Roger Maris' Son Gives Thoughts On Aaron Judge Chasing His Dad's Record

Roger Maris' American League, single-season home run record has stood for a long time. As Yankees slugger Aaron Judge gets closer to eclipsing the 61 home run mark, Maris' son gave his thoughts about the possibility of his dad's record being broken.

In an interview with TMZ Sports, Kevin Maris said that while he hopes to see the record stand, they're meant to be broken eventually.

"I don't know if anybody likes their record broken at the end of the day," Kevin Maris said in the interview. "But it's nice to see him giving it a good run. Records are made to be broken at some point. If it happens to be this year, you've got to tip your hat to the guy."

However, if his father's record being broken is inevitable, Kevin Maris said he'd at least be happy for the new record holder to be a fellow Yankee like Judge.

Judge's Historic Home Run Pace

At the time of writing, Judge is sitting at 44 home runs. According to MLB.com's dedicated "Aaron Judge Home Run Pace Tracker," Judge is on pace for 64 at his current clip.

Yankees slugger Aaron Judge. (Getty Images)

Maris hit 61 home runs during the 1961 MLB season, which broke Babe Ruth's 1927 record of 60.

Of course, that total was eclipsed multiple times by Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, and Sammy Sosa, but they all did it in the National League. Anyone even tangentially familiar with baseball history knows those totals also come with a pretty significant asterisk.

Last week, MLB.com reported that Judge had the fourth-highest home run total through 106 games. His 43 at the time was behind Bonds' 45 in that span during the 2001 season, McGwire's 45 in 1998, and Ruth's 44 in 1921.