50 years ago on April 26, 1961 Roger Maris hit is first home run of a magical, yet tortuous baseball season. He hit 61 asteriskital (I made that word up I think) home runs that year. 30 of them were in Yankee Stadium and 31 were in the other ballparks in the American League. Now, this may not seem like a big deal in the steroidal age of baseball, but it was a big deal then. He was loved and hated by the fans and the baseball establishment. How dare someone approach the record of the beloved Babe Ruth. Well, Roger did it, and this past week marked the date of his first HR. He hit his next on May 3rd. I include some scans of a couple of the Maris cards I have and the back of the 1963 Topps card that has his stats. I also give you the 1963 card of Paul Foytack, who surrendered the first home run that year in the 5th inning at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Nobody had any idea what was going to happen the rest of the year, including me. I was in kindergarten, and Maris and Mantle were names I was just beginning to recognize. Here is a link with the complete list of his home runs during the season.
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