Yes, you know where this article is going. Before I even type 10 words, I have telepathically entered your mind and fired off a series of neurons that likely elicit what could only be described as a Pavlovian response, by simply saying the words: “Aaron Judge, Barry Bonds.” You already have a pre-formed opinion about that sequence of words that can fall into a very predictable bucket.
As anyone with cable service, a newspaper, an internet connection, or a pulse knows, Aaron Judge tied Roger Maris for the American League single-season home run record at 61. Eight days elapsed before he walked the historic path from 60 to 61, a week-long affair of national television network cut-ins — essentially unheard of for baseball in 2022 — and the basically unspoken assumption that the elders of sports media were treating this as the de facto, but not the de jure, breaking of the home run record.