Best Yankee Stadium seats to catch an Aaron Judge home run ball
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Aaron Judge is coming back to Yankee Stadium just three home runs away from the American League home run record.
Following the Yankees’ series in Milwaukee over the weekend, Judge is sitting on 59 home runs with 16 games left in the season, the next six of which will be at home. The Yankees only have two series left on the road — one at Toronto and a season-ending four-game set at Texas — meaning there’s a good chance Judge will pass Roger Maris’ 61-homer mark in The Bronx.
Ergo, there’s a good chance that homers No. 61 and 62 will be caught by fans at Yankee Stadium. The question, then, is what location gives you the best chance?
A quick glance at Judge’s home run spray chart tells you what you would probably already guess: Most of his home runs this season have been hit to left or right field. If your goal is to be the next Zack Hample, avoid center field.
Throughout his career at all parks, a plurality of Judge’s home runs — 40.8 percent, to be exact — have been pulled to left field. 26.8 percent have gone straight away with 32.5 percent going to right field, per Statcast. But we can narrow that down further.
At Yankee Stadium, the split changes notably in favor of the short porch in right. During his career, Judge has hit an equal 39 percent of his Yankee Stadium home runs to left field and 39 percent to right.
Further worth noting is that this year in particular, few of those have been of the cheap variety we’re used to seeing down the line at the Stadium. To the opposite field in particular, many of Judge’s home runs have come more to right-center, in the range of sections 103, 104, 203 and 204.
Everything to know about Aaron Judge and his chase for the home run record:
On average, though, it’s noteworthy that when Judge pulls the ball, it tends to go further than when he hits it to the opposite field. Keep that in mind if you’re buying tickets with the goal of catching a home run ball.
Getting one into the second deck is still a tough ask, but if you’re looking at sections 133-135 — prime home run territory — the deeper rows could be a better bet than the seats closest to the fence. The same rule applies to sections 135 and 136, which are reasonably good bets as well. The location of Judge’s home runs to left have been spread more evenly than to right.
Paying attention to the opposing pitcher is also worth doing if you’re participating in this exercise. Judge has hit a disproportionate number of his career home runs against right-handed pitching — 162 to 55, with a 46 to 13 split this season.
Within that, the location numbers are pretty close to even against right-handed pitching. Judge has pulled 39 home runs at Yankee Stadium against righties with 35 to the opposite field, per Statcast. Against lefties, it’s seven to 11 in favor of the opposite field, per Statcast.
Accordingly, picking the right opposing pitcher might be more important than picking the perfect seat. Shelling out to try and watch Judge hit No. 61 against a lefty could be fruitless, especially if there’s a righty going against the Yankees the next day.
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