![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/10\/maris.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\nRoger Maris hit home run # 61 (that’s the 61st in the photo there), breaking the long-standing record held by Babe Ruth. It was a record that not a lot of people wanted to see broken. It was sacred. Maris wasn’t a “real” Yankee, etc. Also – he was neck and neck with his teammate – Mickey Mantle – and Mantle, of course, was the ultimate Yankee. If anyone SHOULD break the record, it should be Mickey!! (Oh, and what the hell – this is a post about Maris, but whatever: just thought I’d link to Bob Costas’ eulogy for Mickey Mantle<\/a>. If you’re a baseball fan, I know you have read it. It is … well. It’s beyond words.)<\/p>\n But Maris beat Mantle – and the controversy then ensued – that Babe’s record should stand – because Ruth hit his 60 home runs in a shorter game schedule. The commissioner of baseball decreed (ha, what a ma-roon) that Maris had actually NOT broken Ruth’s record because of this discrepancy – and then there was the whole asterisk debacle – that Maris’ record should be listed with an asterisk after it, to show that he hadn’t REALLY broken Ruth’s record. It’s all rather annoying, but still – baseball fans and experts are legitimately insane (I should know) – and this was all important stuff to them. Finally – in 1991 – Maris’ record was decreed as “real” and it could stand without the asterisk. Of course Maris was dead by this point so a lot of good it did him!<\/p>\n Billy Crystal’s movie 61*<\/i> is one of my favorite sports movies. It really GETS it. I mean, I wasn’t alive in 61 – so I don’t know – but from my standpoint, as a person who grew up with baseball, who has the same achey nostalgia and passion about the same thing – Crystal completely expresses THAT in his film – along with the story itself of the battle between Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle to break Babe Ruth’s record. Great movie.<\/p>\n Congrats, Maris … ya done good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Roger Maris hit home run # 61 (that’s the 61st in the photo there), breaking the long-standing record held by Babe Ruth. It was a record that not a lot of people wanted to see broken. It was sacred. Maris … Continue reading