Sixty-One in ’61

Much has been written about Roger Maris and the historic summer of 1961 when he broke Babe Ruth’s single-season home run record yet little is known about the pitchers on the other side of the tale. One of the many knocks against Maris was that he faced inferior pitching in an American League watered down by expansion from eight to 10 teams.
But was that really the case? Did Maris face has-beens and never-weres while Ruth confronted the cream of AL pitching? Who were these starters and relievers and how good were they?
Drawing on first-hand accounts, interviews and a range of contemporary sources, this study covers each of Maris’ 63 home runs that season, including the lost one and his game-winning World Series dinger. Biographies of each of his 48 victims cover the pitcher’s career, pitching style and the circumstances of the game. Maris faced some really fine pitching that summer despite what many contended then—and now.

Robert M. Gorman is a retired university reference librarian with more than 40 years of professional research experience. He received the 2009 Sporting News–SABR Baseball Research Award for the book he and David Weeks wrote, Death at the Ballpark (McFarland, 2009; 2d ed. 2015). He lives in Rock Hill, South Carolina.

Robert M. Gorman
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 347
Bibliographic Info: 15 photos, appendix, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2019
pISBN: 978-1-4766-7262-5
eISBN: 978-1-4766-3827-0
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments  vi
Preface  1
Introduction  3
1. Overcoming Obstacles  5
2. Roger Maris Before 1961  41
3. April–May  58
4. June  92
5. July  134
6. August  187
7. September  228
8. October  280
Aftermath  295
Appendix: Roger Maris by the Numbers  301
Chapter Notes  303
Bibliography  327
Index  333

“Baseball narratives, at their best, have become an authentic subset of American social history, as academically sound as historical scholarship in any field of interest. Gorman has written such a book about an iconic baseball event… This work should become the final word on the memorable year of 1961…every home run hit by Maris is chronicled in detail… Every point of discussion that has evolved over the past sixty years is documented and put to rest. This is a book for historians and lovers of the national pastime at the end of its Golden Age. …recommended”—Choice