NEW YORK — As the baseball world waits for Yankees slugger Aaron Judge to hit home run Nos. 61 and 62, Race Parmenter’s mind often drifts to Judge’s first professional home run, and how it changed Parmenter’s life.
Parmenter gave up that homer — and the next day, the Low-A Rome Braves cut him and he never played in the minor leagues again.
“(Judge) sent me packing pretty much,” Parmenter said in a phone interview with NJ Advance Media earlier this week.
Parmenter looks back at the moment fondly now — as he should. At 31, he has done well for himself. He’s a husband and the proud father of two children, and he runs Sackin Metals, a scrap metal recycling company in Huntington Beach, Calif., where he lives with his family. He still loves baseball, but it’s behind him and he’s OK with that. And he’s at peace with his connection to Judge, too.
“I tell people all the time, ‘I gave up the first home run to Aaron Judge’ — just for fun,” he said.
Between the minor leagues, where Judge hit 57 homers, and the majors, where he has 218, Judge has hit 275 home runs since the Yankees drafted him in the first round out of Fresno State in 2013. On Tuesday, he hit his 60th of the year, tying Babe Ruth for the second-most in a single season in Yankees history. Roger Maris set the American League and Yankees’ all-time mark with 61 home runs in 1961.
Each night this week, Yankee Stadium has been packed with fans eager to witness history. They stand for every one of Judge’s at-bats, turn silent as the pitcher winds up and delivers. They boo loudly when the pitch is out of the strike zone and gasp when he takes one of his dangerous swings. Parmenter, meanwhile, knows Judge’s home run barrage started with him on April 17, 2014, in Charleston, S.C.
“I remember seeing him before the game and thinking, ‘This guy is huge. He should be playing football,’” Parmenter said.
In the seventh inning, Judge, batting cleanup, walked to the plate to face Parmenter, who had heard plenty about him. Heck, everyone had. The Yankees had given Judge a $1.8-million signing bonus, and he was 6-foot-7 — the tallest and strongest player in the South Atlantic League.
“Every first-rounder — everyone knows who they are,” Parmenter said.
Meanwhile, it’s likely Judge didn’t know much about Parmenter, a right-handed reliever who relied heavily on a splitter and threw fastballs between 88 and 92 mph. A California native, Parmenter went undrafted out of the University of California-Irvine, but he pitched well enough with a 3-1 record and 0.57 ERA with the Southern Illinois Miners of the independent Frontier League to get noticed. Braves scouts signed him and sent him to Rome, Ga., to begin what he hoped would be a climb to the big leagues.
When Parmenter took the mound that night against Judge, the pitcher was already on thin ice. He had given up five earned runs in 4 1/3 innings over four appearances, striking out four.
“It was my dream to play in affiliated ball,” he said. “I was thrilled. And to face guys like (Judge) was a dream, too.”
The dream didn’t last quite as long as he hoped.
After Parmenter induced Tyler Wade to ground out to end the sixth, Judge stepped to the plate with his Riverdogs down, 7-6, to start the seventh. Judge battled to a count full and Parmenter recalled the scouting report he was given on Judge: Pitch him hard and inside to exploit his long swing.
Parmenter reached back and let a fastball rip. It was middle-in.
“Obviously,” Parmenter said, “that wasn’t the right scouting report.”
A video of the home run still exists on YouTube and has more than 8,000 views. The ball screams over a Budweiser sign atop a large scoreboard in left-center field. Rome left fielder Daniel Carroll turns and gives the homer a courtesy jog, but the ball was gone off the bat. Judge — then wearing No. 35 instead of the 99 that’s become a top-selling jersey in the game — points to the heavens when he touches home plate.
Parmenter remembered that it was college night at Joseph P. Riley Park, and there was nearly a full house to see the home run. Of course, he had no way of knowing that Judge would become the face of Major League Baseball or the likely recipient of a $300-million-plus contract this offseason.
With the score tied, Parmenter refocused and forced Miguel Andujar to fly out on the next pitch. Then he retired the next two hitters to finish the inning. Parmenter gave up a run in the eighth inning that would seal his team’s 8-7 loss, but he faced Judge one more time and got a first-pitch pop out.
The next day, Parmenter’s affiliated career in the minors ended. At the team hotel, Rome manager Jon Schuerholz called Parmenter to his room, where he was told that they had needed him to keep the game close, and that the team had to release him to get fresh arms for the bullpen. Parmenter flew to Rome to collect his stuff, and then flew home to California to figure out his next move. His final minor-league record: 0-2 with an 8.10 ERA in five games.
“You get the opportunity and it doesn’t go your way, that’s OK,” he said. “There are thousands of guys who would love to have an opportunity. Sometimes they perform. Sometimes they don’t.”
Parmenter pitched two more years in independent baseball with the CornBelters in Normal, Ill., before calling it a career at age 25.
“Even though it was one of the worst experiences for me getting released the next day, it was one of the bigger baseball memories in my life,” he said. “What (Judge) is doing is really special. It’s cool to say it was Judge and not some random minor-league guy. Look at him now.”
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Brendan Kuty may be reached at bkuty@njadvancemedia.com.
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