Universal DH raises an interesting question
Do individual league records matter anymore?
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The New York Yankees' Aaron Judge has hit 60 home runs so far this season and stands 13 home runs short of the Major League Record 73 home runs hit by Barry Bonds in 2001 with nine games left to play. But sports media has hyped up Judge's pursuit of the American League record, which still stands at the 61* home runs hit by Roger Maris in 1961. The hype suggests that this is a record worth celebrating with ESPN even cutting into college football games over the weekend to show his at bats live and complaints that Friday night's game was exclusively on Apple TV+ rather than traditional media, even though it was absolutely free for the entire world to watch.
The suggestion seems to be that the focus on Maris' 61* is intended to be a slight against Mark McGwire's 70 and Bonds' 73, both numbers that are tainted by steroid use. The American League record of 61* is, as a result, considered more "pure." A suggestion that I buy into given how baseball writers have treated even people with the suspicion of steroid usage in recent Hall of Fame voting.
However, it's fair to remember that 61* wasn't completely pure either and had its own fair share of controversy. The American League played its first 162 game season in 1961, up from 154. Maris only hit 58 home runs in his first 154 games, leading many to argue that Babe Ruth was still the real single season home run leader. Despite being the defending MVP, Maris was not an overly popular player at the time. If not for hitting 61 home runs, I doubt many fans today would be aware of who he is. It likely played a role in MLB deciding to make it its own record, rather than replace Ruth's. Maris would hit three home runs during those extra eight games for a final tally of 61*.
I'm all about celebrating greatness when greatness happens, but is the "American League" home run record even worth celebrating in today's game? Would we even be paying attention if Judge played for the Kansas City Royals instead of the New York Yankees? After all, 61 home runs in a season has been exceeded six times since Maris' record setting season.
There were already a group of fans who would dismiss the idea of individual league records having meaning, but to an extent they were when the leagues competed under two different sets of rules. The American League used the designated hitter. The National League did not. Under the new collective bargaining agreement put into place this season, the designated hitter has been expanded to both leagues and unified the rule set. Perhaps if you want to pack up the NL records in a box and forget about them, this would be the correct argument. The National League was played under a different set of rules. The American League rules are the ones that still stand.
It's actually an interesting train of thought when you start to consider what has quietly lost its meaning now that both leagues are playing with the same set of rules.
First and foremost is that it doesn't really matter when media members talk about how such-and-such a player is leading one league in some statistic when there's another player in the other league with more. Both leagues have the same rules, so it doesn't make sense to delineate National League or American League players.
And if it doesn't make sense to delineate players as being National League or American League players, it definitely doesn't matter for teams any longer and the entire league structure is no longer really necessary except to divide the sides of the playoff bracket because there is no distinction between the leagues. With expanded playoffs, the current three division structure doesn't work very well, which introduces an opportunity to rethink and realign the divisions and leagues.
But as it comes to Judge, perhaps instead on fixating on the American League home run record, we instead focus on the fact that he's having the best single season in Yankees history since Mickey Mantle in 1957? An impressive feat considering how many great players have donned the Yankees' pinstripes in the last 65 years.
How about we focus on that it's the 10th best single season by a Yankees position player in history. And the 24th best season by a Major League position player ever.
How about we focus on that this will be his second season in the top-40 seasons all time by a Yankees hitter. The only guys who have done it more often? Ruth (13 times), Lou Gehrig (10 times), Mantle (7 times), and Joe DiMaggio (3 times). Great company.
How about we focus on how he turned down a 7-year, $213.5 million contract offer before the season to bet on himself and responded with one of the greatest single seasons of all time?
When Ichiro Suzuki retired in 2019, there were many who wanted to act as if he was baseball's all-time hits leader. People would add his 1,278 hits from his career in Nippon Professional Baseball with his 3,089 hits in Major League Baseball and he had 4,367 hits. More than Pete Rose's 4,256 hits. But the problem with that is that you can celebrate one player's greatness without having to subtract from another's. It's purely an attempt to erase Rose, who had a gambling problem and ended up permanently banned from baseball, from the history of the sport. We didn't ignore Bonds becoming the all-time home run leader because Sadaharu Oh hit 868 in his NPB career. Most baseball fans probably haven't even heard of him.
You can't rewrite the history of the game.
Celebrate greatness when it comes for what it is, not for what it isn't.
