Aaron Judge Home Run Calls Were Less Than Stellar

New York Yankees superstar Aaron Judge finally hit home run number 62, breaking Roger Maris’ American League record and cementing his place in the record books.

Judge’s home run, moving him into 7th place on the single season home run list, was an especially important moment for baseball, as his chase for history has moved MLB into the forefront of the national sports conversation. Which hasn’t always been popular with football fans.

An underrated element of any historic home run is the announcer’s call; how they capture the moment, or let the fan reaction take over instead. 

Vin Scully’s call of Hank Aaron’s 715th home run and Kirk Gibson’s memorable walk off in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series jump out as examples of how to perfectly match a call to the events on the field.

Aaron Judge’s 62nd home run was…not that.

The best call might have been the Texas Rangers broadcast, where the announcer simply remarked, “history has landed in Arlington,” before letting the crowd reaction tell the story:

John Sterling on Yankees radio was generally fine:

Although the “Judgment day, case closed,” was excessively on the nose for such an important event.

The worst though was Michael Kay, who was “screaming over the entire moment,” as Joe Concha put it:

Obviously, this was an exciting moment that warranted excitement, but Vin Scully, he ain’t. If Aaron Judge hits number 63 or 64 in the at-bats he has left, hopefully the announcers do a better job of matching the moment.