October 2006

Forty-five years ago, on October 1, 1961, Roger Maris of the New York Yankees smacked his sixty-first home run of the season, surpassing his fellow Yankee Babe Ruth’s single-season home run record of 60. Ruth’s mark had stood for 34 years; Maris’s lasted for 37. Both how he got it and how he lost it would prove controversial.

In 1998 Mark McGwire hit 70 homers and Sammy Sosa hit 66. In 2001 Barry Bonds hit 73. McGwire, Sosa, and Bonds are all suspected of having used performance-enhancing drugs to boost their home-run totals. Maris’s own accomplishment was diminished not by drugs—the steroids scandals were decades away in 1961—but by another circumstance. When Ruth swatted his 60 four-baggers, major-league baseball was on a 154-game season. In 1961, the American League went to a 162 games. It took Maris all 162 to reach his total; after 154 games, he’d hit only 59. So for many, including Ford Frick, the then-commissioner of baseball, Maris’s record didn’t replace Ruth’s. The Babe’s record stood; Maris had merely set a separate mark. Frick’s ruling would rankle Maris for the rest of his life.