"When he (Roger Maris) hit it (home run #61 in 1961), he came into the dugout and they were all applauding. I mean, this is something that's only happened once in baseball, right? And the people were all applauding. They wanted him to come back out. He wouldn't come out, so the players had to push him back out. They forced him to come out and take a bow. That's the kind of guy he was. He was great, and I really liked him." - Mickey Mantle
Without a doubt the most accomplished and acclaimed honouree of the Dave Parker Award for Excellence. He was a team player, a modest man and considering the proliferation of Performance Enhancing Drugs, possibly the best single season home-run hitter in modern baseball. 61 in 1961.
Roger Maris was born on Monday, September 10, 1934, in Hibbing, Minnesota. Maris was 22 years old when he broke into the big leagues on April 16, 1957, with the Cleveland Indians.
Roger Maris
For the un-enhanced players,
Maris' 61 home runs is still the
number used to measure the
greatness of others.
His second consecutive MVP year in
1961 has been overshadowed by the
controversy over performance
enhancing drug use.
His single season home run record
may have been surpassed, (so say the
record books) but not in the
American League.
Regardless of what they do, the leagues
single season home run leader for the
past 48 years is the grossly underrated
and sometimes forgotten Roger Maris.
- Eddie Spirito
Rather than cut and paste a spreadsheet of his career numbers, why not visit my friends at the Baseball Almanac and see for yourself. While there check out some of their collection of abstract statistics.
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