Grandson compares Yankees' Aaron Judge to Babe Ruth

New York Yankees All-Star slugger Aaron Judge began Tuesday leading all of MLB with 59 home runs on the season and on the cusp of making history possibly as soon as when the Bronx Bombers host the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday evening. 

Judge is just one homer shy of matching the single-season mark of 60 reached by Yankees legend Babe Ruth in 1927 and two blasts away from tying the American League single-campaign record of 61 set by Yankees icon Roger Maris in 1961. Ruth's 70-year-old grandson, Tom Stevens, recently spoke with Ian O'Connor of the New York Post and compared Judge to none other than the Great Bambino. 

"I would say Judge’s towering shots are reminiscent of the Babe’s," Stevens remarked during the conversation. "That’s a nice way of putting it." 

Stevens is the son of Julia Ruth Stevens, Babe Ruth’s daughter who died in 2019 at the age of 102. 

Similar to Ruth, Judge is a larger-than-life figure compared to mere mortals and is listed at 6-foot-7 and 282 pounds. Stevens noted, though, that he's particularly impressed with what he's learned about Judge the person as much as about Judge the record-chaser. 

"Everything I hear about him is that he’s a nice young man, and you want somebody like that to do well," Stevens said of Judge. "He’s got a nice swing. …You look for him to be a bit clumsy in the field because he is so large, but he’s acrobatic and very athletic. They always talked about the sound of when Babe hit the ball, that it was different than when anybody else hit, and they say the same of Judge. But Babe’s lifetime slugging percentage (.690), nobody will ever touch."

To compare, Judge's career slugging percentage is at .584. 

The Yankees play a home game every day from Tuesday through Sunday evening, so Judge should have plenty of chances to reach at least 61 home runs for the season in front of adoring crowds ahead of the final full week of September.