What used to be one of baseball’s most magical numbers — 61 home runs — now sits buried, eight lines deep, in the Major League Baseball record book.
The number now at the top of that record book — 73 home runs — is steeped in a steroid-addled purgatory, but it remains there nonetheless. These days, breaking that record is more of a wild-eyed aspiration than a realistic goal in a game that has largely been cleaned up and transformed.
“It’s good to dream, good to hope and always good to shoot for those goals, but I think that one’s a little untouchable,” said Aaron Judge, the Yankees slugger whose 62 homers in 2022 represent the closest anyone has come to breaking the record since the so-called “steroid era” ended in the early 2000s.
Baseball’s popularity these days has little to do with home run chases
Baseball has returned to being more relevant on the sports landscape in 2024 but it has little to do with what brought…