Roger Maris Dies; Broke Ruth’s Record but Got an Asterisk

Roger Maris, vilified as much as he was applauded for hitting 61 home runs in 1961 to break Babe Ruth’s 1927 record of 60 homers in a season, died of cancer Saturday in Houston. He was 51.

Maris had learned in November 1983 that he was suffering from lymphoma, a form of cancer that attacks the lymph glands. A doctor at the time told Maris that it had gone undetected for five years.

Maris told friends in 1984 that the illness was in remission, but he recently became ill again and entered Houston’s M.D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute on Nov. 20.

His wife, Patricia Ann, was at the bedside when Maris died. Former New York Yankee teammate Yogi Berra had attempted to visit Maris Friday but was told that Maris was too ill. A number of people connected with the game had donated to a special blood drive in Maris’ name during the winter baseball meetings in San Diego last week.

Commissioner Peter Ueberroth, in a prepared statement Saturday, said:

“All of baseball is saddened by the loss of one of its true heroes.

“While he will be remembered for his brilliant assault of the home-run record in 1961, we should also remember the courageous battle he fought against this dreaded disease the last two years.

“My thoughts and prayers are with his wife, Pat, and all the members of his family.”

There were few testimonials for Maris when he broke Ruth’s record in 1961.

It was as if the comparatively anonymous Yankee right fielder was treading on sacred ground by challenging the Ruth record, particularly since the schedule had been expanded from 154 to 162 games to accommodate two new teams in the American League, the Washington Senators and the then Los Angeles Angels.

A native of Fargo, N.D., Maris had made his major league debut with the Cleveland Indians in 1957, was traded to the Kansas City A’s a year later, then moved to the Yankees on Dec. 11, 1959, in a seven-player deal that saw Hank Bauer and Don Larsen, among others, go to Kansas City.

The maturing Maris responded in 1960 with what was his best season to that date.

He hit 39 homers, drove in 112 runs and batted .283, winning the league’s Most Valuable Player award and joining center fielder Mickey Mantle, who had 40 homers and 94 RBIs, to form a 1-2 punch that was known as M & M.

A year later, the punch was pure dynamite, with both Mantle and Maris challenging the Ruth record.

Mantle, sidelined by illness during the final week of his pursuit, emerged with 54 homers, 128 RBIs and a .317 average.

Maris, repeating as MVP, drove in 142 runs with a .269 average. He broke the Ruth record of 60 when he hit his 61st homer off Boston’s Tracy Stallard at Yankee Stadium in his 161st game, the Yankees’ last regular-season game.

“As a ballplayer,” Maris wrote of that season in a magazine article when it was over, “I’d be delighted to do it again. But as an individual, I doubt I could go through it again.”

Off slowly, Maris hit 15 homers during the first three weeks of June, triggering comparisons with the Ruth pace of 1927 and a national debate over whether totals achieved during 162-game seasons should be recognized as bona fide records.

Commissioner Ford Frick ultimately ruled that if Maris broke the Ruth record after his 154th game, it should carry an asterisk, protecting the Ruth patent. The media harped on the issue of the expanded schedule, creating what seemed to be a concerted effort to cheapen Maris’ accomplishment.

Maris, an introvert who was wary of the media to begin with, began to lose his hair amid the pressure, failing to understand why he had been targeted for the storm of nasty letters, crank calls and media insults. It was even written that he was feuding with Mantle.

Mantle, in his new book, “The Mick,” said that the reports of the feud were pure fiction, that he and Maris shared an apartment with teammate Bob Cerv throughout that season and were always close friends.

Mantle reflected on the final weeks of that dramatic season and wrote:

“People taking your picture, reporters bombarding you with stupid questions, speculations and false accusations without the least concern for your human needs. Okay, I could cope, I had been in the center ring since my rookie year. Not Roger. He had never been subjected to anything like this before. It really got crazy. Every day you’d read what Mantle and Maris did. Nothing else seemed to matter except the Home Run Derby. . . .

“Roger was very private. He hated public attention. He got a bad rap from the writers and fans alike, mostly because he was still new to the team and pressing in on the record. . . .

“How he stood up I’ll never know. A writer once asked him, ‘How come a .260 hitter like you manages to get more home runs than Babe Ruth?’ And Roger answered, ‘What are you--a newspaperman or a goddamn idiot?’ A while later he came to me and said, ‘Mick, I can’t take it anymore.’ I had to tell him, ‘Just hang in there. It’ll be over soon.’ ”

Mantle went on to write that Maris never cracked, that he broke the record like a true champion. The Yankees went on to beat Cincinnati in the World Series, after which Maris said he would attempt to regain his privacy.

“I just wanted to pull down the curtains and shut out the world,” he once said in reflection.

He hit 33 homers with 100 RBIs in 1962, then spent six more seasons in the majors, ultimately gaining recognition as one of the game’s best all around players, though never exceeding those 1962 totals or being voted to the Hall of Fame.

He concluded his career with two seasons in St. Louis, helping the Cardinals win the 1967 championship against Boston by batting .385 in the World Series. He hit 275 homers in his 12 major league seasons and had a career average of .260.

His association with the Cardinals, owned by August A. Busch, enabled Maris to receive a beer distributorship in Gainesville, Fla., where he lived until becoming ill.

He recently said of his illness: “You find out in a hurry who your true friends are. Mickey Mantle called every week.”

Funeral services are tentatively scheduled for St. Mary’s Cathedral in Fargo on Thursday. Maris, who had six children, will be buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Fargo.

ROGER MARIS’ STATISTICS

Year Team AB H HR RBI Avg. 1957 Cleveland 358 84 14 51 .235 1958 Cleve.-KC 583 140 28 80 .240 1959 Kansas City 433 118 16 72 .273 1960 NY Yankees 499 141 39 112 .283 1961 NY Yankees 590 159 61 142 .269 1962 NY Yankees 590 151 33 100 .256 1963 NY Yankees 312 84 23 53 .269 1964 NY Yankees 513 144 26 71 .281 1965 NY Yankees 155 37 8 27 .239 1966 NY Yankees 348 81 13 43 .233 1967 St. Louis 410 107 9 55 .261 1968 St. Louis 310 79 5 45 .255 Totals 12 Years 5101 1325 275 851 .260