There’s a new single season American League home run king and no one got hurt chasing the baseball that broke the record.
The homer that broke Roger Maris’ 61-year-old record came off Texas Rangers pitcher Jesus Tinoco in the first inning of the second game of a doubleheader at Globe Life Field Tuesday night.
Grabbing a seat in the bottom row turned out to be a good move for the fan who caught it.
Judge’s 62nd home run ball was snared on the fly by Rangers fan Corey Youmans, who was sitting in perfect position: Section 31, Row 1, Seat 3.
Here’s the lucky fan that caught Aaron Judge’s HR ball
pic.twitter.com/rp70Lb35xX— Stokastic (@Stokastic_Com) October 5, 2022
Here’s a great view from a fan sitting nearby.
Security team members escorted Youmans to have the ball authenticated. Reporters were there and asked him what he planned to do with it.
Youmans works as a branch vice-president for Fisher Investments in Dallas. He’s married to a Dallas area sports reporter.
Last month, JP Cohen, president of Memory Lane, the Southern California-based auction company, offered a $2 million bounty on the baseball. As of late Tuesday night, Cohen told SC Daily he had yet to hear from Youmans.
“I don’t know where it’s at. It would be great to get it back,” Judge told media members after the game. “But, that’s a souvenir for a fan. They made a great catch. They have every right to it.”
Yankees manager Aaron Boone indicated Judge “had earned a day off” Wednesday. If he doesn’t play, the record will remain 62, which could increase the value of the ball since it will remain the new record.
In 1961, a 19-year-old truck driver named Sal Durante caught Maris’ home run. He offered to return it to Maris, but the quiet slugger from North Dakota told him to sell it. Durant did sell it to a Northern California restaurant owner who eventually gave it back to Maris.
Judge has an exclusive autographed memorabilia deal with Fanatics and as soon as the home run landed Tuesday night, the company dropped a line of Judge memorabilia, including display pieces, collages, autographed bat and ball displays and other memorabilia.
With a crowd of over 38,000 fans on hand, most of whom were there to hopefully witness history, there are some hard tickets being offered on eBay. The going rate Tuesday night was $150-$200 each.
Dallas Cowboys star Micah Parsons was at the game and became the first to score an autographed ticket.
Greatness was witnessed in Dallas!! #History pic.twitter.com/DXwm9EzCTr
— Micah Parsons (@MicahhParsons11) October 5, 2022
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