barrier a few feet below the fans’ outstretched gloves, coming to rest in the Blue Jays bullpen. One of the fans, who identified himself as Frankie Lasagna, said: “The disbelief comes over you, and just the shock and amazement. I was like, ‘Oh my God, I almost had it.’ ”
The other fan, dressed in a Bo Bichette jersey, threw his glove to the ground and was visibly distraught. He declined to speak to the media, folding his arms and staring vacantly at the playing field for several innings. Over the next several days, Lasagna (yes, that is his real name) fielded numerous interview requests, revealing the delicious twist that he owned and operated an Italian restaurant, Terrazza, in downtown Toronto.
“It’s the most messages and people and texting and calling me, more than I’ve ever gotten,” Lasagna said. “More than my wedding day, the birth of my kids. It’s been wild for me.”
As No. 61 came to rest in the Blue Jays bullpen, the ball was first touched by Matt Buschmann, Toronto’s bullpen coach. It was marked with the letter-number combination “T 9,” in large black text near the MLB logo. The thirty-eight-year-old Buschmann, a former pitcher who had made three appearances for the 2016 Arizona Diamondbacks, flipped it to David Howell, the Jays’ pitching strategist. It was the most valuable game of hot potato imaginable. Howell panicked, telling Buschmann that he didn’t want to hold it.
“We all just stood and stared at each other, thinking, ‘What are we going to do?’ ” Buschmann said. “I didn’t want to throw it back up in the stands. That’s one thing I didn’t want to do.”
The ball was shoveled to Jordan Romano, the Toronto closer who had given up one of Judge’s most memorable home runs of the season back on May 10. Romano safeguarded it for a few minutes as play resumed. Mark Kafalas, the Yankees’ security guard, found a spot behind a row of chairs in the bullpen and kept his eyes peeled on Romano—the muscle memory of stakeouts from his previous life as an NYPD narcotics detective kicking in immediately.
Zack Britton, the Yankees’ relief pitcher, grew curious about what was taking so long. Britton exited the visiting bullpen and ventured into enemy territory, taking it upon himself to help broker the deal. “By the time I got over there, Romano saw me coming and he was just like, ‘Hey, here you go,’ ” Britton said. “He was good. It was great, he made it easy.”
Britton told Romano that if there was anything the Blue Jays wanted from Judge, he would make it happen.
“We just didn’t want to give it to the wrong person,” Romano said. “I’m sure it would have gotten in the right hands. But when it came in, there were probably fifteen people back there and they wanted the ball. So when Britton came over, we made sure to give it to him.”
“It was cool. You’re holding history,” Britton said. “Some of the bullpen guys, we were joking about our negotiations with Judge, what that was going to be like.”
Buschmann later joked that they should have asked Judge not to re-sign anywhere in the American League East, unless it was with Toronto.
Judge knew exactly what to do with the ball once it arrived at his locker, delivered by Rob Cucuzza, one of the Yanks’ longtime clubhouse managers. Cradling the ball in his right hand, Judge brought it to a service hallway underneath the first-base grandstand and presented it to his mother, Patty, just as he had done with his first major-league home run in 2016.
“She’s been with me through it all,” Judge said. “From the Little League days, getting me ready for school, taking me to my first couple of practices and games, being there for my first professional game. My debut, and now getting a chance to be here for this—this is something special, and we’re not done yet.”
