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Aaron Judge is arguably the best player in today's game. Babe Ruth is arguably the greatest MLB player ever. Although the superstars played around 100 years apart from one another, their New York Yankees careers look quite similar through their first 1,000 games according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today.
“Babe Ruth's 1st 1,000 games as a Yankee: 321 HRs in 4,455 plate appearances; 1 HR every 13.88 plate appearances,” Nightengale wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Aaron Judge's 1st 1,000 games as a Yankee: 321 HRs in 4,355 plate appearances; 1 HR every 13.57 plate appearances.”
Judge and Ruth both recorded 321 home runs through their first 100 games with the Yankees (Judge is still playing his 1,000th game as of this story's writing, so he could increase his total). Judge leads the baseball legend in home run pace per plate appearance, but they are extremely close.
The Judge-Ruth comparison isn't especially fair given the different eras they played in. Nevertheless, it is interesting to see how similar some of Aaron Judge and Babe Ruth's numbers are despite the century of baseball that was played between the beginning of their careers.
Judge made his MLB debut in 2016. Ruth, meanwhile, first played at the MLB level in 1914. The fact that they debuted almost exactly 100 years apart is intriguing. Of course, there were other differences besides the completely different eras of baseball.
Aaron Judge vs. Babe Ruth
Ruth played for the Boston Red Sox from 1914-1919. The Red Sox later traded The Babe to the Yankees, a move that led to 86 years of disappointment in Boston. The Red Sox would not win another World Series and break “The Curse of the Bambino” until 2004.
Judge, meanwhile, has spent his entire career in New York with the Yankees.
Another difference is that Ruth pitched on a consistent basis in addition to hitting early in his career with Boston. As a result, Shohei Ohtani has also drawn no shortage of comparisons to Ruth.
Judge, meanwhile, has never thrown a pitch at the big league level. Could that change someday? Perhaps Aaron Boone would consider bringing Judge in to pitch in a lop-sided affair, but those roles often go to utility and backup players. So the chances of Judge pitching are quite slim.
That won't impact his legacy, though.
In the end, Judge has already established himself as one of the better Yankees of all-time. He could become one of the greatest players in New York baseball history if he maintains his consistency moving forward.
