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IS STILL THE KING  |
By MAURY ALLEN
of TheColumnists.com
It was a chilly
fall day at Yankee Stadium, October 1, 1961, when Roger Maris
lined a pitch from Boston Red Sox rookie Tracy Stallard about
20 rows deep into the lower right field stands.
It was game number 163 for the pennant-winning Yankees that year
in the first season of expansion baseball and the 61st homer
the Yankee right fielder had hit in the most dramatic personal
home run race of all time.
Maris had challenged the 34-year-old record of the baseball icon,
Babe Ruth, who had smashed 60 in 1927. He had passed that mark.
He won that race.
He had challenged the competition of teammate Mickey Mantle,
a beloved Yankee of 10 years time by then, with Mantle pulling
out of the contest in mid-September with an infected backside.
Maris won that race.
Maris overcame the pettiness of baseball commissioner Ford Frick,
a personal friend and ghost writer for Ruth in his heyday, by
beating the Ruth total even though he didn’t do it within
154 games as Frick had proscribed.
Roger Maris was the single season home run king of baseball,
no matter what Frick said, what Ruth loyalists believed and what
Mantle fans had hoped for in the summer challenge by these Yankee
teammates.
He still is.
As I sat in the Yankee press box that afternoon nearly a half
century ago, I knew that I was witnessing a significant moment
in the game’s history. I now know how important it really
was.
Mark McGwire hit 70 home runs in 1998 and claimed the individual
season title. Barry Bonds hit 73 in 2001 and pushed McGwire out
of the record books.
Now McGwire has finally admitted he did it with the help of steroids
and refused to discuss it publicly at his 2005 appearance before
Congress because he was concerned about a possible criminal charge.
He will be the batting coach for the Cardinals starting next
month in Florida spring training.
McGwire thinks this mea culpa clears the air. He thinks
it will help his sinking Hall of Fame ship. I have news for the
former Bash Brother of the A’s with admitted steroid-freak
Jose Canseco. He’s a liar and a cheat.
He will be the Shoeless Joe Jackson of this era. He will never
get into the Hall of Fame. He will go to his grave figuring he
was wronged by the writers. He will talk about his 583 home runs
and his mark of a homer every 10.6 at bats, the best in baseball
history.
Writers will talk about his cheating during his playing days,
his refusal to come clean about it for almost 10 years after
his retirement and his spin control in the way he finally announced.
As for Bonds, the Pinocchio of baseball, whose hat size and neck
seemed to grow every time he was confronted with a steroid question
and the subsequent denial, his comeuppance will come in 2012.
He will be eligible for the Hall of fame that year.
Despite his incredible feats on the field, he will have a tough
time getting into the Hall of Fame as the poster boy, along with
Roger Clemens, of immoral conduct in the steroids era.
Roger Maris has never been seriously considered for Hall of Fame
honors.
Why not?
Mostly because he was grumpy and uncommunicative with the media
during his playing days.
The Hall of Fame voters (I am one of the 587) ignore his two
MVP titles, his seven pennant winning teams with the Yankees
and Cardinals and his incredible 1961 feat.
I wasn’t around when the Babe did his thing. I followed
Roger closely in 1961. I was out of daily newspaper work when
McGwire and Bonds cheated their way to glory.
I am certain nobody in baseball history (save for Jackie Robinson
for other reasons) accomplished so much as Maris did under such
enormous pressures.
It was as if the world was against him except for a few teammates,
personal friends, family and a lonely sportswriter or two.
He was going against two of the game’s biggest names, the
iconic Ruth and the adored Mantle. He did little to play up to
the sportswriters and later Hall of Fame writers.
Maris was bland, a little sour, and unhappy at the fame the season
brought and an old fashioned lunch pail baseball player. He did
it for the money.
Not only Maris was overwhelmed by the attention the home run
chase brought him. So were the Yankees. They didn’t know
how to protect him.
McGwire and Bonds were only available to the media in the cocoon
of organized press conferences. That keeps an athlete from saying
anything dangerous, controversial or slightly amusing. PR people
guide him through the sessions.
That is why, by the way, everybody was so shocked by the Tiger
Woods tales. Despite 10 years as the best at his trade, nobody
ever knew anything about the guy. Now we know too much.
No matter how many apologies McGwire and Bonds make in the future
they can never shake the label of baseball cheaters.
Maris just did his thing the old fashioned
way. He deserves Hall of Fame honors. McGwire and Bonds deserve
Hall of Shame honors.
©2010 by Maury Allen. The Maury Allen caricature is ©2001 by Jim Hummel. This column first posted Jan. 17, 2010.
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