American baseball player, a right fielder famous for setting a record unbeaten for 37 years until Marc McGwire eclipsed the record for the most home runs in a single season on 8 September 1998 with his 70th home run during the last game of the season. Maris played on four Major League Baseball (MLB) teams, the Cleveland Indians (1957–1958), Kansas City Athletics (1958–1959), New York Yankees (1960–1966) and St. Louis Cardinals (1967–1968).
Maris, unlike the exuberant Babe Ruth whose record he broke, was a quiet, private man who didn’t invite the kind of public notoriety Ruth and his team-mate, Mickey Mantle, enjoyed. When it became apparent that it would be Maris and not Mantle who would most likely break the Ruth record during the 1961 baseball season for the NY Yankees at Yankee Stadium, there was a public outcry that the major league schedule had been increased to 162 games instead of the 154-game schedule that Babe Ruth played when he hit his 60th home run in 1927. In July 1961, baseball Commissioner Ford Frick adopted a compromise solution which announced that if it took Maris more than 154 games to surpass the Babe, his home run total would officially be accompanied by an asterisk. After 154 games, Maris had 59 homers. By the last game, he hit his 61st home run, breaking the Babe Ruth record. Maris’ record was doomed to live with the asterisk despite the fact that Ruth hit his 60 home runs in 687 trips to the plate while Maris hit 61 home runs in 684 trips to the plate.
Maris said he was never liked by the Yankees. He was traded off to the Saint Louis Cardinals in 1966. One of his dedicated fans, named Andy Strasberg, had watched Maris’ career with the Yankees from the time he was a kid in NY. Strasberg and his five college buddies traveled to Pittsburgh to see Maris play on 9 May 1967. Maris’ number was nine. He hit a ball that headed straight for the stands. Strasberg stood up, reached farther than the others and caught the home-run ball from Row nine, Seat nine on May 9th by Number Nine.
Maris was a physical man, angry, hard and aggressive. Impatient mostly with himself, he did not perform well under pressure. After his spectacular performance, he did not enjoy his stardom and was often inpatient with the media. He was also noted for being honest and straightforward, warm and generous, but social graces were not in his makeup.
Maris retired, prematurely, after the 1968 season, becoming a beer distributor in Gainesville, Florida. He never returned to baseball. During his baseball career, Maris won two consecutive Most Valuable Player Awards (1960-1961), appeared in seven World Series and earned acclaim as a superb all-around performer.
Maris died of lymphatic cancer on 14 December 1985. Yankee owner George Steinbrenner said he felt Roger Maris was treated shabbily by the Yankees. Andy Strasberg, who became director of marketing for the San Diego Padres, traveled to Fargo, North Dakota to attend the funeral.
Link to Wikipedia biography