Yankees’ Slugger Aaron Judge on Record HR Pace

And now for your sports news, we're joined by NTD's Dave Martin. Dave, it's sort of like a reunion of sorts. Right. How are you doing today? I'm doing well. Glad to be back on the show with you guys. Yeah. We haven't spoken in a while. So yeah, plenty going on today. So let's start with baseball as Yankees slugger Aaron Judge hit two more home runs yesterday and to give him a league high of 51 on the season, is there a sense that he could break his own record? I mean, there is now. He has been so on fire lately. You know, this is his seventh home run in his last six games, his 10th home run in his last 13 games. He's now on pace to get 63 home runs, which would just be ahead of the 62 home run American League record that he set two years ago. It was all part of a Yankees win over Colorado that now has them in first place in the ALA game ahead, game and a half ahead of Baltimore. Now back to Judge, the 51 home runs is the sixth most before September. And of course, September is not done yet, so we could add to that total soon. Now, if you're looking at the MVP race, it's really been between him and Kansas City's Bobby Witt. But I think Judge breaks his own American League home run record. You'd have to give the vote to Judge. But there's still, of course, at least 30 games left to decide this. OK, now, Dave, when you talk about the home run record, you're generally just mentioning the American League and not the National League. You know, why is that? Well, technically, the National League record and Major League record is 73 home runs set by Barry Bonds back in 2001. That was three more than Mark McGuire hit a few years earlier and a few more than Sammy Sosa hit. I think Sosa had 66 one year. But none of those three players are in the Hall of Fame. Most sportswriters suspected them of steroid use or drug use during that time. Now, it's important to note those players never actually failed a drug test. But Major League Baseball didn't really test much during that time. So because of that, the American League record is considered the clean record. But of course, there's no official asterisk next to those other titles. It's kind of taken with a grain of salt. It's really an unfortunate period in baseball history. Some sportswriters actually refer to it as the steroid era. So, Dave, you know, it's always great to hear your insight. So I love to ask you one more question here. And this is about tennis news. The U.S. Open begins today right here in New York. Who are some of the favorites to win? Well, on the women's side, you've got Coco Gauff. She's a reigning champion, won it last year. As an American, she will benefit. She'll have the benefit of the crowd being on her side. Though she's kind of struggled a little the last couple of months. Certainly number one ranked, Egas Fiatek. She's always a favorite wherever she plays. Now, on the men's side, you still have 37-year-old Novak Djokovic, along with several other players who are actually much younger than him that are going to be the favorites. Now, Djokovic won Olympic gold a few weeks ago, but it's been actually a down year, considering he has no major titles. Now, Al Perez, meanwhile, he's already won four majors. If he wins either this U.S. Open or the Australian Open in January, that'll set the record for most major titles won before the age of 22. He's off to a great start in his career. So I really think it's going to come down to Al Perez against Djokovic. Even though Djokovic got him for gold at the Olympics, it really feels like Djokovic is having a tough time against Al Perez. So I think Al Perez is going to win the title here. It does seem like there's a bit of a new era coming in tennis with the top dog. It's kind of sad to see, but it's exciting as well, right? Yeah, the big three, Djokovic, Nadal, and Federer. Federer's had to retire because of injuries. Nadal looks like he's about there. And players, at least this year, have caught up kind of to Djokovic. So yeah, it's a new era coming in. All right, well, we'll keep our eyes on that. Thanks so much, Dave, as always. Thanks, guys.