Aaron Judge hits 50th home run to break MLB rookie record

The era of Aaron Judge has begun. The monstrous rookie of the New York Yankees has set a new record for the rookie home run record. On Monday local time, Yankees' 25-year-old right fielder added two home runs and recorded the 50th home run of the season in the baseball game against the Kansas City Royals in New York. He surpassed the 49 home runs recorded in 1987 by Mark McGwire, a then-rookie of the Oakland Athletics. McGwire hit 70 home runs in 1998, setting the record for the most home runs in a season, before San Francisco's Barry Bonds hit 73 in 2001 to set the current record.

Judge is armed with superhuman strength, created by his large build, as he is 6’ 7’’ tall and weighs 279.98 lb. The longest home run (495 ft. or about 151 meters) and the fastest batting speed(121.1 mph, or about 195 kmph) recorded in this season’s Statcast (an analyzing system of Major League Baseball that records the information of pitching and batting) are all set by Judge. Judge also won with his overwhelming strength in All-star Home Run Derby, which was held in July 2017.

Judge has set a new record for rookie home runs, and now he aims to win the MVP and the Rookie of the Year all at once, following Boston's Fred Lynn in 1975 and Seattle's Ichiro Suzuki in 2001. Jose Altuve of the Houston Astros, No. 1 in batting, is considered to be Judge’s competitor for American League MVP.

Judge’s record-breaking in home runs is still in progress as the Yankees has six more games left in the regular season.

Hong-Gu Kang windup@donga.com