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Sure, hitting 60 home runs in one season is tough, but try to wrestle that historic ball from a scrum of fortune-seeking Yankees fans.
Mike Kessler, a 20-year-old City College of New York student, experienced just that on Tuesday in the Bronx, somehow winning Aaron Judge’s 60th home run of the year over a crowd of spectators in the Bronx. the bleachers of Yankee Stadium.
Judge’s longball in the ninth inning not only brought him within one homerun of Roger Maris’ Yankees- and American League-records, but also helped New York to a 9-8 comeback win over the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates. Teammate Giancarlo Stanton eventually won the match with a walk-off grand slam later in the frame.
But however much Judge accomplished on Tuesday night and during his historic 2022 campaign, it was Kessler who came home with a sense of victory.
“It bounced off someone’s hand,” Kessler said The New York Post. “I reached out and grabbed it and just hugged it. I just smothered it. It came to the side. It was a crazy pile.’
Aaron Judge’s longball in the ninth inning not only brought him within one homerun of Roger Maris’ Yankees- and American League-records, but also helped New York to a 9-8 comeback win over the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates. Teammate Giancarlo Stanton eventually won the match with a walk-off grand slam later in the frame
Thousands of Yankees Fans Stack for Aaron Judge’s 60th Home Run
Michael Kessler was the fan who caught Aaron Judge’s historic 60th home run ball and returned it to Judge and the team
Kessler and his friends got autographed balls and bats in exchange for the home run
Kessler was attending the game with his CCNY baseball teammates when Judge’s ninth-inning homer landed at their estimated location in the stands in left centerfield. A pile-on soon followed, but when it was over, it was Kessler who had the ball.
“I’m sure it hasn’t been processed yet,” Kessler told The Post. “I can’t put it into words just yet.”
Kessler & Co. didn’t hold the ball though, instead offering it back to Judge, effectively walking away from a potential six figure payout in the scorching hot sports collector market. In exchange for their kindness, Kessler and his friends received autographed balls and bats from Judge and the Yankees.
“I wanted to give back to the success story anyway. Give back to Judge for all he’s done for the organization, do my part,” Kessler told Action Network headquarters.
The crowd cheers after New York Yankees Aaron Judge hits his 60th home run of the season
Yankee Roger Maris (left) meets young fan who “catched the ball” Maria hit for his 61st homer of the season on October 1, to surpass Babe Ruth’s all-time high and set a new record in the books for slugger of the future to shoot. The fan, Sal Durante, 19, of 1418 Neptune Avenue, Coney Island, NY, told reporters he will give the historic ball to Maris even if it turns out there’s no reward for it. He said, ‘I’ll give it to him for nothing’. Durante caught the 360 foot drive while sitting in the right field grandstand at Yankee Stadium with his girlfriend, Rose Marie Calabrese
Brooklyn’s Sal Durante catches Roger Maris’ record 61st home run at Yankee Stadium in 1961
Sal Durante holds the ball hit by Roger Maris for his 61st home run during the 1961 season prior to the game against the Boston Red Sox on September 24, 2011, at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx
Sal Durante, who caught Maris’ famous 61st home run in 1961, similarly tried to return the ball to Maris, but was told by the slugger to keep it.
“Hold it, boy,” Maris said to Durante, like the Brooklynite to the… New York Post. ‘Put it up for auction. Someone will pay you a lot of money for the ball.’
Durante still has the ball, which broke Babe Ruth’s record in 1927.
The Major League record officially remains Barry Bonds’ 73 home runs in 2001. After that, Mark McGwire ranks second and fourth on the all-time list (70 home runs in 1998, 65 in 1999), while Sammy Sosa ranks third, fifth and fourth. sixth in the record books (66 in 1998, 64 in 2001 and 63 in 1999).
However, Bonds, McGwire and Sosa have all been linked to steroids through various media reports, casting doubt on the legitimacy of their data.
Judge, Maris and Ruth remain clear of such charges.
New York Yankees outfielder Babe Ruth is crowned for his new home run record of 60 by Yankee manager Miller Huggins, center, shortly after the end of the 1927 season, as the driver, right, watches