Marises believe MLB should return HR crown to Roger

	Mark McGwire did nothing to help his image during an appearance before Congress. Mark Wilson/Getty Images
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Mark McGwire was already on the mind of Rich Maris, one of the kids of Roger Maris, when I phoned him on Tuesday. But that's only because earlier that day McGwire's annual $6,200 check had arrived to Roger's widow, Pat, for the Roger Maris Celebrity Golf Tournament. Unfailingly, McGwire's check arrives every year, made out for the same amount to symbolize the number of homers McGwire hit en route to 70 to take the record from Roger.

Whether the check is sent out of generosity or guilt isn't known.

Like the rest of us, the Marises have not heard from McGwire lately. Rich hadn't even heard about McGwire's paltry Hall of Fame vote total until I phoned four hours after the vote was announced Tuesday. Maris expressed surprise that only 23.5 percent of Hall of Fame voters supported McGwire, and opined that many voters were probably making a statement by not supporting McGwire in his first year of eligibility, and that he'd probably get in next year. Yet, he wouldn't say whether he thought McGwire deserved to be in.

Maris is a man who chooses his words carefully but leaves little doubt as to where he stands on issues involving his father, including whom he believes is still the true single-season home run record holder. "If everything comes out the way it looks like it's going to come out, I feel my dad is,'' Maris told me.

An ultra-successful businessman and Gainesville, Fla. resident, Maris was on his way to a champions' rally and Florida Gators basketball game when I caught up with him. He was in a celebratory mood, obviously nothing to do with McGwire's poor showing. The Marises and McGwire bonded during what was billed as the Great Home Run Race of 1998, and Rich Maris still seems to have some affection for the man they congratulated and hugged at Busch Stadium nine years ago, oblivious to how McGwire's feat would come to be viewed.

And while the family very much appreciates McGwire's charity check, they don't need it; according to news clippings, their beer distributorship has made them millionaires many times over. Rich Maris is also not bent on revenge. He is a polite and patient man who hopes his father's record will still be restored some day. When, he doesn't know.

Whenever I've spoken to him, I am surprised by what sort of sympathy he shows McGwire, who almost surely cheated to knock his dad out of the record books, before two more heavily-bulked up stars, Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds, also surpassed his dad's total of 61 home runs in 1961. Maris' record stood for 37 years, three years longer than Babe Ruth held the record.

The writers served up some justice Tuesday when McGwire received little support for his Hall of Fame candidacy. And yet, for the Marises, the game hasn't really begun. They are more interested in the record, Roger's record.

"We feel baseball is going to do the right thing in the end. They're going to do their investigation, and they're going to make a correction,'' Rich Maris said. "At some point it will all come out. The right decision will be made.''