The Ol' Ballfield

I Can't Decide Who I Hate More: The Actual Maris Family or the Actors That Portrayed Them in 61************

Rich Maris, son of former Yankee legend Roger Maris, is saying some stupid things, most recently in an interview with our favorite SI writer, Jon Heyman:

Maris is a man who chooses his words carefully but leaves little doubt as to where he stands on issues involving his father, including whom he believes is still the true single-season home run record holder. "If everything comes out the way it looks like it's going to come out, I feel my dad is," Maris told me.

For someone whose father was so dogged by claims that his record was illegitimate that he was driven to chain smoking which aided the lung cancer that killed him, this seems to me to be a confusing claim. Roger Maris had the following to say about his treatment:

They acted as though I was doing something wrong, poisoning the record books or something. Do you know what I have to show for 61 home runs? Nothing. Exactly nothing.

We don't know exactly what effect steroids has on one's ability to hit a home run. We do know the exact effect of having eight extra games to do it in. Mark McGwire, of course, hit his 61st in 143 games, leaving no doubt.

Just for fun, here's everyone that's hit 60 home runs, and the amount of games their team had played to that point, and when they hit their 61st (respectively):

Babe Ruth (1927): 154
Roger Maris (1961): 158, 162
Sammy Sosa (1998): 149, 150
Mark McGwire (1998): 141, 143
Sammy Sosa (1999): 148, 149
Mark McGwire (1999): 155, 156
Sammy Sosa (2001): 157, 158
Barry Bonds (2001): 141, 144

It seems like there are a lot of possible answers to that question, and none of the most interesting ones would involve Maris, steroids or not. Heyman (or as I call him, Verducci-for-a-day) makes it clear in the article that Rich Maris has made a very nice life for himself. I think he should let this one go.

posted by Carnival @ 1/13/2007