Whaling Part 1: The '61 Maris

(And yes, I'm ambivalent about the title)

I'm ashamed to admit it, but I never appreciated Roger Maris until I moved to ND. I always felt he was a flash in the pan who put together a couple of good seasons but not much else and that he would have never gotten the attention he got if he'd played somewhere other than NY.

I'm an idiot.

The '59 season in KC was good, the '60 season in NY was spectacular, and the '61 (despite the 61 HRs that get all the press) was only a hair better (161 OPS+ in '60, 167 OPS+ in '61). He never approached those highs again and injuries obviously took their toll, but the career itself doesn't get nearly enough credit. Maris was a ballplayer that we'd all appreciate more if he HADN'T played in NY. Mantle should have broken the record, not Maris. He wasn't the anointed one and if he hadn't done it in Mantle's shadow...things would have been different.

 I was torn between the '61 and '62 but finally decided on the '61.

As a card there's a lot to dig here. On the one hand there's the historical coincidence of it being the card issued during the year he hit the '61 HRs. But then we've also got what, objectively speaking, is a sublime baseball card. Maris in the shadow of the batting cage, bat over his shoulder, looking over his right shoulder. We've even got some light that washes out the cages, giving them more depth, and highlighting Maris's face.

And then on the back we've got a cartoon "Maris" smacking a homer and another of him receiving the MVP trophy. And that was in 1960 on the cusp of the amazing 1961 season. And I love that it includes the first bush-league season in Fargo. Wrap your head around that: 114 games in Fargo! He grew up there so I'm sure he was fine but it only gets above 75 degrees here 3 months out of the year. That's some cold baseball.

Have a good one everybody and goodnight Pumpsie Green, wherever you are!

Card I've Always Coveted: 1961 HR Leaders

I found this while digging through a common box Daddy D told me to go through. Technically it's a loaner, so it isn't mine, but it's one of those cards most kids dream about holding at some point. Adults too, I guess, if I qualify for the title.

I did one of my first posts on Maris and ND, and I've done a lot more reading about Maris since I found out that the Roger Maris Museum is not only in Fargo, but in a mall. Apparently Roger wanted it to be free and in a place that was easily accessible to anyone who wanted to go. Still, despite that everyman inclination, most of the folks I've told about the museum think the concept is pretty gauche. "It's in a mall." Yep, being in my line of work definitely has its social downsides. I've been to the museum twice, and it's pretty cool. Moreover, it's just how Roger wanted it.

As for the card, the disembodied heads from this set have always bugged me a bit. I first saw these when I was in 3rd grade and a kid brought in a binder with a few of these in it. I mean, it's weird but really weird. The grouping of league leaders also underscores how random stats can be from year to year. On this card we have 2 HOFers, the guy who should still hold the record for HRs in a season and...Jim Gentile. No disrespect to Mr. Gentile, but '61 was his best season, and the only time he topped 40 HRs. In '62 he hit 33. Those were the ONLY two seasons he topped 30. And there he is being mentioned with Maris, Mantle, and Killebrew.

And correct me if I'm wrong, but Topps really had a problem with Maris topping the Babe, didn't they? The year the HR record gets topped (by someone OTHER than Mantle, I'll add) they come out with all these Babe tribute subsets. Huh?

Have a good one and goodnight Pumpsie Green, wherever you are!

Saturday Rummage Special--Roger Maris

One of the cultural events of the town I just moved to is the yard sale. I know, they have yard sales everywhere. However, I am willing to bet that their are more yard sales per capita in the upper midwest, and that most yard sales in the US are run by folks who themselves are transplants from this area. So, when I say that they are a cultural event I mean that seriously, as in today there were no less than 10 yard sales within walking distance of my house and that, in a town with a population no greater than 50,000, there were at least 100 yard sales. 

Like everywhere else these things are a mixed bag given that most people are only willing to sell stuff they no longer need or no longer want. To my surprise someone was willing to part with the bobblehead at right for fairly cheap ($5). As they say, "I don't do bobbleheads," but this one gave me pause. 

Roger Maris is from Fargo, ND, right near where 

I live, and folks up here are rightly proud of the guy who broke the Babe's single season HR record. Originally drafted by Cleveland, he played a short-time for his hometown club and the Indians' C farm team, the Fargo-Moorhead Twins of the Northern League. 

Today Fargo-Moorhead has an independent team, the Redhawks, and this bobblehead was a stadium giveaway in 2002. Roger sports his hometown F-M Twins uniform and looks every bit the midwestern boy.

He was a great player, though perhaps not HOF great, and even in the '61 season when he broke the Babe's record a lot of people felt that Mantle, the golden boy and mid-century Mr. Yankee, should have been the one to break it. Maris really never got his due in his own lifetime, as evidenced by the asterisk that accompanied his breaking of the record (Babe hit 60 HR in 1927 during a 154 game season, Maris hit 61 in a 162 game season). When you think that Ford Frick put an asterisk next to Maris's mark for having had the misfortune of playing a longer schedule than the Babe, can you really make a solid case for Bud Selig looking the other way during the era of McGwire and Bonds?

Anyway, when I was looking to move for work one of the things I was most excited about was moving to an area with an MLB team. As it turns out, the closest team to me right now is 5+ hours away and there is no minor league ball up the street as there was in NC.

Despite being almost 1700 miles away from where he had his finest moments as a player, it's pretty awesome to think that the the folks in Fargo-Moorhead have maintained an intense connection with Maris. We have this Redhawks's giveaway (team site here), the Roger Maris Museum, and of course the gravesite. All cool stuff and proof, I guess, that baseball's always out there, you just have to look for it. I may not live near an MLB team like I had envisioned, but I call Roger Maris's state home and that, I think, is pretty awesome.