61*

The basic story of the 1961 Mantle and Maris home run race is pretty well known, but real fans like to know the details, the day-by-day occurrences: what it was like in the trenches for Roger and Mickey. In "61*" The Sporting News editors give week-by week commentaries on the fortunes of these two Bronx Bombers with an eye-friendly layout. The glossy pages are loaded with large photographs, some in color and some taking up an entire page. Green box charts detail the homers by both sluggers during the week. Newspaper clippings are superimposed. There was so much going on: Japanese newspapers were asking Maris questions, Mantle and Maris were being cast in a movie with Doris Day, and computers were being asked whether one or both would break Babe Ruth's home run record. The season started hot for Mantle and cold for Maris, and even after Roger had his share of home runs, his batting average was low until a midsummer surge. Shortly after midseason came Commissioner Ford Frick's controversial asterisk ruling (this book is titled "61*," not "61"), which hardly needs an introduction. It seems that today, everyone (I certainly do) thinks it was wrong. Yet photos/comments of 10 AL and NL stars pulled from TSN archives show that more than half agreed with Frick, Ruth's ghostwriter, that in this first 162-game season, 61 homers would have to be hit in the first 154 games for Ruth's record to be considered broken. Mantle agreed: "Mick 'Wouldn't Want Mark If It Was Set in 155 Games'" is the banner head of the double-page display featuring their comments. Hindsight tells us that a season is a season; people who want to count at-bats, plate appearances, and games can do so informally if they want. But Frick's ruling dominated the dialogue on the home run race that was dominating the season. An irony, as "61*" filmmaker Billy Crystal points out in his forward, was that on the day Frick's ruling was announced, both M & M boys lost a homer when a game was rained out. Crystal wrote that "The summer of 1961 was the greatest of my life." Wasn't it for everyone? But a curious fact is that the Yankees drew only 1.7 million fans. As one writer later remarked, they should have drawn 3 million. There were many empty seats in the Yanks' final games. Nevertheless, the world listened breathlessly, and the tension surrounding Roger's final three homers is a great, detailed story here. Roger hit #59 in game 154 with the wind blowing heavily in, and then had a few near misses in a gallant effort at upsiding Frick. The final pages include commentary on post-1961 years for Mantle and Maris, an interview with Crystal about his film, and yes, a little on Mark McGwire (who had an advantage over Maris, as Barry Bonds had, that I will allow to remain implicit). This book packs a lot of passion, in prose and photographs. Aside from the seasonal drama, readers will feel that they have learned the true story of Mantle and Maris as men.

In 1998, Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa both broke the major league record for home runs in a season, McGuire finishing with 70 and Sosa with 66. Their joint quest for the record is credited by some with saving baseball after years of labor difficulties, including a lengthy player's strike. To the older fans, it brought back memories of the 1961 season, when the same thing was happening, only the names were the often revered Mickey Mantle and the man considered an upstart, Roger Maris. Maris ended the season with 61 home runs, one better than the previous record held by the incomparable Babe Ruth. Major controversy was introduced into the chase when baseball commissioner Ford Frick intervened. He decreed that since Ruth hit 60 in a season of 154 games and Maris hit his 61 in 162 games, the Maris record would appear in the record book with an asterisk beside it. Like Mantle, Maris was from a small town and he had a difficult time dealing with the pressures of pursuing a record while playing in New York. This book is a week-by-week chronicle of that magical year for baseball, when two great players had a great season. It was also very gratifying to read that Maris and Mantle were actually close friends on and off the field. They even shared an apartment in New York City. Smith is also very clear about the difficulties that Maris had with the New York press and fans during his time as a Yankee. He points out that during the first years of his career as a Yankee; Mantle was often maligned, even though he played with constant pain. 1961 was a year when baseball was still the dominant national sport. I was young at the time and can still vividly remember my paternal grandmother giving me a baseball card of Roger Maris that was on the back of a box of Jello gelatin. I was awestruck because like so many boys, Mantle and Maris were my heroes in 1962. Reading this book will help you understand at least some of the excitement of that dynamic year in baseball.

Like me Billy Crystal is a big Yankee fan. We are about the same age, so we were young boys in 1961 (I was 14). Mantle was my idol and in 1956 I was rooting for him to break Babe Ruth's record. Crystal took his own first hand experience and added extensive research to produce a very accurate account of the 1961 home run race. Like most Yankee fans who had grown up idolizing Mantle I too preferred to have Mantle break the record rather than the new and less popular Roger Maris. But I enjoyed the whole thing and every home run Maris hit was another run to add to the score and help the Yankees have one of their greatest season for a team with a history of great seasons. It was only comparable to the 1927 Yankees and perhaps now also the 1998 Yankees. Certainly the Maris and Mantle one-two punch resembled the Ruth and Gehrig punch of the 1927 Yanks. Mantle was very relaxed during the race probably because he lived through it once in 1956 and also because Maris shared the press and took most of the media pressure away from him. Roger was not experienced at handling the media. This was only his second full season in New York. He previously played for Cleveland and Kansas City. Roger had not been a big home run hitter before coming to the Big Apple but he had a great swing and was a dead pull hitter, So the short low fence only 344 ft in right field and 299 ft at the right field foul poll really helped him as did the fact that the teams could not pitch around him since Mantle hit behind him in the clean-up spot. It was definitely true that Maris' hair started falling out due to the nervousness and pressure he experienced that September. Mantle's hip injury also made it harder in the end since the pitchers were no longer afraid of an occasion base on balls since Mantle was out of the line-up. The Ford Frick controversy about the asterisk made game 1954 interesting especially since Maris hit his 59th in the game and came up a couple of times to try for sixty. Wilhelm was brought in for no other reason than to make sure that Maris didn't hit one out in his last at bat. It was exciting to see Maris hit number 60 off Jack Fisher even though it was after the 154th game. It also set-up the drama for the 61st in the final game of the season that fittingly occurred in Yankee Stadium with Maris hitting his patented shot into the lower right field stands. It was real unscripted drama that was great for a movie and a book. Crystak made it seem very authentic. In the movie he even was able to find an actor that looked almost exactly like Roger. The characters that played Mantle, Berra, Cerv and Houk did not closely resemble their characters. I loved the movie and the book and you will too especially if you are a Yankee fan and even more so if you are a Yankee fan and baby boomer like me!

What a "maaaaahvelous" book put out by Ron Smith and Billy Crystal. A perfect companion to the movie. This book takes us baby boomer Yankee fans back to a magical time in our lives.The photgraphy is phenomenal and the text --smooth,easy to read and very informative. I loved this book so much I ordered for my sister for Christmas. I have no doubt she will enjoy as much as I did. Everything in the 6l season for the Yankees was amazing, Mantle, Maris, Ford, the unbelievable infeild--this book covers it ALL to perfection. i must read for aging Yankee fans.

Wonderful week-by-week breakdown of the race for Ruth's record...the writing is just detailed enough about the games, but, better, the words and pictures put you right in the Yankee locker room during the 1961 season. You get a true feeling for the pressure that Maris went through along with Mantle's aborted effort due to injury...there's also plenty of charts and graphs to show the breakdown by game, pitcher (left or right handed) and comparison to Ruth's pace. Finally, I thought it was a great touch to add the McGwire chase and breaking of the record and how the Maris family (his sons) was on hand. Probably not a better history of that memorable summer written anywhere and certainly none as pleasing to the eye...highly recommended.