September 26, 1961: Roger Maris clubs 60th home run to tie Babe Ruth

Roger Maris connects for his 60th home run of the season in the third inning on September 26, 1961, as Baltimore Orioles catcher Gus Triandos looks on. (National Baseball Hall of Fame Library)

Sometimes it’s the statistics few know that tell the story. Or at least part of the story. If nothing else, they tell a story.

After Babe Ruth hit his 60th home run in 1927, the legend of that epic blast grew and grew. A number of great sluggers, including Jimmie Foxx and Hank Greenberg, challenged Ruth’s record, but they all fell short. Year after year, and then decade after decade, Ruth’s 60th home run grew in legend and stature. Some felt it was baseball’s greatest record – one that could never be broken. And in the archival footage that the fans have always seen of that blast, along with Ruth’s swing, there was a stadium packed with adoring and excited fans.

But the movie reels didn’t tell the true story. Those reels must have been spliced and added to with footage from other games. For the biggest statistic, the one very few people know regarding Ruth’s 60th, is the following: 8,000. Longtime Yankees clubhouse man Pete Sheehy claimed there were fewer than 2,000 fans in attendance when Ruth hit his blast.1

8,000. That’s how many people were in attendance at Yankee Stadium on September 30, 1927, when Ruth hit his legendary 60th home run. It was a great moment, but it was not a moment that drew fans to the Bronx to see the famous slugger. No, not at all. When Ruth hit his blast, Yankee Stadium was all but empty.

Thirty-four years later, on September 26, 1961, Roger Maris clubbed a pitch from Baltimore’s Jack Fisher into the right-field seats at Yankee Stadium to tie the Babe. While anticipation of his blast didn’t fill the Stadium, more than 19,000 came to see if Maris could actually do it. It was Maris’s quest that brought more people to the ballpark than Ruth’s gargantuan legend. 

The night of September 26, 1961, was a beautiful one for baseball. At the game’s 8:00 P.M. start, the weather was 68 degrees. There was, and had been, no precipitation. The setting was perfect. 

The mighty Yankees (105-52) were playing the somewhat surprisingly competitive Baltimore Orioles (92-66). By this time the Yankees had eliminated the rest of the league and were on their way to the World Series, but first they had the schedule to play out and, of course, there was Roger Maris’s chase of the Babe. 

Jack Fisher took the mound for the Orioles against the Yankees’ Bud Daley. On this day, both hurlers pitched well. 

Baltimore  scored first. After both teams went quietly in the first inning, the Orioles put together a rally in the second inning to plate two runs. Earl Robinson singled, Dave Philley walked, and Ron Hansen singled to load the bases with one out. After Jack Fisher struck out (on a fouled-off bunt attempt with two strikes), future Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson drove home Robinson and Philley to give Baltimore a 2-0 lead. 

An inning later, in the bottom of the third inning, Roger Maris dug in against Jack Fisher. On this day, Maris was the Yankees’ number-three batter, just in front of Mickey Mantle in the batting order. In his first plate appearance, Mantle walked, and was removed for pinch-runner Hector Lopez.  Mantle had been battling flu systems for many days and needed the rest.2 

Maris had singled in front of Mantle in the first inning. Now, this at-bat in the third inning was his second chance on this day for number 60. Maris’s last home run, #59, came on September 20, also against the Orioles, but down in Baltimore.

In this third inning, Maris came to bat with two outs. On the fifth pitch of the at-bat, with a 2-and-2 count, Maris connected, and it was clear almost right from the start that he had hit number 60.3 The ball careened off the right-field stands – it may have hit stairs, or a railing, or even a seat – and bounded back onto the field. Baltimore right fielder Earl Robinson retrieved it and tossed it to the umpire to be given to Maris. But as players did back in those times, Maris simply put his head down and circled the bases. He returned to the dugout tied, at last, with the mighty Bambino. After the game, Maris, gripping the baseball in his hand, said, “I wanted that homer badly. I’d like one more, too.”4

When one listens to the play-by-play, the difference between how players and fans respond to big events stands in mighty contrast to what transpires today.5 Sportscaster Mel Allen first let the moment speak for itself. All one hears as Maris circles the bases is the crowd cheering. The moment needed no other explanation. As Maris approached home plate, Allen said, “How about that! A standing ovation! A standing ovation for Roger Maris, who got number 60.”6 In the dugout Maris received congratulations from his teammates and manager Ralph Houk. Maris sat down, but in a moment that was unique at this time, the crowd wanted more. Moments passed. Mel Allen described the scene: “And they are calling him out of the dugout. This is most unusual. They are calling him out of the dugout.” Reluctantly, after about 20 seconds, Maris obliged the fans’ wishes. He popped out, waved his cap, and returned to his seat. 

Maris’s blast made the score 2-1, but it was only the third inning, and there was more baseball to be played. There was no other fanfare. No politicians or former baseball greats came on to the field. To paraphrase from “Casey at the Bat,” in his own way, “Maris calmed the rising tumult and he bid the game go on.” And on the game progressed. 

For the next few innings, both teams went quietly. In the Yankees’ fifth, Maris, in his first attempt to eclipse Babe Ruth by hitting number 61, flied out to right field. In the sixth inning the Yankees mounted a scoring rally. Hector Lopez and Yogi Berra led off with walks. Elston Howard hit a long fly that allowed Lopez to advance to third, and Johnny Blanchard singled Lopez home to tie the game at 2-2.

An inning later, with one out, Billy Gardner and Tom Tresh both singled. Maris again flied out to right field but center fielder Jackie Brandt miscued on Lopez’s fly ball and Gardner scored with the Yankees’ third run. That was all they needed. And it was all they’d get.

In the end, the Yankees got their 106th win of the season, 3-2. Bud Daley, who had been removed for Rollie Sheldon after six innings of work, did not figure in the decision. Sheldon worked the final three innings, retiring all nine batters he faced, including striking out the last four, to earn the win, his 10th of the year. For the Orioles, Jack Fisher went the distance and took the loss. His record fell to 10-13. 

After the game, Fisher seemed more frustrated by the loss than by being the pitcher who surrendered a famous home run. “I’m out there to win,” he said. “I don’t care who hits home runs as long as I win.”7

But the big story was Roger Maris, who finally took his seat next to Babe Ruth.

Understated, as was his style, in the immediacy of it all, Maris simply said, “This was easily the greatest thrill of my life.”8 Later he added, “As I trotted around the bases, I was in a fog. I couldn’t believe what happened. Had I really hit 60 home runs? Had I tied Babe Ruth for the highest total ever hit in a season?”9

At that time, and for decades after, these two Yankees sluggers were the only players in baseball history to reach the magical number of 60, a mark that wouldn’t be reached again until 1998, when it was surpassed by Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa.

Author’s note

At the time, much was made about the fact that the 1961 season was 162 games rather than the 154-game seasons played in Babe Ruth’s day. The story of the so-called asterisk attached to Maris’s home run record is common in baseball lore. A writer for Newsday, Stan Isaacs, decades before the birth of sabermetrics, went to great lengths to break down Maris’s accomplishment as compared to Ruth’s: He wrote: The records will show that – all times at bat included – Maris hit No. 60 on his 684th trip to the plate. Ruth in his 687th. On the other hand, Maris’ 60th came in his 579th at-bat (excluding walks, etc.) while Ruth did it in official at-bat No. 537. It was Maris’ 158th game, Ruth’s 153th.10

Joe Trimble of the New York Daily News reported, “As it hit, Maris happily flung his bat away and began a jog around the bases in the majestic tread of the Babe. The 19,401 spectators were on their feet, screaming with delight-even the little lady who broke into tears as the ball soared to glory. That was Mrs. Claire Ruth, the Babe’s widow.”11

Maris met Mrs. Ruth after the game. She said, “I know if the Babe were here, he would have wanted to congratulate you.”12

Of further note, Roger Maris’s children were on hand to watch as Aaron Judge tied and surpassed their father’s American League record in 2022.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted the Baseball-Reference.com website for pertinent material and also viewed the game footage on YouTube.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA196109260.shtml

Notes

1 Stan Isaacs, “Rog and Babe Stand Alone,” Newsday (Long Island, New York), September 27, 1961: 119.

2 Associated Press, “Mantle Ill, Maris Rests–Yanks Lose,” Hartford Courant, September 28, 1961: 43.

3 Joe Trimble, “Maris Blasts No. 60 to Tie Ruth’s High,” New York Daily News, September 27, 1961: 62.

4 Trimble.

5 In today’s game, when records are achieved, the game often comes to a halt. There is much more pomp and circumstance. For Maris in 1961, his celebration was a trip around the bases and a return to the dugout.

6 Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCZPGUzxNls. Accessed November 2, 2022.

7 “Pardon Jack Fisher for Not Celebrating,” Newsday, September 27, 1961: 119. Fisher just the year before had surrendered a home run to Ted Williams in Williams’s final at-bat.

8 John Drebinger, “Maris Hits No. 60 as Yankees Win,” New York Times, September 27, 1961: 45.

9 Maury Allen, Roger Maris: A Man for All Seasons (New York: Donald J. Fine, Inc., 1986), 158.

10 Isaacs, “Rog and Babe Stand Alone.”

11 Trimble.

12 Phil Pepe, 1961: The Inside Story of the Maris-Mantle Home Run Chase (Chicago: Triumph Books, 2011), 218.