SantaFeToday.com Santa Fe’s Hometown News
By Arnie Leshin
Roger Maris arrived in New York wearing a crewcut, a flannel shirt, jeans and a pair of white Pat Boone buckskin shoes. This was 1960, when all good New York Yankees wore stylist suits and ties.
The North Dakota native had just been traded from Kansas City to New York, the franchise that was known for wearing pinstripes when playing at Yankee Stadium. He said he would have preferred to stay in KC or
back to Cleveland, the team that signed him in 1953.
I remember he was told that he’s now in the Bronx, and he wanted to know if that’s in New York. He wasn’t a hick, just hadn’t been around the East Coast too often, but he didn’t say so, didn’t even smile. Now he was in the Big Apple, where he didn’t want to be, but when he signed his new contract, he shrugged his shoulders and then cracked a smile.
Yup, this was going to be his new home. He was married and had two young boys, so now he needed a new home. After awhile he kind of fit in, was introduced to Mickey Mantle and other new teammates.
Roger Eugene Maris was 26, stood about 6-feet tall, weighed about 197 pounds, and by season’s end he had tackled the tension of being a newcomer in these parts by smoking cigarettes like a fiend, which might have also contributed to his nervous times of being a Yankee, not a Yankee doodle dandy, just a new guy in the biggest city in the country, maybe even the planet.
He played a good right field for the then Clevland Indians, did the same with the Royals and the Yankees, and wound up in the lineup of the St. Louis Cardinals. That totaled a dozen years for four teams. He pieced together a .260 batting average, 1,325 hits, 275 home runs, 850 RBI, and scored 826 runs that included him as a good baserunner. He played in seven World Series.
He was noted for a strong arm, a graceful fielder, won three Gold Glove awards, a pair of MVP awards, and won a trio of World Series. He was the quiet type, humble, never bragged, and was a good family man.
That time in 1960 when Maris arrived at Yankee Stadium I heard about it on the radio by Mel Allen. I had just begun out of Syracuse University at the Long Island Press in the borough of Queens. The New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers had left for the West Coast in 1957 and so I became a Yankee fan.
In 1969, the year of the Amazin’ Mets, I was with Associated Press and was assigned to Old Timers Day at Yankee Stadium. I had never met Maris before and when my photographer Joe Izzo snapped a shot with me alongside Maris, I later asked him who that was, maybe Moose Skowron?
“No Arnie”, Izzo laughed and said that was Maris, Roger Maris.
I still have that wonderful photo living here in Santa Fe, New Mexico in addition to an autographed book about Maris. I cherish these and my animated precious 23-year-old green-cheeked conure “Pretty Bird.”
Now I never had a problem praising Maris. In 1961 he beat out Hall of Fame Yankee teammate Mantle with his 61st home run over the second deck in Cincinnati’s Crosley Field. By breaking the season career home run record then owned by the great Babe Ruth, not only did he break it, but it broke the hearts of Ruth worshippers throughout the country.
In recent times, Maris was in the news again, Yankees star outfielder Aaron Judge hit his 62nd home run at Yankee Stadium to surpass’ Maris’ mark that lasted 37 years. Before that a number of players had hit more than 62, but only Maris’ counted.
That’s right, there was Sammy Sosa, Mark Mcgwhie, Barry Bonds having their long balls ruled out as records after it was discovered that they used illegal substance drugs. The same with Gary Sheffield, Rafael Palmeiro, Roger Clemens, Pete Rose and Curt Schilling.
Maris has never made the Hall of Fame wall in Cooperstown, N.Y., and neither have they. Schilling, a pitcher, primarily because he was outspoken politically and issued hateful remarks, nasty comments.
Clemens, a pitcher, was guilty of also using illegal substances, namely PEDs. The same with the hitters, Sosa, Mcgwilre, Bonds, Sheffield, and Palmeiro. Rose they say will never make the Hall of Fame because he has always been charged with betting, gambling on baseball games, either as a player or as a coach, and did it continuously.
But Maris has not made the Hall for other reasons. One, he played in
many less games than others because of continued injuries. Two, along with his 61 season, he only hit 275 homers, plus his RBI, runs scored, hits and batting average wasn’t all that acceptable for 12 seasons with four teams.
There were other reasons he hasn’t been named. One was his durability and longevity that brought many injuries that made his 12 season shorter than most others. Then it was said that he had more bad games than good ones. Some remarks like these were made by anti-Yankee fans and Babe Ruth lovers.
his greatest times did come with the 1960 and ’61 seasons when he was named back-to-back American League MVP. He also gets credit for two Gold Glove awards, and twice was named defensive player of the year, and in the World Series with St. Louis, he was twice named player of the game, and three times threw out a runner at the plate.
Now No. 62 was broadcast on WPIX by Red Barber, and by Phil Rizzuto on the radio, and later that day Mel Allen came on the air to speak about the Maris’ record day. The ball was caught with one hand by 19-year-old Sal Durante after the team returned from Cincinnati and began a home stand in pinstripes land.
Some like to say that the Hall of Fame is for great players and Maris wasn’t one of them. But when I was still with the media and voting with the Hall of Fame committee, I always cast a vote for Maris and for Gil Hodges, a former Dodger who finally made it in 2018.
I still think Maris is deserving of the honor. He has to be considered the honestly forgotten home run record story until Judge made the scene. In 1961, he became a postal stamp, and won honors at the plate and in the field. He didn’t have the popularity that Mantle had, but was hardly booed wherever he played and never refused autographs.
He was always treated with respect, never accused of using illegal substance drugs or even PEDS. After breaking Maris’ long record, even Judge made mention of left-handed hitter Maris’ honesty the same as he does. There were also no black marks against Maris professionally and personally.
His actually family name was Marcas, but his father changed it to Maris, and he was born in Minnesota before moving to North Dakota, where he’s considered the finest baseball player from there. He passed away on Dec. 15, the day before my 48th birthday in 1985, from cancer at age 51 in Houston, Tx.
And his undeniable place in baseball history should make him a shoo-in to land in the prestigious Hall, except he needs more than my support. RIP No. 9.
