Responding to Reddit: Judge on Mount Rushmore?

Welcome to a new series, where I find questions on Reddit and answer them- in short- on here.

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The other day, I saw this question get asked on the New York Yankees subreddit page:

"If Judge continues to Judge, gets to say 600HR or even 500 [HR], who does he replace on the NYY Mt. Rushmore?" (Link, here)

Here is my response:

500 Home Runs (or even 600 Home Runs) likely doesn't put Judge on the Yankees Mount Rushmore, because the spots are filled. The sculpting of the faces has been completed, and there is no more space.

The consensus Mount Rushmore for the Yankees is: Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, and Joe DiMaggio. I think you'd be hard pressed to find anybody who would exclude any of those names. The "Mount Rushmore" for the Yankees is set, and it will (likely) never change.

Let's just think about it:

-Babe Ruth is the greatest baseball player ever.

-Lou Gehrig may have been, if not for ALS ending his career early.

-Mickey Mantle may have also been, if not for a knee injury early in his career.

Nobody can, in good faith, argue that Ruth, Gehrig, and Mantle were not the three best Yankees ever.

Now, I find this to be the case with many "Mount Rushmore" arguments. It seems to be that the first three players mentioned are usually a consensus, but the last is usually where the biggest debates are found.

However, this is not the case with Joe DiMaggio. He is clearly the 4th pick, even if his career trajectory wasn't setting up for "greatest of all time" status.

Joe DiMaggio lost three of his prime years to serving in World War II. If he had those years back, he would've gotten decently close to both 3,000 hits and 500 home runs in his career.

Joe DiMaggio also stepped away from baseball as a 37-year-old. If he was close to those two milestones- he would've been the 8th player to get to 3,000 hits and the 3rd/4th to get to 500 home runs, depending on if we also give Ted Williams his war years back- maybe he would've stuck around a few more years.

But, why didn't he stick around? Well, because Joe DiMaggio started to date one of the most famous people in the world then: Marilyn Monroe. And then they got married in 1954.

Suffice it to say, Joe DiMaggio became an icon on the baseball field and then stuck around as a cultural icon for years afterwards.

As did Babe Ruth.

As was Mickey Mantle.

And Lou Gehrig's legacy has been the same, and arguably even brighter now than during his career (when he was overshadowed by Ruth in the beginning and DiMaggio at the end).

So, to get back to the original question: It doesn't matter how many home runs he hits, or rings he wins, or however popular Aaron Judge becomes. Because even all of that also comes with needing to best 75+ years of legendary status that those other players already have.

They- Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, and Mantle- are historical figures, both within the sport of baseball and outside of the sport too.

Aaron Judge will never have that.

And I know that because even Derek Jeter couldn't make it.

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The better question is: Does Aaron Judge make it onto the "Hill of Franticmany"?

Does he have a better legacy now than Whitey Ford, Yogi Berra, Bill Dickey, Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera? (No.)

Could he? (Maybe.)

With 500/600 home runs? (Maybe, but make this an even stronger maybe.)

I hope Judge does hit those milestones. That'd be awesome.

But, for now, the answer is simply:

No.