Where Will Aaron Judge’s 62nd Home Run Fall in a Record Book of Asterisks?

Strasberg said that the 1961 reference on Saturday was understandable. But regarding the 154-game reference in the listed attendance of 23,154 on the record-breaking day, he said, “now you’re shoving it in my face.”

Similarly, those now chasing the past with asterisks think those who distorted the record book in the late 1990s and the early 2000s were flaunting it too obviously.

“I think what’s really in play here is that if this was only a Yankees record and an American League record, which technically it is, outside of New York it wouldn’t be that big a deal,” Costas said. “A huge percentage of fans, not a bunch of get-off-my-lawn guys, not haters, but reasonable fans who understand what transpired, put what Bonds, McGwire and Sosa did in a different category.”

It is one thing to place that group into a different category figuratively. But to do so literally is to rewrite history and reauthor events that too many people witnessed and watched happen, and modern baseball has steadfastly declined to do that.

“To me, a lot of what took place with what they were taking wasn’t against the rules at that time,” Mets reliever Adam Ottavino said. “You can argue it was against the law, but it wasn’t against the baseball rules. I don’t want to take that away from them, but at the same time I want to make sure that people understand Judge’s record is a different circumstance.”

That is an important point, Costas said.

“Too many people view this as a question of morality or even criminality,” he said. “No. It’s a case of authenticity and legitimacy.”

James Wagner, David Waldstein and Benjamin Hoffman contributed reporting.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/05/sports/baseball/aaron-judge-barry-bonds-asterisks-records.html