Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants topped McGwire's season mark with 73 home run in 2001. Louis Cardinals and Sammy Sosa (66) of the Chicago Cubs topped Maris’ 61. In 1991, an MLB committee on historical accuracy voted to remove the distinction and award the record fully to Maris, who died of cancer in 1985. For the 1961 season, the American League expanded its schedule from 154 to 162 games after it went from eight to 10 teams. On July 17, 1961, MLB commissioner Ford Frick announced at a news conference that record keepers should have two separate categories for a season home run record-one for Ruth's, set during a 154-game season, and one for any record set in a 162-game season. Maris trotted around the bases, stopping to shake hands with a young boy who’d managed to wriggle past security and onto the field. Sal Durante, a 19-year-old Brooklyn truck driver, caught the home run ball about 10 rows back in the right-field stands. He let two pitches from Boston rookie Tracy Stallard go-one high and outside, one low and inside-before swinging hard at a waist-high fastball. “An ear-splitting roar went up,” the New York Times reported, as “the crowd sensed that this was it.” Maris homered on his second at-bat in the 1-0 win against the Boston Red Sox. READ MORE: The Epic Battle to Beat Babe Ruth's Home Run Record He tops former Yankees great Babe Ruth, who hit 60 home runs in 1927.Īfter hitting 54 homers, New York's Mickey Mantle suffered a hip in September, leaving Maris to chase the record by himself. Now, with great pride, Baseball Almanac presents, Roger Maris' truly remarkable record-breaking sixty-one steroid free home runs.On October 1, 1961, in New York's final game of the regular season, Yankees slugger Roger Maris hits his 61st home run, becoming the first player in Major League Baseball to hit more than 60 in a season. Exactly nothing." What should have been one of baseball's greatest achievements became one of its saddest stories. Do you know what I have to show for sixty-one home runs? Nothing. Speaking in 1980 he said, "They acted as though I was doing something wrong, poisoning the record books or something. Maris could not take the pride he deserved in his great achievement. Commissioner Ford Frick decided that Maris' record would not stand against Ruth's because it was not done during the same number of games. The most heartbreaking part of his 1961 saga came after his record breaking long ball. He actually lost his hair and had his and his families lives threatened. Maris suffered greatly during the season. In fact, Maris spent his entire record setting year cast as the villain in a media-soap opera, while his good friend, Mantle, was seen as the good guy whose own teammate was trying to steal his thunder. In fact, whenever Maris hit one of his home runs, he was quickly reminded that it was only because Mantle was behind him that he even saw a good pitch to hit. "Mick" was loved by the fans and the press, Maris was not. If anyone, his battery mate, and media darling, Mickey Mantle was scheduled to be the one to take over the spot on the all time homer list. Maris began the year as just another hard-hitting Yankee. Maris was hated, booed, cussed, and generally abused by the press and fans for his chase of the most well-known mark in all of baseball: Babe Ruth's sixty single season home runs. Roger Maris will forever be known as the man that took Babe Ruth's record. 61 Home Runs by Roger Maris Roger Maris Breaks Babe Ruth Recordġ961: The year a record was broken, hearts were broken, and a man's life was changed forever.
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