This biography of Roger Maris might be my one baseball book of the year.
The summer of 1961 belonged to the M and M boys---Mickey Mantle and Rogers---as they chased the most famous sports record of the time: Babe Ruth's 60 home runs in the 1927 season. Maris ended up breaking the record with 61 and an often injured Mantle settled for 54. It was quite a season and quite a time. You had to have been there to understand the mystique of Ruth's 60 home runs in a season.
Two quick facts right off the bat. The family originally spelled the name Maras, and Roger spent his earliest years in Hibbing, Minnesota. He shares the same home town as Bob Dylan. Maris has always been portrayed as being from North Dakota and he did spend high school years in Fargo, ND, but he was originally from Hibbing.
Roger Maris had an older brother named Rudy, Jr. and they were both good football players. Roger was a halfback. He did well in football, basketball, and track.
His parents did not get along. Some of his quirky personality had to come from this fact.
Rudy, Jr. was considered the better athlete, but he contracted polio and it was left to Roger to be the family pro athlete. Roger accepted a football scholarship to Oklahoma but only lasted only 10 days on campus before returning to North Dakota. He then accepted a baseball contract with the Cleveland Indians.
His first spring training was the Indians in Daytona Beach, site of the future famous race track. He was considered a good prospect. He hit the cutoff man, unlike Rocky Colavito, who was considered the better prospect. P. 53
He was embarrassed throughout his career with his accomplishments because his brother Rudy never had his chance due to polio. P. 59
In his second season in the Indians organization he was turned from a line drive gap hitter into a pull hitter. P. 63
The name change from Maras to Maris came after the '54 season. It was a family thing probably led by his mother Connie, who did along with her husband's family. P. 66
One of the fun aspects of reading a book like this dealing with baseball in the 50's and 60's is seeing the names of players from that era that I haven't seen since that time, like Cal McLish. P. 88
The end of Herb Score's career. P. 89
In retrospect it is amazing that in the days of the reserve clause baseball players could be traded---swapped---like cattle from one team to another. P. 93
Cleveland GM Frank Lane traded everybody, including Maris to Kansas City. P. 97
Mudcat Grant. P. 102
He was not surly or aloof, just quiet. P. 104
Kansas City suited Maris just fine before the onslaught on New York. P. 107
The outspoken Maris was not happy about being traded to the Yankees before the 1960 season. He had built a house in Kansas City and liked it there. P. 116
I'd like to have known Casey Stengel. P. 121
It seems that Maris was certainly a pull hitter. P. 127
Ryne Duren says Maris was a better all-around player than Mantle. P. 130
Seeing Mickey Mantle strike out was more entertaining than seeing him homer. P. 133
1961 was a magic baseball season as Roger Maris and The Mick, the M and M boys, chased the ghost of Babe Ruth.
Casey Stengel was fired at the end of the 1960 season despite winning 10 pennants in 12 years. The excuse by the Yankees was that he turned 70 years old. "I'll never make the mistake of turning 70 again," said Casey. P. 147
As the '61 season heated up and the home runs mounted the reporters congregated and found that Maris wasn't good copy. Good for him! P. 160
It's hard to believe that during the '61 season Maris, Mantle, and Bob Cerv shared a $251 a month apartment in Queens.
For sure no one had a clue as to what was coming in the 1961 major league baseball season.
I remember the Ford Frick asterisk decision. In this book I learn that Frick was a confidant of Babe Ruth. He had a personal stake in perpetuating the Babe's image. I remember the televised 154 game where Roger hit #59. He one drive to left field that the wind held up. That was quite a time.
There were only 23,381 people in the stands for the last game of the 1961 Yankee season. There were about the same in the stands at Fenway for Ted Williams's last game in the previous season. Hard to believe. P 221
Roger Maris hit home run #61 on October 1, 1961 at Yankee Stadium vs. the Red Sox and rookie pitcher Tracy Stallard. P. 222
The Yankees won the game 1 to 0. This was the only time in his career that Maris homered to win a game 1 to 0. P. 226
Modern gotcha sports journalism perhaps started with Roger Maris. He was not as chummy forthcoming with writers as Mantle. He was an outsider, not considered a worthy successor to Ruth and DiMaggio. The press was out to get him in 1962. He was unfairly treated by the NY media. P. 243
Maris was framed as a bad dude by NY sportswriters. P. 244
The only roommate that Maris didn't get along with was Jim Bouton. P. 247
1962 was a difficult season as fans turned on Maris when he couldn't repeat the 61 home runs. He hit 33 and never even approached that total again. P. 249
Maris was completely ignored in the voting for the MVP in 1962. This book makes it hard to understand why writers so disliked Roger Maris. P. 257
It seems that Maris was not the hero America wanted at the time. P. 264
The Yankees were swept in the '63 Series by the Dodgers. Maris returned home to Independence, Missouri. P. 272
His injury plagued 1965 season as the Yankee dynasty collapsed was the worst of his career. He had hand surgery at the end of the season. The Yankees knew he needed the surgery but acted like he was malingering and could have played. Sorry Yankee organization. P. 297
The Yankees traded Maris to the Cardinals after the disastrous 1966 season when they finished last in the league and after the Yankees had promised him that he would not be traded. He vowed to never set foot inside Yankee Stadium again. The Yankees gave him no kind of farewell. P. 308
Maris was glad to go to St. Louis. P. 310
After being in a hostile city for 7 years hearing the cheers in St. Louis was a delightful surprise for Roger. P. 316
Hi reception was SO different than it was in NY.
Though his numbers were not great, he was a key contributor to the World Series Champion Cardinals in 1967. P. 324
Roger Maris ended his baseball career as the Cardinals lost to the Tigers in the 1968 Series. P. 346
After baseball ended Maris used his St. Louis connection to the Busch family to secure a beer distributorship in Gainesville, Florida. He eventually sued Busch but it sounds his family came out well after Roger's death.
The cancer that killed came suddenly and in less than 2 years he was dead in December of 1985. He is buried in Fargo, North Dakota where there resides the Roger Maris Museum.
The authors obviously wrote this book to promote Maris for the Hall of Fame. So far the Veterans Committee has not put him in and may never pick him. Maris had a relatively short career of productivity. Baseball is such a game of statistics. Roger had the one great year when he hit the 61 home runs but not much else in the way of numbers. This book is full of glowing quotes about its subject. He WAS a great baseball player, but the overall numbers are not there. I doubt he will ever be elected to the HOF.
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