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Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava

I was a Yankee fan as a kid. In 1961, I saw my first Yankees game in person. My father, who was absent my entire childhood, didn’t take me. A neighbor took me with his kid. My seat was right next to one of the infamous steel pillars in the original Yankee Stadium that were death if you sat behind one. You’d see little. Being next to it partially blocked my view! Still, I remember watching Whitey Ford warm up right down in front of me. In those days the pitcher warmed up along the side lines. Not an ideal seat, but I was seeing the Yankees and what turned out to be one of the greatest teams ever. 

“The Ghosts of Yankee Stadium” may be the title of this Mural across the street from both the original Yankee Stadium and the new Stadium. It shows the heads of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and Roger Maris (5th from the left), among others hovering over the top of the original Yankee Stadium as seen from beneath the elevated subway on April 15, 2010. The pillars I referred to, shown on the left in the rendering of the upper deck, ran all the way down to the ground level. Looking at this photo now, the top half is quite similar to the view I had of the field that day, framed by 2 pillars, and the roof. The pillars were finally removed when the Stadium was remodeled in 1973. Directly behind me, the original Stadium stood half-demolished.

The team was stacked from top to bottom. They carried no less than three terrific catchers- Yogi Berra, Elston Howard, both all-time legends, and Johnny Blanchard, who as the 3rd stringer still managed to hit 21 home runs in 1961. An amazing feat, but far from the most amazing feat someone on that team accomplished.

Edward “Whitey” Ford on the mound of the original Yankee Stadium for the last time, September 21, 2008, before the final game played at the Stadium.

Edward “”Whitey” Ford was their ace pitcher. He was the epitome of smooth. A classy, unflappable, lefty with flaming white hair. Another Yankee legend having a great year. In 1961, he went 25 and 4 and won the Cy Young Award. He was one of EIGHT 1961 Yankee All-Stars, and 3 Hall of Famers.

Yogi Berra stands at home plate at the original Yankee Stadium, where he where he played for much of a legendary career, for the last time before the final game played there, September 21, 2008.

Elston Howard led the team with a .348 batting average, forcing the legendary catcher Yogi Berra to play left field.

Life, August 18, 1961. Photo by Philippe Halsman over a Babe Ruth Photo by William Greene. In the article inside, with 40+ games left in the season, Life said the odds were 4-1 against Roger Maris breaking the record. Mantle had a 50-50 chance.

At the core of the Yanks that year were Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris. The “M&M Boys” as they were known. Good friends, as the season went on and it became apparent both of them had a legitimate shot at Babe Ruth’s 1927 record of 60 home runs in a season, the media painted them as rivals for Babe’s crown.

Drafted by the Yankees and raised in their system, Mickey was hugely popular when I was a kid- The most popular athlete in NYC. Roger Maris came to the Yanks later in his career in a trade. This set him up as a usurper to native son Mantle as they were going neck and neck to lead the team in home runs as summer became early fall as both chased the immortal Bambino, Babe Ruth’s record of 60 homers. Mantle was the golden boy of the Yankees, Joe DiMaggio’s successor in center field. Roger Maris wasn’t even a home-grown Yankee, having come to the team from Kansas City a few years before.

“Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris were much alike on one level, both coming from the Midwest, raised in working class families, with similar high school athletic stardom, and both marrying their high school sweethearts. Yet, in terms of personality and lifestyle, they were quite different. Mantle was more outgoing and gregarious than Maris, and liked being in the limelight. Though he played it humbly, Mantle really loved the media attention and he wanted the adulation. Maris only wanted to play baseball; he didn’t want the celebrity that might come with breaking Ruth’s record, and he especially did not want the press attention that hounded him that summer¹.”

The Mickey Mantle Monument in Monument Vallery, seen in the original Yankee Stadium before the final game played there, September 21, 2008.

The fans were intensely behind Mickey Mantle as their choice to break the Babe’s record. As the new-comer, Roger Maris felt their wrath, from booing to phone threats, as well the unconscionable intrusions and wrath of the press. Things were getting hot and heavy, something Roger Maris wanted no part of. David Halberstam wrote of what Roger endured in 1961 in his book, October, 1964–

“…The more he [Maris] became the story, the warier he became. The Yankees, completely unprepared for the media circus, gave him no help, offered him no protection, and set no guidelines. They let him, stubborn, suspicious and without guile, hang out there alone, utterly ill prepared for this ordeal; they never gave him a press officer to serve as a buffer between him and the media, or even set certain times when he would deal with the reporters, so what it would not be a constant burden. They did not filter requests, or tell him who he might trust and whom he might not or which requests were legitimate and which were trivial. Under all this pressure, Maris grew more and more irritable. He found that he could go nowhere without a phalanx of journalists….”

And, there was the non-existent “feud” with his friend Mantle some of the media concocted that didn’t exist…

Mickey Mantle got an infection in his hip and wound up in the hospital on September 28th, missing the last week of the regular season. Mantle, who had won a Triple Crown in 1956 (highest batting average, most homers & rbi’s), wound up second on the team in batting average and homers with .317 and was stopped at 54 homers, the most he ever hit in one season. It was now Roger’s record to win or lose. The press continued to give him a very hard time as the scrutiny intensified. Maris’s hair fell out in patches. But, he stuck it out. His attitude was “I’ll show them.” Maris hit #60 to tie the Babe on September 26th. Then, in the final game of the year (talk about pressure!), on October 1st, he hit his 61st, as I watched on tv.

Roger Maris being pushed out of the dugout after hitting #61, October 1, 1961. You can also see the pillars behind him I was stuck next to earlier that year. *UPI Photo

Typically, after he hit it, his teammates had to push him out of the dugout to acknowledge the cheers of the crowd. He. barely made it to the top step before quickly going back down.

The original Yankee Stadium at 1:40pm on September 21, 2008, the afternoon of the final game ever to be played in “the House that Ruth Built” that evening.

Fast forward to September 21, 2008, when something unprecedented happened. The Yankees played their final game at the original Yankee Stadium before it would be torn down and they would move into a new Stadium across the street. I was there for both the final game at the original Stadium, (built in 1923, “the House that Ruth built,” the home to an incredible amount of baseball history), and the first game played across the street at the new Stadium in spring, 2009. 

Baseball heaven. Babe Ruth & Roger Maris once stood here. The view standing in right field looking towards home plate at the original Yankee Stadium before the final game, September 21, 2008.

Before the final game they actually allowed fans on the sacred field- unprecedented in modern times. The same field that Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Lou Gehrig, Roger Maris and countless others had played on. As I walked slowly around the entire field, which I still can’t believe I actually did. I stopped in right field and stood there taking in the view. The same view Babe Ruth and Roger Maris, both right fielders, had. I was wearing my number 9 Roger Maris Yankee jersey. A newspaper photographer came up behind me and asked me to stand still. He shot me from behind looking at the huge stadium in front of me on its final day- showing #9 in its old right field stomping grounds. Then, I picked up my camera and took the picture above of the view I had looking in to home plate. If there’s such a thing as “baseball heaven,” this is it. 

The last game at the original Stadium is about to get underway as former Yankee greats from different periods stand at their former positions, September 21, 2008.

Being on the field was unforgettable. Then, later that night, the Yankees introduced an amazing array of former players, culminating with Yogi Berra and Whitey Ford, both making their final appearance on the field where so much of their legendary careers took place. Roger Maris, who passed away in 1985 at the age of 51, was not among them. Neither was Mickey Mantle, who died in 1995 at 63. 

All of this came back to me tonight, September 29, 2022, after current Yankee Aaron Judge hit his 61st home run of 2022, tying Roger Maris’s American League record. So far, Roger Maris’s record has stood for an ironic 61 years. Consider this- Babe Ruth’s record 60 home runs in 1927 stood for 34 years, until Roger Maris in 1961. Also ironically, Aaron Judge wears 99, Maris wore 9. 

I was struck by some strange feelings that really have nothing to do with Aaron Judge- an amazing player, beloved by teammates and fans. He stands a good chance of breaking the record. I hope he does and keeps going. Roger Maris’s wife and his son, Roger, Jr. were at the game. After the game Roger, Jr said that, in his opinion, if he hits #62, Aaron Judge should be recognized as the true all-time single season home run record holder- and not Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, who each hit more than 61 in a season, because each have been mentioned as possible drug users. Personally, I agree with Mr. Maris.

Watching the aftermath (I missed seeing Mr. Judge hit it live) tonight, and the interviews, my thoughts turned to Roger Maris. I’m not a believer in halls of fame. They’re too subjective. Someone worthy always gets left out. To this day, the powers that be have deemed Roger Maris not worthy of “enshrinement” in Cooperstown. Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle are both enshrined there. Aaron Judge may be one day. 

“Against All Odds.” Roger Maris’s plaque in Monument Valley in the original Yankee Stadium, September 21, 2008. The plaque, installed a year before he died, a few hundred feet to the left of where his 61st home run landed, reads like a belated apology.

Still, nothing can take away what Roger Maris accomplished in 1961. Against all the odds, as his plaque in Monument Valley at Yankee Stadium says, he accomplished something extremely unlikely. I will never forget watching it all unfold, then seeing him do it on tv, making me a fan in the process. “I’ll show them,” was his attitude, and he did.

In a world given to unreasonable, personal attacks, bullying, and unbridled invasion of personal privacy for all of us, what a powerful example he set in overcoming all of it that continues to speak to me on so many levels.

Roger Maris 61 in ’61 US postage stamp issued September, 1999.

As I write this on September 29, 2022, Roger Maris is still the co-holder of the American League record, though it might be one of the last days that will be true. Though his “enshrinement” in baseball’s Hall of Fame seems unlikely now, Roger Maris’s accomplishment has long been, and eternally, enshrined in the Hall of Fame of Life, where great feats of intestinal fortitude and incredible perseverance live on to inspire others forever.

Written on my heart…My hand print created with Yankee Stadium dirt on the right field wall where it remained during the final game, September 21, 2008.

*- Soundtrack for this piece is “Home Run” by Joe Nichols from his 2022 album Good Day for Living.

Special thanks to Fluff.

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Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited.
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