New York Yankees: A Look Back at the 1961 Lineup
3) Roger Maris, RF
Just like the photo above, Roger Maris would often be seen in this pose watching another home run find its way into the short porch at the old Yankee Stadium. It was a magical year for Maris who had spent most of his career wallowing in baseball purgatory in Kansas City, a team that was laughingly referred to as a Yankees farm team as players were freely traded between the two teams, with the Yankees usually getting the better part of the deal. This was the case with Maris.
Although he hit for an average of only .269, he scored 132 runs and drove in 141. Maris was a unlikely hero for the Yankees during the 1961 season. As his assault on Babe Ruth‘s 60 became more and more real, much of the press openly expressed their displeasure by favoring Mickey Mantle over Maris in the race to 60.
For Maris himself, the season began to take a physical toll on him and blotches of his crew cut hair began to fall out. Adding to the pressure, Ford Frick, the Commissioner of Baseball and old-time friend of Ruth, announced that Maris would need to break the record in 154 games. Otherwise, an asterisk would be added in the record books.
Maris of course did break Ruth’s record, and eventually in 1991 a panel voted to have the “asterisk” removed. (Although some argue that it never really existed in the first place.) Eventually, Maris would put the 1961 season and the Yankees behind him, retiring from baseball in 1968. With his brother, he opened a thriving beer distributorship and maintained a life removed from baseball until nine years later when George Steinbrenner, the new owner of the Yankees, began a campaign to bring him back to Yankee Stadium.
True to form, Maris resisted, settling on his own terms in this way as recounted in this excellent read from the Society of American Baseball Research:
"Steinbrenner made a concerted effort to reestablish relations with the former Yankee great. A spring 1977 exhibition game provided the venue for a meeting, and while Maris turned down Steinbrenner’s request to come back for the 1977 Old-Timers Game, in April of 1978, with no advance fanfare, he flew up to New York to join Mantle in raising the 1977 American League pennant. A crowd of over 44,000 surprised fans reacted with admiration and appreciation as Maris came onto the field, heavier than in his playing days, but still sporting his trademark crew cut. With chants of “Roger, Roger,” ringing in his ears, it was clear that at least some of the ghosts of 1961 had been buried."