Fans of the Dodgers and fans of the Yankees–that would be me–know we are witnessing two of the greatest young men to ever play the game of baseball. But do the rest of you realize this? How rare and special this moment is? As we gouge out each others eyeballs over politics, let’s take a simple moment to celebrate two outstanding young men. Sound okay to you?
First I start with Aaron Judge, now entering the prime of his career, in a non-steroid era has already broken many outstanding records. In 2017 he became the first rookie to hit 50+ home runs in a season. He is the fastest player in MLB history to hit 300 home runs. And the fastest to hit and 350 home runs. He also broke Roger Maris’s single-season home run record of 62, without steroids. Personally, I believe that Barry Bonds, Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa should all have an asterisk by their names and the footnote about it should be in all caps.
Judge is only one of four players, those players include Babe Ruth, Mark Maguire and Sammy Sosa, with four seasons of 50+ home runs. His rookie year, as I already wrote, he hit 50+. In 2022 he slammed in 62 home runs. He rocketed 58 home runs in 2024. And so far in 2025 he’s slugged in 51, counting tonight.
I’m a Yankees fan, but I also love baseball. I played the game from T-ball at 6 years-old well into high school. I never thought I’d see Godzilla in America but damn if he is not out on the West Coast right now. You do know I am talking about Dodger’s pitcher and hitter Shohei Ohtani, right? Simple fact: he’s probably the most amazing player we’ll ever see play the game. He’s just that fantastic. He electrifies crowd’s the way Michael Jordan did back in the day–and I saw MJ play several times.
Not since Babe Ruth has a hitter been such a dominant pitcher. That’s more than 100 years. Otani is simply unreal. This season alone he’s hurled 58 strikeouts and slugged in more than 50 home runs. No one has ever done that.
Last season, he hit more than 50 home, runs and stole more than 50 bases. That’s never been done. He’s created two new two clubs, one of which no baseball player will ever enter again. That was last season when he stole 50 bases and hit 50+ home runs. Judge, at 6’7″, 282 lbs., is an amazing hitter but simply doesn’t have the speed to steal bases like Otani, at 6’3″ 210 lbs., does.
Ohtani has something else Judge does not: a wicked pitching arm. He’s had 100 career starts on the mound in MLB and slugs like the Babe. He threw five no hit innings a few nights ago and yesterday threw 6 scoreless innings with 8 strikeouts. Unreal.
The only reason I post this is because I think that any baseball fan who’s reading this ought to take a silent moment of gratitude for the fact that we are witnessing two players unlike any we have ever seen in the game before. And also recognize that Shohei Ohtani is singular and unique, and we will never ever see his like play the game of baseball again.
To paraphrase, it’s just damn hard not to be romantic about baseball.
P.S. I’d be remiss, nay, negligent, if I failed to add The Big Dumper’s 60 home run season this year. We are truly witnessing baseball’s Golden Age. Only one non-Yankee in the American League has hit 60 homers in one season: Cal Raleigh, aka The Big Dumper.
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ibaien
as a yinzer, and thus chained to a perpetually pathetic franchise that may as well be a farm team, it’s easy to not be romantic about a sport without a goddamn salary cap. if ownership refuses to institute mechanisms that enforce at least the veneer of parity, you know you’re consuming an entertainment product rather than a fair sport. and don’t even get me started on the exploitative and borderline human traffiky nature of LATAM talent development…
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I broke up with MLB after the 94-95 strike. I never looked back. Fuck ’em.
Mark Level
I meant to commend your recent piece on the Monsoon in the Himalayas, SPK, it was very interesting and well worth sharing such an anomaly, has larger implications.
This post is, sadly, nothing of the kind and pointlessly trivial to me. I am amazed at the large # of adult males who refuse to think meaningfully about politics, which I would argue meaningfully affects their lives, generally, hell almost always for the worst, yet can’t be bothered ‘coz they devote hours daily to silly children’s games played by adults and the minutiae thereof.
There are lots of items of cold comfort that I could blather on about as making living in such a horrible time period, with an open genocide, kleptocracy and looting, slightly more bearable, but why would anyone I don’t know face to face (& I only know people on this site by written words, none f2f) care or bother with my minor diversions?
I like both of the first 2 responses (all I can see at the moment) however, though I am a little disturbed to agree with the likes of L&S for the 3rd time in less than 2 weeks. Either L&S has been red-pilled, or I am becoming extremely more nihilistic, and neither thought is exactly comforting (okay, the former maybe.)
The guy who welcomed the coming of endless State drone wars (I don’t get the “reasoning”, was it that property damage is all well and good, fewer people die? Not really tenable if we look at Gaza, e.g.) or flagrantly lied about Russia losing “a million” casualties, minimum, to small, corrupt Ukraine is saying things I agree with. Weird.
I come to this site to learn about important issues, not for banal pleasures of the culturally hypnotized. At times you have written some deep history which I respect, but stuff like this is on the level of someone like the late Art Buchwald. There must be sites like Lawyers, Guns & Money that you could post dreck like this on and get a better response, that’s right up their alley. May I humbly suggest you go there first on “insights” like this one. I have not yet lost all respect for you, but just to be clear a post like this does push me in that direction.
Mark Level
And not to be a Danny Downer with only negative things to say. Here are 2 events of actual significance that might be worth talking about today, imo–
1. Pete Hegseth demands a special Dept. of War Confab at Quantico. Is the actual Military Coup d’Etat being planned or implemented now, and shouldn’t ‘Muricans do what the South Koreans recently did if that is on the agenda? See a link here– https://www.newsweek.com/pete-hegseth-us-military-quantico-virginia-pentagon-10780205
A Freikorps drunkard demanding full military control is concerning, one need not believe this is a “democracy” to feel a little alarmed.
2. Also see shit like this for the continued openly fascist drift, in hellholes like Oklahoma–
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/oklahoma-state-superintendent-resigns-lead-teacher-group-going-destroy-rcna233651?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us
Glad this fascist clown went too far even for Oklahoma not okay, but a Bible nut demanding the destruction of teachers’ unions to “save” education might be worth examining and discussing, rather than a for-profit, jingoistic, steroidal, racist professional sports enterprise that damages peoples brains (players esp. in the case of football) while attracting alcoholic men to act out badly. (Harper’s and others have covered for many years how instances of Domestic Violence surge madly on Superbowl day. Just saying.) Baseball’s not as toxic, but Barry Bonds’ swollen head or Pete Rose belatedly let into the Hall of Fame after betting on his own games hardly speaks well of the general standards.
DRS
Thanks for remembering Cal Raleigh! I hope, if the M’s and Yankees get together in the playoffs this year it’ll be more like 1995 than 2001. And despite the early comments, it’s true, baseball (and other “minor diversions”) brings joy.
mago
Yeah, well. I’ve been a fan since childhood and a player, too, in my youth.
Was surprised to hear from sports fans of my acquaintance that they consider baseball too slow and boring even with the new rules meant to ‘speed’ it up. I don’t know about that.
A friend of mine who played semi-pro said the constant travel and practice and games throughout the season were draining. So there’s that.
I was a Red Sox fan having lived in Boston near Fenway when they made their first series bid in ages. Don’t think it happened again until 2013.
I remember traveling on the same plane with the team from Boston to Seattle. They all sat in the smoking section puffing away. Tells you how old I am.
Never thought to ask for autographs. Ah, well. Life’s full of missed opportunities.
elkern
As a Red Sox fan, it pains me to agree so heartily with an agent of The Evil Empire.
Purple Library Guy
Meh. I’m a nerd, not a huge sports fan. It always seemed kind of trivial to me. I’m all for people in neighborhoods getting together and playing some sports if they want to, good exercise and all that. But the big professional leagues and the masses of money and attention and real estate they guzzle mostly turn me off.
But, I’m a Canadian. So if I have a bit of vestigial romanticism about sports, it’s going to go to hockey. And in a more contemplative mood, curling. Nothing left for baseball, which IMO is a fundamentally pretty boring game to watch. Slightly less boring than golf, but really, most of the time nothing is happening.
Sean Paul Kelley
@Mark Level: do you ever smile? Do you have hobbies? Does life go on? Look, I recognize everything is going to hell, but I will be damned if I am going to forgo the simple pleasures in life. Baseball and the rare glass of Irish whiskey are my only vices left in life. You can have them when I die. My point here, as polite as I can make it, is this: things are going to shit, but there is still love to give. And I am going to grab every single chance I have to smile. I do not know how many I have left.
elkern
PLG –
Baseball is The Radio Game, way too bucolic for TV. It’s lovely to actually go to a game once a year, depending on the stadium (skip the domes and astroturf, watch the $).
Hockey is great on TV, at least modern TVs where the puck is actually visible. I love the swooping and passing. It doesn’t work so well on Radio, though; one needs to be able to track the trajectories of multiple players, which doesn’t lend itself to linear story-telling. Also, it’s just too fast for human language to keep up!
Sean Paul Kelley
@Elkern: I miss watching the Great One.
And I damned well miss paying $5 to see a day game at the Astrodome while I was in univeristy.