Poor Us
Few expected what happened. He was a line drive hitter, not a slugger. He was a good hitter who made contact and didn’t swing wildly at bad pitches. He was not an especially big man, standing exactly six feet and weighing a little over two hundred pounds. He wasn’t even the best player on his team. But he would make baseball history and never be forgotten.
Entering the 1961 season, Roger Eugene Maris had been a good young baseball player with the Cleveland Indians and then the Kansas City Athletics. He was traded from Kansas City to the Yankees during the 1959 off-season in what was one of the greatest Yankees’ trades of all time.
The Yankees were used to winning but had finished a poor third in 1959, a full fifteen games behind the pennant winning Chicago White Sox. It was obvious that they needed help in the outfield and at the plate. The Yankees believed that the addition of Maris would significantly increase their chances of winning the pennant.
In 1960, Roger Maris hit 39 home runs, had 112 RBIs, and batted .283. The Yankees, led by Maris, who would be voted the American League’s Most Valuable Player, won their last fifteen games of the season to break open a close pennant race. It was an excellent first season for the native of Hibbing, Minnesota, and it was just the beginning.
Maris had a respectable 1960 World Series against the Pittsburgh Pirates, hitting two home runs, but the Series was a great let down. The Yankees lost one of the strangest Series of all time, winning Games 2, 3 and 6 by the scores of 16-3, 10-0, and 12-0, but losing Games 1, 4, 5 and 7 by the scores of 6-4, 3-2. 5-2, and 10-9. The stunning, unexpected defeat gave the Yankees’ management a reason to excuse Casey Stengel from his managerial duties and hire Ralph Houk, a former player the Yankees desperately wanted as their manager.
Opening day, 1961 saw Roger Maris receive his Most Valuable Player Award, but the season started off slowly for Roger. The Yankees suffered four rainouts the first week and Maris had only one hit in nine at bats for a .111 average. He didn’t hit his first home run until game 11 and had only four during the first month.
Then things started to turn around. During week six, Maris hit home runs in three consecutive games. The Yankees had been concerned about Roger’s lack of production and sent him for an eye examination, but there were no medical problems. He ended the week with another home run.
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