ARLINGTON, Texas — Everyone inside Globe Life Field erupted the moment the ball left the bat.
But a funny thing happened in left field.
“We froze in time. You see the ball coming at you, but you freeze,” said Amir Ahmadian of Plano.
He’s a Rangers fan who was sitting in section 31, a few rows behind what turned out to be the most lucrative seat in the house.
Sal Salerno was one section away.
“At first, I was like, oh my God, that’s going out. I was filming and I was like, I’m close. I need to look at this. Can I catch that?” Salerno said.
He realized he was too far to try to catch it. So, he just soaked up the moment.
“This is up there with Jeter’s last game. It’s pretty magical. It’s special,” he said.
He just moved to North Texas from New York one month ago.
In section 27 sat the Marston family.
John, 79 years old, had on his glove.
John was ready. Because he’d seen this kind of thing before.
“When Maris hit his 61st, I was in right field. I was under an overhang. I saw the ball but didn’t think it was a home run. Then I saw people about 10 rows in front of me scrambling,” he said.
John was 18 when he witnessed history the first time.
He was born in New York and now lives outside of Austin.
The lifelong Yankees fan calls it “just a coincidence” that he saw history a second time.
“To me, it doesn’t seem like a big deal. Maybe because I am almost 80 years old I guess,” he said.
He wasn’t even that impressed with Judge’s record-breaking hit.
“It was not one of Judge’s better home runs,” he said. “But it was good enough.”