Last week ABC made the controversial decision to interrupt their nationally broadcasted college football games whenever New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge went up to bat while chasing the AL home run record.
This weekend, the trend will continue – on the Worldwide Leader in Sports. While YES Network has the rights to their upcoming games against the Baltimore Orioles, MLB is making Judge’s pursuit of the record as widely available as possible.
According to sports media insider Andrew Marchand of the New York Post, ESPN will have cut-ins for Saturday’s game between Penn State and Northwestern whenever Judge has an at-bat. The cut-ins will also take place on MLB Network.
Judge hit his 61st home run against the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday, tying the 61-year-old record held by Yankees legend Roger Maris. With one more he will own the record all by himself.
Given the historical significance of what Aaron Judge is chasing it’s no big shock that Major League Baseball is trying to share the moment with everyone. Only five players in history have even hit for 60 home runs – Roger Maris, Babe Ruth, Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa.
But the marks held by Bonds, McGwire and Sosa are considered tainted because of the steroid allegations against them.
These are the final three home games of the Yankees season, giving him three chances to break the record in front of home fans. After that, the Yankees play their final four games on the road against the Texas Rangers.
Of course, Judge also plays tonight so if he manages to break the record tonight, there probably won’t be any cut-ins tomorrow.
Will Judge break the record this weekend?