What A Difference A Half Century Makes...Or Does it?

by Jay Kaplan, OTSL Head Writer/Analyst

Those of you who follow "On The Sportslines" have no doubt heard me say, on more than one occasion, that no sport is more tied to its history than baseball. None of the other sports compares players and records across eras than our National Pastime.

Normally when we look back on the anniversary of certain decades or records, those anniversaries happen on the zero. You know, 2010, 1990, 1980, etc. Thus it almost slipped by me that this baseball season marks the 50th anniversary of one of National Pastime's watershed seasons.

Fifty years ago our world was a decidedly different place. The Twin Towers weren't even a glimmer in an architect's eye. Facebook, iPads, DVRs, hybrid cars, reality TV, Osama Bin Laden, Al-Queda, the Taliban, Saddam Hussein, Free Agency, Labor disputes, night World Series games, steroids, contracts with enough money to cure the National debt (or at least put a dent in it), none of these things were a part of the American landscape.

Yes the Cold War was in full swing, but except for isolated incidents like the Bay of Pigs and the unrest in the former Belgian Congo, the world wasn't in a state of war. Vietnam was barely on our radar. The word terrorism wasn't really part of the national lexicon. The "ism" we were most afraid of was communism.

In 1961 JFK's Camelot had just begun; the Beattles got their first gig at a small club in London; the Civil Rights Movement was in its infancy and the Space Race had barely dropped the green flag. One thing was the same then as it is now, the Yankees were baseball's most prestigious franchise and claimed arguably the sport's most iconic player - Mickey Mantle - as their own.

The Yankees were coming off a heart-breaking loss in the 1960 World Series to the Pittsburgh Pirates on what would become one of baseball's most historic moments: Bill Mazeroski's series-clinching walk-off (a term not in our vocabulary yet) home run in Game 7.

1961 was the first year of the 162 game season (the National League still played 154 games in 1961, they made the switch in 1962). The Yankees, like the rest of the American League, were looking at having to play 8 more games than they had the season before. No one was thinking that the Yankees acquisition of Kansas City A's Outfielder and 1960 AL MVP Roger Maris would amount to anything other than the Bronx Bombers adding yet another potent bat to an already powerful lineup. The Yankees were, after all, the pre-season American League World Series favorite even before the trade. Nobody could have predicted what wound up happening.

Babe Ruth's single season record of 60 home runs had been challenged in the past. Jimmy Foxx in 1932 and Hank Greenberg in 1938 tallied 58. Even Mantle had taken a run at it, hitting 52 in his Triple Crown season of 1956. The prevailing opinion of baseball people everywhere was that if anyone was going to break George Herman's record it would be Mantle.

Mantle and Maris both got off to scorching starts homer-wise in 1961. By May Mantle had 14, Maris had 12. By the end of July Mantle had 39, Maris had 40 and by September Maris had 51, Mantle 48. The press attention the M&M boys got rivaled the type and hype we see today. Imagine if you will what the media coverage would be like if say Alex Rodriguez or Ryan Howard was chasing the single season home run record? Remember, even during the McGwire-Sosa race to 62 in 1998 the internet coverage was nothing like it would be today. There weren't any bloggers nor was there SportsCenter or Twitter in 1961, but New York had more newspapers than any state in the country at that time and they all had Yankee beat reporters.

The press assault on Maris was in many ways more epic than the Yankee Right Fielder's assault on Ruth's record. Maris was a very private person by nature. He didn't seek the spotlight like Mantle. That, coupled with the fact that he wasn't - in the minds of Yankee beat reporters or the fans - a "true" Yankee didn't make it easy for Maris. Then to make matters worse, Mantle got hurt in September, which shifted ALL the fan and media focus on Maris.

Yankee fans wanted Mantle to break the record, Commissioner Ford Frick didn't want ANYONE to break the record. Not surprising since he was close friends with Ruth. Hence he made the ridiculous edict that unless the record was broken in 154 games it didn't matter. As if Maris needed any more pressure than he was already under. There were reports that Maris was losing his hair over all the stress and the attention his season was getting.

We all know how it played out. On October 1, 1961, the final day of the regular season, Maris took Tracy Stallard deep for his 61st home run. Maris would wind up leading the league in Homers, RBI and Runs Scored and win his second straight AL MVP award.

Mantle would finish with 54, four other Yankees would hit 20 or more homers and the Bombers led the American League with 240. Whitey Ford would go 25-4 and five other Yankee pitchers would post 10 wins or more. The Yankees would go 103-59, win the American League by 8 games over the Detroit Tigers and win the World Series in 1961 in an easy 5 game set over the Cincinnati Reds.

A lot has changed in 50 years. A lot hasn't. Some of the changes have made America, the World and even Baseball much better. Some of the changes have made America, the World and even Baseball much worse.

What has stayed constant is that the Yankees are baseball's most prestigious franchise; they claim arguably the sport's most iconic player - Derek Jeter - as one of their own and 50 years later, despite Billy Crystal's best efforts (if you haven't seen "61*" shame on you), Roger Maris STILL hasn't gotten his due.