235 with 14 homers and 51 RBI in 116 games. However, a baseball scout for the Cleveland Indians began waving around a $15,000 contract and signing bonus, and that appeared more enticing to Maris than college.Īfter four seasons in the minors Maris made his major league debut at in 1957 with the Indians, batting. However, Maris did play summer baseball as a boy, and also at the American Legion level, where he excelled.īut Roger Maris was first sought out for his football prowess, recruited by a number of colleges, including the legendary Bud Wilkinson of the University of Oklahoma, where Maris agreed to go. Shanley, like other high schools in the state, did not play spring baseball because of the long North Dakota winters. In addition to football, Maris was also a standout in basketball and track. He also set a record for returning 4 consecutive kickoffs in one game. N.D and was an outstanding athlete at Shanley High School, an all-state halfback in football, who led the state in scoring his senior year and helped Shanley win the North Dakota championship as a junior. But first, some background on Maris and Mantle. What follows here is a review of that season, with photos, press accounts, and later, a timeline, as well as a postscript on events that followed the 1961 season, including a Hollywood film and the numerous books that came out on the pair and their home run race. But as the season progressed, and the home run count for Mantle and Maris each rose, the race between “the M&M boys” as they came to be called, soon captivated baseball fans and the broader public, while permeating popular culture of that day and for years to come.
And for Mantle and Maris, there was also the uncertainty that comes with any baseball season, each man’s abilities, the possibility of batting slumps or personal injury, other competitors outperforming them, etc. Still, as the season began, no one was flatly predicting that either Maris or Mantle, or anyone else, would hit 61 home runs that year. And as both Mantle and Maris had impressive home run totals in previous years, there was periodic press speculation about one or the other of them breaking Ruth’s record In their private thoughts, no doubt, each man wanted to break Ruth’s record. The pursuit of Ruth’s record in 1961 by Mantle and Maris wasn’t something purposely stated by either man at the outset of the season, though they were asked about it frequently by the press. Still, in most years, the home run leaders were in the 40s. Willie Mays of the New York Giants hit 51 in 1955, and Mickey Mantle hit 52 in 1956. Hack Wilson of the Chicago Cubs hit 56 in 1930, and Ralph Kiner of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Johnny Mize of the New York Giants hit 51 in 1947. Prior to 1961, only two other players had approached Ruth’s record: Jimmie Foxx of the Philadelphia Athletics in 1932 and Hank Greenberg of the Detroit Tigers in 1938, both of whom hit 58 home runs. Ruth hit 60 home runs that year, and by 1961, his record had stood for 34 years. Rather, it was also about which one of the two might be first to topple the venerable home run mark set by former Yankee, Babe Ruth in 1927. The Mantle-Maris “race” in 1961 was about more than just who could hit the most home runs that year.
Baseball fans in the summer of 1961 had a special treat that brought them to the sports pages daily: a “home run race” between New York Yankee teammates Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris. 2001 book by The Sporting News on the Mantle-Maris home run race of 1961.
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