Roger Maris: Baseball’s Forgotten Home Run King
The steroid-free player who broke Babe Ruth’s single-season home run record
In 1961, Roger Maris, a right fielder for the New York Yankees, broke Babe Ruth’s single-season home run record. In 1927, Ruth hit 60 dingers. The Babe’s record stood for 34 years until Maris hit his 61st in the fourth inning of the last game of the ’61 season.
The sportswriters of the day didn’t care for Roger Maris. They saw his feat and record chase as a fluke. A great record by the game’s biggest icon, befallen by a decent and only better-than-average player?
Despite the sportswriters’ ire, Maris was a very good baseball player and much better than marginal. His career numbers speak for themselves. Not eye-popping, but nothing to sneer at either.
Roger Maris was a 7-time All-Star. He also won two American League MVPs (’60 and ’61) and 2 AL RBI crowns (’60 and ‘61). He also won 3 World Series titles (’61 and ’62 with the Yankees, and ’67 as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals) and one Gold Glove award.
In his 12 MLB seasons, Roger’s per year stats: 30 home runs, 94 runs batted in, with a .260 batting average. He may never make the Hall-of-Fame, but in today’s financial climate, a slugging bat who would cash out big time in the modern…
