15 facts about Judge's historic season

It's now Aaron Judge, then Roger Maris, then Babe Ruth.

Judge hit home run No. 62 in Game 161, a historic milestone for both the Yankees and Major League Baseball.

? No. 62! Judge breaks Maris’ all-time AL HR record

This season, Judge has surpassed every Yankees legend -- Maris' 61 homers in 1961, Ruth's 60 in 1927, Mickey Mantle's 52 in 1956 and so many more.

Here are 15 amazing facts about Judge's record-setting season.

? Judge is now the Yankees' sole single-season home run record holder -- and the American League record holder. Maris' mark had stood as both records for 60 years.

? How about this amazing coincidence about Judge's record-setting homer? On the day that No. 99 hit No. 62, the Yankees' record went to 99-62.

? When Judge hit No. 60 at Yankee Stadium on Sept. 20, he became MLB's first 60-home run hitter since Barry Bonds set the MLB single-season record with 73 in 2001. (Sammy Sosa also hit 64 that year.)

? There have only been nine 60-homer seasons in AL/NL history, by only six different players including Judge. Sosa had three, Mark McGwire had two and Bonds, Maris and Babe Ruth had one each. Judge is the third Yankee to do it; New York is the only franchise with multiple 60-home run hitters.

And 62-homer seasons? Judge is only the fourth Major League hitter to do that.

Most HR in a season, MLB history
1. Barry Bonds, 2001: 73
2. Mark McGwire, 1998: 70
3. Sammy Sosa, 1998: 66
4. Mark McGwire, 1999: 65
5. Sammy Sosa, 2001: 64
6. Sammy Sosa, 1999: 63
7. Aaron Judge, 2022: 62

? Judge has hit the most home runs in a season of any center fielder in MLB history (though he hit No. 62 as the Yankees' right fielder). The previous record was 56, first set by Hack Wilson in 1930 and twice matched by Ken Griffey Jr., in 1997 and '98.

Most HR by a CF in a single season
(50% or more of games played in CF)
1. Aaron Judge, 2022: 62
2. (tie) Ken Griffey Jr., 1998: 56
2. (tie) Ken Griffey Jr., 1997: 56
2. (tie) Hack Wilson, 1930: 56
5. Mickey Mantle, 1961: 54

? Judge is leading the MLB home run race by 16 home runs over the Phillies' Kyle Schwarber, who has 46. Judge's 16-homer margin over the second-place hitter is the largest since Jimmie Foxx's 17-homer margin over Ruth in 1932. Ruth holds the record for biggest gap between the No. 1 and No. 2 home run hitter, with 35 more than George Sisler in 1920 and 35 more than Bob Meusel and Ken Williams in 1921.

? Judge might not just win the home run race -- he has an outside chance to win a batting Triple Crown, as he leads the AL with 61 homers and 131 RBIs and ranks second with a .311 batting average, behind only Luis Arraez. Judge would be the first Triple Crown winner since Miguel Cabrera in 2012 and the third Yankee to win one, along with Mantle in 1956 and Lou Gehrig in 1934.

? Judge's 62 homers have totaled a distance of 25,520 feet -- nearly five miles. That's enough to get from Yankee Stadium to the Central Park Zoo.

His total home run distance is a new record for a single season under Statcast tracking, which began in 2015. He passed teammate Giancarlo Stanton's total distance of 24,641 feet set in 2017, when he hit 59 home runs for the Marlins.

Most total HR distance in a season, Statcast era
1. Aaron Judge, 2022: 25,520 feet (62 HR)
2. Giancarlo Stanton, 2017: 24,641 feet (59 HR)
3. Pete Alonso, 2019: 21,944 feet (53 HR)
4. Aaron Judge, 2017: 20,625 feet (52 HR)
5. Vladimir Guerrero Jr., 2021: 19,628 feet (48 HR)

Thirty-six of Judge's home runs have been "no-doubt" home runs -- that means they would be gone at all 30 MLB ballparks. The hitter with the next-most no-doubter home runs this year is Austin Riley, with 21.

? Judge's 61st home run, to tie Maris, was hit 117.4 mph -- his hardest homer of the season. It's the hardest home run Judge has hit since Sept. 30, 2017, the 52nd and final homer of his AL Rookie of the Year campaign. That one was hit 118.3 mph and went 496 feet.

? Judge's first 60 home runs were split perfectly between home and road games -- his 60th gave him 30 at Yankee Stadium and 30 away from it. Judge already holds the Yankee Stadium single-season home run record with the 33 he hit there in 2017; Maris (30 in 1961) and Gehrig (30 in 1934) are the others to hit 30 homers in one season at any of the Yankee Stadiums. (Babe Ruth hit 32 at the Yankees' home park of the Polo Grounds in 1921.)

Judge hit Nos. 61 and 62 in Toronto and Texas, respectively, bringing his season totals to 30 homers at home, 32 on the road.

? Judge's 60th homer extended his lead for the most home runs hit at the current Yankee Stadium. He now has 115 there, two more than Mark Teixeira's 113.

? Judge has homered off 56 different pitchers this season, which is an AL record. He broke Ken Griffey Jr.'s previous mark of 52 in 1998. The all-time record is the 65 different pitchers McGwire homered against in that same iconic '98 season.

? Judge has hit 47 of his home runs out of the No. 2 spot in the batting order -- but he hit the milestone 60th, 61st and 62nd home runs as the leadoff hitter, as the Yankees sought to get him the most at-bats possible down the stretch, bringing his total to 13 in that spot (he also has two as the No. 3 hitter). His 47 homers as the No. 2 hitter are tied for the single-season record with Stanton in 2017.

Most HR in a season as No. 2 hitter
1. (tie) Aaron Judge, 2022: 47
1. (tie) Giancarlo Stanton, 2017: 47
3. Eddie Mathews, 1959: 46
4. Mike Trout, 2019: 45
5. Ryne Sandberg, 1990: 40

? Judge's various game-changing home runs this season include:

-- 4 leadoff home runs, including the record-setting No. 62
-- 3 walk-off home runs, against the Blue Jays on May 10, the Astros on June 26 and the Royals on July 28
-- 6 game-tying home runs, most recently in the eighth inning against the Red Sox on Sept. 13
-- 19 go-ahead home runs, including No. 61, which broke a tie against the Blue Jays in the seventh inning, and No. 62, which opened the game against the Rangers

? Here are Judge's 2022 home runs broken down in a few other ways:

-- By platoon splits: 48 vs. RHP, 14 vs. LHP
-- By month: 6 in April, 12 in May, 11 in June, 13 in July, 9 in August, 11 in September/October
-- By direction: 31 pulled, 15 to center, 16 to opposite field
-- By pitch type: 35 vs. fastballs, 22 vs. breaking balls, 5 vs. offspeed