On the night that Aaron Judge equalized his father’s MLS record on home soil, Roger Maris Jr. made a bold announcement.
Back on the turf would give the judge the outright lead for the AL, but still left him 11 shy of Barry Bonds MLB’s 73-shot record, which he hit in 2001. After the judge’s equalizing shot on Wednesday, though, the younger Maris called Bonds total illegal , According to Brendan Kuty of NJ.com.
“I think it means a lot, not just to me. I think it means a lot to a lot of people,” Maris said. “He’s clean, he’s a Yankee, playing the game the right way. I think it gives people a chance to look and someone who should be revered for hitting him 62 times at home… should be revered for being the de facto racing champion for one season. That’s it really, if he gets to 62. I think that’s what has to happen, I think baseball needs to look at the records, and I think baseball has to do something.”
Bonds — along with Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, who also topped Maris’s 61-person mark — did so in the era of the game predating MLB testing for performance-enhancing drugs, and when use of such PEDs was common. Young Maris echoes the opinions of many fans who believe that records from that era are tainted.
Judge has seven games left to get past the Maris, starting with Friday’s game against the Orioles at Yankee Stadium.
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