October 1, 1961: Roger Maris Hits 61 in '61

October 1, 1961, 60 years ago: Roger Maris comes to bat for the New York Yankees in the bottom of the 4th inning, against Tracy Stallard of the Boston Red Sox, in the last game of the regular season. The game would seem to be meaningless, as the Yankees had clinched the Pennant on September 20.

It was far from meaningless. Maris had 60 home runs, tying the single-season record set by Babe Ruth in 1927. This game would be his last chance to break the record.

He was born in Hibbing, Minnesota in 1934, and grew up in Fargo, North Dakota. After playing with the Cleveland Indians in 1957 and '58, and then for the Kansas City Athletics, the Yankees acquired him after the 1959 season. In 1960, he hit 39 home runs, 2nd in the American League to teammate Mickey Mantle with 40, and was named the American League's Most Valuable Player, as the Yankees won the Pennant.

Then came 1961. Roger got off to a slow start, and late in April, manager Ralph Houk tinkered with the batting order, putting Roger 3rd and Mickey 4th. That did the trick: Mickey kept hitting well, and Roger, who couldn't be walked (intentionally or "unintentionally") for fear of bringing Mickey up with a man on base, saw better pitches to hit, and did he ever hit them. By the All-Star break, both men had over 30 home runs, and Ruth's record of 60 home runs in a season was in doubt.

This was the 1st season of a 162-game schedule, due to the expansion of the AL from 8 to 10 teams, after over 50 years of a 154-game schedule. Thus, Commissioner Ford Frick, who had been a good friend of the Babe's, said that the record books would have 2 separate entries for single-season records, in the event that such a record needed more than 154 games to be broken.

(This also became an issue the next season, though with much less fuss: Ty Cobb stole 96 bases with the 1915 Detroit Tigers, but Maury Wills of the Los Angeles Dodgers stole 104 -- but didn't get his 97th until after the 154th game.)

All the while, the New York media wouldn't let up, bothering Roger from the moment he walked out of his car as he arrived at the Stadium until the moment he got back into his car after the game. He was being bothered at home. Fans who didn't want to see Ruth's record broken booed him.

They would have preferred Mickey as the record-breaker, since Mickey was a career Yankee. (They must have forgotten that the Babe was not. This may have been the first-ever "True Yankee" debate, symbolized later by Thurman Munson & Reggie Jackson, and more recently by Derek Jeter & Alex Rodriguez.) The point was made that Roger was a .270 hitter, whereas the Babe hit .342 lifetime. They brought up the extra games, and the addition of pitchers due to expansion.

Had the Babe lived, he would have been 66 years old, not a terribly old man. I've got to believe that he would have said, "Anything that's good for baseball, and anything that's good for the Yankees, is good for me. If this kid can break my record, it'll help the Yankees win, and it's getting people talking about baseball, so I'm fine with it." Alas, he had died in 1948, and the writers never figured out that attacking Roger did nothing to protect the Babe's legacy.

It got so bad that Roger was getting death threats in the mail, and at least one telephoned threat to kidnap his children. It got so bad that his hair started falling out. (This sounds like a legend, to exaggerate what really happened, but it has been well-documented.) Still, the media kept treating him like dirt, partly because he was threatening the sacred record of the beloved Babe, partly because, unlike the Babe and the Mick, he wasn't the kind of man who liked a lot of attention.

(When Hank Aaron approached Ruth's career record of 714 home runs in 1973, Roger was the only man who had an understanding of what Hank was going through, although in Roger's 1961 case there wasn't a racial aspect to it. By then living in Florida, where the closest MLB team was Hank's Atlanta Braves, Roger took his kids up there to see Hank play, and praised him for his great career and his courage in standing up to the abuse. Hank, of course, got to 715 early in the 1974 season, and finished with 755, which stood until 2007 when it was broken, with "help," by Barry Bonds, who raised it to the current record of 762.)

In the 154th game, Roger hit his 59th home run, but that was it. He got to 60 on September 26. But, through Game 161 on September 30, no more. He would have one more game, 4 or 5 more at-bats.

*

This is what the world was like on October 1, 1961:

The Yankees were still "the lordly Yankees." For the moment, as they were for the last 4 seasons, they were also the only Major League Baseball team in New York City. It would be the last day that regular-season Major League Baseball games were scheduled with less than 2 teams calling New York home. When baseball resumed on April 11, 1962, the New York Mets played their 1st game.

MLB was now Coast-to-Coast, with the moves of the New York Giants to San Francisco and the Brooklyn Dodgers to Los Angeles, and the expansion addition this season of the Los Angeles Angels. It wasn't quite north-to-south: The original Washington Senators had become the Minnesota Twins, but the Houston Colt .45s wouldn't debut until the following season.

Speaking of the Astros-to-be: There were no stadiums with artificial turf, or domes, retractable or otherwise. The only stadiums still in use from that season are Fenway Park in Boston and Wrigley Field in Chicago. Throw in football, and you can add Lambeau Field in Green Bay.

Carl Yastrzemski was in this game, as a rookie for the Red Sox. Willie Stargell and Pete Rose were in the minor leagues. Tom Seaver, Steve Carlton, Rod Carew, Reggie Jackson, Nolan Ryan, Rollie Fingers and Johnny Bench were in high school. Mike Schmidt was 13 years old, Dave Winfield was about to turn 10, George Brett was 8, Dennis Eckersley and Ozzie Smith were 7, Eddie Murray was 5, Rickey Henderson and Wade Boggs were 2, Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn were 1; and Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds weren’t born yet.

Tom Thibodeaux, now head coach of the Knicks, was 3 years old. Lindy Ruff, now head coach of the Devils, was a year and a half. None of the current New York Tri-State Area managers and head coaches were born yet.

The titleholders in the Big Four North American sports were the Pittsburgh Pirates in baseball, the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFL, the Houston Oilers in the AFL, the Boston Celtics, in the NBA, and the Chicago Blackhawks in the NHL. The Heavyweight Champion of the World was Floyd Patterson.

The Olympics have since been held 4 times each in America and Japan, 3 times in Canada, twice each in France, Austria, Korea and Russia; and once each in Britain, Mexico, Germany, Bosnia, Spain, Norway, Australia, Greece, Italy, China and Brazil. The World Cup has since been held twice each in Mexico and Germany, and once each in America, England, Chile, Argentina, Spain, Italy, France, Japan, Korea, South Africa, Brazil and Russia.

There were 23 Amendments to the Constitution of the United States. There was no Medicare, Medicaid, Environmental Protection Agency, OSHA or Title IX. Legalizing abortion and same-sex marriage were left-field ideas, but so was legally accepting that corporations were "people" and entitled to the protections thereof.

The President of the United States was John F. Kennedy. The Governor of the State of New York was Nelson Rockefeller. The Mayor of the City of New York was Robert F. Wagner Jr. The Governor of New Jersey was Robert B. Meyner, although Richard J. Hughes was about to be elected to succeed him.

The Prime Minister of Canada was John Diefenbaker, and of Britain, Harold Macmillan. The monarch of both was Queen Elizabeth II -- that hasn't changed. Tottenham Hotspur, of Middlesex (since absorbed into North London) had won both the Football League and the FA Cup, "The Double," the 1st time it had happened in the 20th Century -- and although their local rivals Arsenal have since done it 3 times, and it's also been done by West London's Chelsea, Liverpool, and both Manchester United and Manchester City, "Spurs" fans have never let anyone forget it.

The holder of the Nobel Peace Prize was Albert Lutuli, an anti-apartheid activist in South Africa. The Pope was John XXIII. The current Pope, Francis, was then Jorge Mario Bergoglio, was teaching literature and psychology at a high school in Santa Fe in his native Argentina. There have since been 12 Presidents of the United States, 12 Prime Ministers of Britain, and 6 Popes.

Major novels of 1961 included Ian Fleming's James Bond story Thunderball, Marnie by Winston Graham, The Carpetbaggers by Harold Robbins, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark, The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck, The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone, The Pawnbroker by Edward Lewis Wallant, Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates, James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl, and J.D. Salinger's last novel, Franny and Zooey. 

The year also saw the publication of Mila 18 by Leon Uris. Joseph Heller completed a novel, and wanted to title it Catch-18, but was told people would confuse it with the Uris novel. So he retitled it Catch-22, deciding that 22 was as funnier number.

Theodor "Dr. Seuss" Geisel published The Sneetches and Other Stories. Tennessee Williams' play The Night of the Iguana debuted. Frantz Fanon's book The Wretched of the Earth was published posthumously. Jane Jacobs published The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Louis Nizer his memoir My Life in Court, and Theodore H. White The Making of the President 1960.

Major films of the early Autumn of 1961 included The Young Doctors, A Taste of Honey, The Hustler, and Paris Blues. About to premiere were Breakfast at Tiffany's, Splendor in the Grass, King of Kings, and the film version of the musical West Side Story, whose opening montage would include a color overhead shot of the pre-renovation Yankee Stadium. Recently debuting on television were Car 54, Where Are You?, Top Cat and Hazel. About to debut were Ben Casey, Password and The Dick Van Dyke Show.

C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien were still alive and writing. Gene Roddenberry was writing for TV shows, including the popular Western Have Gun -- Will Travel. The late George Reeves was the most recent live-action Superman, and Robert Lowery the most recent live-action Batman. Doctor Who was still just an idea. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg were in high school. Stephen King and George R.R. Martin were in junior high school. J.K. Rowling wasn't born yet.

The Number 1 song in America was "Take Good Care of My Baby," by Bobby Vee, born Robert Velline in Maris' adopted hometown of Fargo, North Dakota. The song was written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King. Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley were as big as ever. The Beatles had just been discovered by Brian Epstein. Robert Zimmerman, like Maris born in Hibbing, Minnesota, had recently moved to New York and changed his name to Bob Dylan. Elton John was 14 years old, Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen 12; and Michael Jackson, Madonna and Prince were each 3.

Inflation was such that what $1.00 bought then, $9.15 would buy now. A U.S. postage stamp cost 4 cents, and a New York Subway ride 15 cents. The average price of a gallon of gas was 31 cents, a cup of coffee 10 cents, a McDonald's meal (a pre-Big Mac cheeseburger, fries, shake) 49 cents, a movie ticket 73 cents, a new car $4,300, and a new house $12,500. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the preceding Friday at 701.21.

The tallest building in the world was the Empire State Building in Manhattan. There were cars with telephones in them, but not mobile phones as we understand them today. A computer could take up an entire wall in a city office building. Tim Berners-Lee, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were all just 6 years old.

Telephone numbers were still based on "exchanges," based on the letters on a rotary dial. So a number that, today, would be (718) 293-6000 (this is the number for the Yankees' ticket office, so I’m not hurting anyone's privacy), would have been CYpress 3-6000. There were no ZIP Codes, either. They ended up being based on the old system: The old New York Daily News Building, at 220 East 42nd Street, was "New York 17, NY"; it became "New York, NY 10017."

Credit cards were still a relatively new thing, and there were no automatic teller machines in America.

There were artificial kidneys, but no artificial hearts. Transplanting a kidney was possible, but not a heart, lung or liver. America had put 2 men into space, but the Soviet Union had put a man in orbit on 2 separate missions.

In the late Summer and early Autumn of 1961, the African and Malagasy Union was founded. The Eritrean War of Independence began. Military coups occurred in Turkey and Syria. Dag Hammarskjöld, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, was killed in a plane crash while trying to negotiate a cease-fire in the Congo crisis. It was achieved a month later. Paris police killed 240 pro-Algerian demonstrators. Hurricane Hattie killed 270 people in Belize City. And the Soviet Union detonates Tsar Bomba, in the world's largest man-made explosion -- but also had Joseph Stalin's body removed from its place of honor in the Lenin Mausoleum.

Eero Saarinen, and Marion Davies, and Chico Marx, the 1st of the Marx Brothers to do so, died. James Gandolfini, and Steve Young, and Carlos Valderrama were born.

That's what the world was like on October 1, 1961.

*

The game was scoreless when Roger Maris stepped to the plate against Tracy Stallard in the bottom of the 4th inning. Stallard's 1st pitch was outside, and the Yankee Fans, hoping that Stallard would give Maris something to hit, booed. His 2nd pitch was in the dirt for ball 2, and, as Yankee broadcaster and shortstop legend Phil Rizzuto noted, the boos got louder. Then Stallard threw a fastball down the middle. Maris swung. Rizzuto had the call, on WPIX-Channel 11:

Here's the windup. Fastball, hit deep to right, this could be it! Way back there! Holy cow, he did it! Sixty-one for Maris! And look at the fight for that ball out there! Holy cow, what a shot! Another standing ovation for Roger Maris! Sixty-one home runs, and they're still fighting for that ball out there, people are climbing over each other's back. One of the greatest sights I've ever seen here at Yankee Stadium.

The ball fell into the right-field stands near the Yankee bullpen, about 375 feet. As Maris crossed the plate, a fan who has never been identified was on the field, shook his hand, and slapped him on the back. Maris' teammates kept pushing him out of the dugout to acknowledge the standing ovation that wouldn't end.

That would be the only run of the game. The Yankees won, 1-0. Bill Stafford pitched shutout ball for 6 innings, and was followed by Hal Reniff in the 7th and Luis Arroyo in the 8th and 9th, between them allowing just 4 hits and 1 walk.

Attendance: 23,154. That doesn't sound like much. It becomes more embarrassing when you consider that most of them seemed to be sitting in right field, hoping to catch the ball. Sam Gordon, a restaurant owner in Sacramento, California, had offered $5,000 (about $45,700 in today's money) for the ball, and they were hoping to cash in.

Sal Durante, a 19-year-old truck driver, caught the record-breaking ball. After the game, Durante was invited into the Yankee clubhouse to pose with Maris and the ball. Durante offered Maris the ball, but Maris declined, saying to get what you can for it.

Durante, who had brought his fiancée Rosemary to the game, bought her an engagement ring. Gordon paid for the Durante's honeymoon, put the ball on display in his restaurant for a while, and then gave it back to Maris. In 1973, Maris donated it to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, where it rests today.

Still alive from this game, 60 years later: For the Yankees, Bobby Richardson, Tony Kubek, Héctor López, Jack Reed and Ralph Terry. For the Red Sox: Only their rookie left fielder, a 22-year-old native of Southampton, Long Island named Carl Yastrzemski.

(UPDATE: Terry died on March 16, 2022; López on September 29, 2002; Reed on November 10, 2022; and Durante on December 1, 2022. Mrs. Durante died in 2014.)

One of my favorite trivia questions is, "Who played right field for the Yankees the day Roger Maris hit his 61st home run in 1961?" The easy answer is, "Roger Maris," but that's wrong. Mickey Mantle was sick, and Roger was playing center field that day. The right fielder? Backup catcher Johnny Blanchard.

Roger batted .269 that season, but his 61 home runs, 141 RBIs and 366 total bases all led the AL. In spite of his relationship with the New York writers, the Baseball Writers Association of America voted him MVP again. The Yankees won the World Series, beating the Cincinnati Reds in 5 games, and Roger hit another homer in the series.

The rest of his career was an anticlimax. How could it not be? He hit 33 home runs in 1962. He helped the Yankees win 5 straight Pennants, including the 1961 and 1962 World Series. He broke his hand early in the 1965 season, one of several injuries that caused the Yankees to fall apart that year and tumble from the top to the middle of the League, and the next year to the bottom. But Yankee management told him the injury was something less severe, and publicly suggested that he was faking the extent of the injury. This caused a breach between Roger and the Yankee management of the time that never healed, even after the hand did.

After the 1966 season, he was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals for 3rd baseman Charley Smith. 
Roger helped the Cardinals win the World Series in 1967, and another Pennant in 1968. He finished his career with a .260 batting average, 275 home runs and 851 RBIs. Decent totals, but not those of an all-time great.

Cardinals owner Gussie Busch gave him an Anheuser-Busch beer distributorship in Gainesville, Florida, and the family still lives there today. In 1978, by which point most people who felt he didn't deserve to break the record had either died or changed their minds, George Steinbrenner invited him back to Yankee Stadium. He appeared on Opening Day 1978, to raise the previous season's World Championship banner with Mantle, and got a standing ovation.

He attended Old-Timers' Day from 1978 to 1984, in the last of those getting his Number 9 retired and a Plaque for Monument Park. But he was beginning to suffer from cancer, and died in 1985. He did not live to see his record raised, through dubious means, to 70 by Mark McGwire in 1998, and then to 73 by Barry Bonds in 2001.

A Roger Maris Museum had also been dedicated in his hometown of Fargo, at the West Acres Regional Shopping Center. Roger said he would allow it as long as admission was free. It still is.