Aaron Judge broke Roger Maris’s American League single-season home-run record in 2022. Maris had hit 61 home runs for the New York Yankees in 1961, and Judge passed that total with his 62nd homer on October 4, 2022.
Maris’s record was especially famous because he surpassed Babe Ruth’s previous Yankees and AL mark of 60, set in 1927. Maris reached 61 in a 162-game season, while Ruth’s 60 came in a 154-game schedule, making the comparison controversial at the time. Baseball commissioner Ford Frick even suggested that separate records might be needed, though no official asterisk was added.
Judge’s 62 home runs gave him the AL record and the Yankees franchise record. The MLB-wide single-season record remains higher: Barry Bonds hit 73 in 2001. That distinction explains why Maris is the correct answer when the question specifies the American League.