The jury speaks

Case closed? (Wendell Cruz / USA Today / Imagn Images)

I turned to our jury members. They were mostly with me.

Steve Hirdt had only one reservation: “Obviously, I’d have to put Gehrig and Ruth in 1927 above what Judge and Soto have done,” he said … with good reason! But I’m not arguing that this Judge/Soto Show is superior to any Ruth/Gehrig season — only that it’s fair to use the expression: best since … So he’s in.

Cash and the AL executive I spoke with had zero problem with this premise. They didn’t particularly want to compare themselves with Connie Mack, trying to outfox those Yankees behemoths. But they get where I’m going with this.

“In any era that you put these guys in, they would stand out as generationally talented,” the exec said, “both in what they’re doing today and the track record. So when you talk about comparing them with Ruth and Gehrig, you could roll your eyes if it was somebody who was a flash in the pan, that we didn’t know.

“But these guys already have the credentials. They were on Hall of Fame tracks before. And now they’ve converged — to hit second and third for the New York Yankees.”

Bingo. So I only had to convince one holdout — Bob Costas.

I chipped away. I asked: What about the Yankee Factor? How can you not at least compare them when they’re all Yankees? He was good with that comp (mostly).

“Well, the Yankee factor is inevitable,” he conceded, “because it’s still called Yankee Stadium. And the monuments to Ruth and Gehrig are within sight. Judge is standing right in front of them.”

Except there’s a hole in that Yankee Factor argument. And Costas, naturally, didn’t miss it.

“But even though Judge is well on his way,” he said, “to being a truly historic player … it’s very, very difficult to compare anyone’s aura and impact in legend to Ruth, because he reinvented the game.”

Once again, though, I’m not arguing that! Have I said once that Judge is better — or projects a more sweeping aura — than Babe Ruth? Never!

I’d be happy to suggest that Judge is “Ruthian” — especially by 2024 standards. He has reached 60 homers once. He is chasing it again. He wears pinstripes. He’s larger than life. Sounds pretty Ruthian to me. I thought I could sense Costas beginning to come around.

“The very fact,” he said, “that these comparisons come up — that it occurs to us, and that you’ve got the backdrop of Yankee Stadium, the pinstripes, Yankees history, Judge’s standing already. … He’s the comp to Ruth. It may be a bit of a reach for Soto to be the comp to Gehrig. But for one year, this year? Maybe. And if Soto stays and they sustain it, maybe the comparison becomes valid, difficult as it is to compare across the years.”

The Judge-Soto comp with Ruth and Gehrig? Not everyone was completely convinced.  (MPI / Getty Images)

I should have rested my case right there. Oops. Costas kept going — and that didn’t turn out well for my presentation to the jury.

“But what we know for a fact,” he continued, “is that Ruth and Gehrig are firmly set in baseball legend — not because of one year or even two or three years, but because of a sustained run where they defined what it is to have a murderers’ row. …

“So if you look at this as like 1927, (Ruth and Gehrig) are in the midst of a legendary, sustained run — that literally, they are part of baseball lore, to the point where someone who doesn’t follow baseball knows who Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig are. There’s a movie that your grandmother liked about Lou Gehrig and the luckiest-man speech.”

Oh yeah. I know all about it. And with Judge and Soto — all right, I get it. No major motion pictures. Not even a “30 for 30” (yet). They’re not legends. They’re not part of a legendary team. There has been no legendary, sustained run — not by them or a franchise that hasn’t played a World Series game for 15 years. Good points!

However … have I ever tried to argue they were legends? No. Have I ever talked about sustained runs? No! Heck, I conceded many paragraphs ago that I was talking only about what Judge and Soto have done this year. And if we just stick to that one-year stuff, we haven’t seen anything like this since … well, you know.

So ultimately, Costas was willing to nudge himself about half an inch in my direction. I’ll take it.

“I certainly feel comfortable,” he said, “if I were writing the story, with saying they’ve put themselves in the discussion with such legendary duos. And if they sustain this for a few more years, then we’re looking at Ruth/Gehrig territory.”

All right then. Now … I’m resting my case. They’re in the discussion. We’ve had that discussion. And the evidence is overwhelming. I don’t know what the future of Judge and Soto looks like. I just know what 2024 looks like.

I think it looks kind of like two pinstriped mashers from nine decades ago.

Maybe you’re with me. Maybe you’re not. But just think about it — because that, as Buck Showalter said, is the beauty of baseball.

(Top image: Meech Robinson / The Athletic. Ruth and Gehrig: Bettmann / Contributor / Getty Images; Judge and Soto, center: Julio Aguilar / Getty Images; Judge and Soto, right: Rob Tringali / MLB Photos via Getty Images)