Aaron Judge passing Joe DiMaggio on all-time Yankees HR list was more historic than you think

Lucas Giolito's first pitch of Aaron Judge's latest history-making at-bat was a gorgeous slider, which broke over the outside corner and ended up in the left-handed batter's box, a swinging strike. Before the next pitch, Carlos Narvaez set up high and tight, but it leaked over the middle of the plate, a belt-high fastball, which Judge crushed 468 feet out of Fenway Park and onto Landsdowne Street.

It was a busy week for Judge, who passed Yogi Berra for fifth all-time on the franchise home run list, then Joe DiMaggio for fourth to open the weekend. Miraculously, DiMaggio's final home run also came at Fenway Park.

Since 2022, Judge has had a 1.110 OPS. Ted Williams is second all-time with a 1.115 OPS. Jimmie Foxx, with a 1.036 OPS, holds the record for right-handed hitters. Foxx played for the Philadelphia Athletics in the 1920s and 1930s. He was a fantastic hitter, but he faced guys like George Blaeholder, Gordon Rhodes, and Milt Gaston, soft tossers who were lucky to strike out one batter every three innings. Judge plays in an era where a triple-digit fastball is commonplace. No disrespect to Foxx, but Judge is the best right-handed hitter of all time.

Judge didn't make his Major League debut until he was 24 years old, so he's just getting started rewriting the record books. By 2028, he'll be in the franchise top ten for RBI and runs. He's already sixth in bWAR, with his sights set on passing Derek Jeter by 2027.

Over the next five years, the baseball world will debate Judge's place among legendary Yankees like Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Lou Gehrig, and Babe Ruth. As a hitter, he has already equaled them all. Pitching has evolved so much over the last century (when the average fastball was 80-something miles per hour) that if Judge played in Ruth's day, he'd hit 80 home runs a year.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jimmy Breslin once said, "Baseball isn't statistics, it's Joe DiMaggio rounding second base." DiMaggio was baseball's golden boy in baseball's golden era. He earned pop culture shoutouts from Ernest Hemingway, Rogers and Hammerstein, Les Brown, Billy Joel, Jerry Seinfeld, Woody Guthrie, and Neil Simon. The love of his life was Marilyn Monroe.

At 21 years old in 1936, he joined the Yankees and led them to five World Championships in six years. In 1941, he had a 56-game hitting streak, a record that nobody will ever break. DiMaggio made the All-Star team every season of his career, was a three-time MVP, and finished in the top ten of voting every year, except for two. He never struck out more than 39 times in a season. His career OPS (.977) is tied for fourth on the franchise list with Mickey Mantle (Judge is third). The Yankees won the World Series nine times during DiMaggio's 13-year career.

His numbers would be even better, but he lost three years of his prime serving the Air Force during World War II. He should have had more homers - he hit 65 fewer home runs at home than on the road in his career because the left-center field wall in old Yankee Stadium was 460 feet from home plate. After the war, he endured career-threatening bone spurs. In 1949, upon returning midseason from the brink of retirement, DiMaggio went 5-for-11 with four home runs in a sweep of the Red Sox and led the Yankees to a three-peat. He retired in 1951 after his OPS dropped to .787.

As Judge passes DiMaggio in home runs, but without any World Series wins, it's impossible to say he's had a greater impact on the franchise than Ruth, Mantle, Gehrig, or Jeter. That's just the high bar of being a New York Yankee. He's undoubtedly capable of changing the conversation over the next couple of years, as he's on pace to catch Gehrig by 2028. If he has a World Series MVP or three on his resume, who knows where he'll stand? For now, let's appreciate that the best hitter ever to swing a bat plays for the New York Yankees.