Don't Judge

Answer: (ROGER) MARIS

Solution: There is only one instance of each letter in the word JUDGE in the grid. When those are removed from their across entries, five new entries are spelled (AM, NON, MOO, NAW, WAR). Play alternate clues with these to get five other entries (MORN, ANTI, ROAR, ILLPASS, SKIPBO - by coincidence, a lot of these are near their entries). The initial letters spell out the surname MARIS, and (ROGER) MARIS is our meta answer.

Bonus explanation: ROGER MARIS was the New York Yankee (convenient how YORK comes in the grid - I think that was happenstance) who famously hit 61 home runs in 1961, fitting for meta #61. He held the AL record for years until 2022 when the veritable Aaron Judge (hence the title) broke it with 62. So, if we don't consider Judge, Maris has the most HR in the AL and held that record for...61 years. I literally just found that out too. That's awesome! And nothing against the great Aaron Judge either, of course; my heart breaks for Yankees fans who are playing without him after that incredible catch that sent him to the IL. Note that the NL season-high HR record is tarnished due to PEDs, so my vote goes to Giancarlo Stanton, who hit 59 with the Marlins in 2017.

The obvious answer with a tough path to it

Loved the cluing as always, and a most unusual and fun metanism. Bonus points for making a sportsing meta that required zero sportsing knowledge. Thanks Mikey!

I thought this was heading into Frasier territory, but Google got me back on track!

Enjoyed it, and thanks for the bonus explanation! I totally didn't get how the answer fit with the title (and puzzle number!) when I submitted.

Fun meta. Found the mechanism and got 5 letters that seemed like a name, but I had no idea who that was.

Thanks for the bonus explanation. I thought the title referred to the controversy about whether Maris broke Ruth’s record.

Great aha! (After bobbling the ball for some time.) loved it!

Cool! :D

6 minutes for the puzzle, 90 minutes for the meta... but you said don't judge so imma hold you all to that (i noted the suspicious lone e early on, i just didnt think to hunt for other singletons... oh well)

I was trying to remove SONIA which made me notice the lone E. Cool meta and interesting backstory.

Took me a while to get it, and needed a bit of help, but ultimately got there. Nice one!

Woohoo!!! I finally solved this! (Not that I know who the answer is, but I’ll blame my ignorance on being a Brit lol)

Holy Homerun Batman! I needed a slap to realize what I had sensed but not translated to fact. Then the trudge to the answer (there is a Dr. Anam Munawar Assistant Professor, Biotechnology at Quarsi University by the way in case you ever want to use the remaining letters phonetically). Finally it hit me (it was Popular Card Game that did it), "hey these ARE alternate answers". I got so excited I went first with one of my personal heroes MARS (mmmm Twix and Temptations, Snickers and Sheba). Then I realized, "oops, only 4 letters). Then I stole home (though I did not think of the 61), but of course I was a kid when Mantle and Maris were battling. I even had their original Topps cards which, along with my #1's of Spiderman, Fantastic Four, X-men, etc., got decimated by my young nephews - sigh! My hat is off to you for making a grid with only one of each of those letters. I can only imagine how long that took to construct, BRAVO!!!

Thanks for the much needed nudges!

Can't believe I never noticed there was only one E (et. al.) in the whole puzzle! Tsk-tsk on me! Great tie-ins with the theme, title and meta answer -- wish I'd given up on those 4 long wannabe "themers" sooner! :-)

Thanks for the puzzle, Mikey!

Needed the nudges, but even so I had a hard time finding the synonyms for the truncated words. Very well constructed. There was a strong hint as there was only one "E" in the grid, which is very rare, but I didn't make the connection on my own.

Thank you for the back story on your choice of Maris. I'm old enough to remember how momentous that moment was. So sad that was the high point of his career.

It took one hint. One! I noticed all the I's. And that there was only one E. Shoulda got there, but hey. Thanks for the puz and the hint, Mikey!

Well. Don't know why but finding those synonyms was hard as hell for me. Went through the grid and every answer one by one looking for synonyms and not finding any. I had to be told explicitly yes, you do have to find synonyms that I finally found three. Had to go through the grid entries by entry two or three more times to get the last two. The name MARIS meant absolutely nothing to me but Crosshare accepted it.

In hindsight I don't know why finding the synonyms should have been so hard but it was.

This would have gone much faster if I had looked at the puzzle number.

Damn! Got rabbit-holed for quite a while with JUDGE and the clue about Elena & Ketanji. Good puzzle.

late to the finish...I keep forgetting about nudge Wednesday...great AHA moment at the end re the title...super job Mikey!