A for effort …
When Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees launched his 62nd home run into the direction of the left-field bleachers against the Texas Rangers on Tuesday night, it touched off a mad frenzy in the stands as fans tried to get their hands on a potentially worthwhile piece of baseball memorabilia.
One fan perhaps went above and beyond in the effort.
Shortly after Judge’s historic blast, setting a new single-season American League home run record, video circulated of one fan making a valiant, leaping effort at catching history:
Bold strategy from this fan absolutely sending it off the wall for the Aaron Judge ball that landed about 10 seats away pic.twitter.com/PF34Qg1hb0
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) October 5, 2022
As you can see from this angle, our protagonist was … unlikely to get their hands on the baseball, given that they were more than a few feet away from Judge’s home run. One might wonder if heroic training montages and swelling trumpets were playing in their head as they launched themselves over the barrier in left field.
One can understand why a baseball fan would make such an effort. After all JP Cohen, the President of Memory Lane Auctions, offered $2 million to whoever managed to catch Judge’s 62nd home run:
$2 MILLION:
The amount of money that JP Cohen, President of Memory Lane Auctions, is offering to whoever catches Aaron Judge’s 62nd home run ball. ⚾️
(via @TommyBeer) pic.twitter.com/hVXhEp0nRh
— Boardroom (@boardroom) September 23, 2022
As for who actually did catch Judge’s 62nd home run? Well, we have news …
#Rangers Security whisked away a Dallas man by the name of Corey Youmans who caught Judge’s 62nd home run ball.
#62 pic.twitter.com/lP7jequjIJ— Joe Trahan (@JoeTrahan) October 5, 2022
Looks up Corey Youmans.
“Corey is a vice president at Fisher Investments, a firm that manages $197 BILLION worldwide.” https://t.co/WgPDJzvuqA
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) October 5, 2022
It has been a strange week or so for baseballs rocketing off the bat of Judge. When he hit his 61st home run last week, tying the American League record set by Roger Maris back in 1961, a pair of Toronto Blue Jays fans came up short in their effort to catch the home run, including a restaurant owner named .. and this is true … Frankie Lasagna and a Blue Jays fan named … and again this is true … Kyle Mulligan:
Yankees Aaron Judge hits his 61st Home Run of the season, tying Roger Maris for the American League record pic.twitter.com/8wSqK1jknZ
— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) September 29, 2022
Mulligan recently joined Jimmy Kimmel to recount his shot at baseball history:
The man who ALMOST caught Aaron Judge’s 61st home run! @TheJudge44 #KimmelinBrooklyn pic.twitter.com/DeXc0KTt19
— Jimmy Kimmel Live (@JimmyKimmelLive) September 30, 2022
Judge’s 61st home run ended up in the hands of his mother after the game, following a journey from the Blue Jays’ bullpen. Now we wait to see what happens to #62.