Memorable Maris
Big Mac's predecessor could play, not just hit home runs
Posted: Monday September 07, 1998 06:49 PM
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Tony Kubek on Maris as a team player: "Once in September, I was on third base and Roger bunted against Dick Stigman to get me in with the run." AP |
NEW YORK (AP) -- Home runs are baseball's slam dunks and end zone
spikes, glitzy exclamation points that often leave fielding, running and
throwing as forgotten fundamentals of the game.
Roger Maris never forgot those fundamentals.
For a generation, Maris was the ultimate home run hitter, the man who
broke Babe Ruth's record. More than that, however, he was a complete
player, equipped with better-than-average speed, an outstanding arm and a
basic understanding of the game.
When the Yankees traded for Maris in 1960, he was not welcomed warmly
by the rest of the team. Second baseman Bobby Richardson explained why.
"We had played against Maris when he was with Kansas City and
Cleveland," Richardson said. "He had knocked me down at second base. He was
the best in the league at breaking up the double play. I changed my way
going across the bag on the pivot to avoid his rolling block."
That was just part of Maris' resume. Then there was his arm.
Mickey Mantle once said he never remembered Maris missing a cutoff man
on relay throws, a remarkable achievement for any outfielder. And
certainly, he made one of the greatest throws in World Series history in
1962, a year after he hit all those home runs.
In Game 7 of the Series, Ralph Terry was protecting a 1-0 lead in the
ninth inning at San Francisco. Matty Alou opened with a bunt single before
Terry struck out the next two batters. Then Willie Mays hit a double down
the right-field line. With two outs, and carrying the tying run in the
bottom of the ninth inning of Game 7, Alou might have been expected to
score.
Not against Maris' arm.
The right fielder cut the ball off and made a perfect relay to
Richardson, holding Alou at third base. He was still there when Willie
McCovey lined to Richardson, ending the World Series.
Tony Kubek remembered how dedicated Maris was to the basics of the
game. Often overlooked in his chase to break the home run record was the
fact that in 1961, the Yankees were in a tight pennant race, battling the
Detroit Tigers. The
pennant race came first with Maris, and Kubek remembered an example.
"Once in September, I was on third base and Roger bunted against Dick
Stigman to get me in with the run," he said.
The home run slugger, laying down a bunt? It probably stunned Stigman
and the Cleveland
Indians. That, of course, was the whole idea.
"He wanted to play the game right," Kubek said. "He had an abiding
respect for the game and its integrity."
That meant playing hard, an approach that went well with his
hard-edged personality. Maris was a curmudgeon and seemed to enjoy that
role. Outwardly, there was no warmth about the man, a condition made worse
by the way he was treated during the run at Ruth.
Maris was viewed as the enemy by those who revered Ruth. Commissioner
Ford Frick lined up against him, ruling the record would have to be broken
in 154 games -- the length of Ruth's season -- and not the expanded
162-game season Maris was playing. It should be noted that Mark McGwire
reached No. 60 in the Cardinals' 142nd game and got No. 61 in the team's
144th.
Then there was the matter of Mantle, long considered the man who would
break the record and engaged in a season-long chase with Maris in 1961.
"Mantle's teammates were all pulling for him," Richardson said. "We
looked at Mickey as a true Yankee. It was a Yankee record. We wanted a
Yankee to break it."
None of this sat particularly well with Maris. He often brooded,
rarely looked very happy and did not seem to enjoy the race to the record
that McGwire has exulted in this summer.
That never interfered with his devotion to the game, however.
He was a Gold Glove outfielder and a two-time MVP, honors not lightly
awarded. He played the game hard, an approach that did not always serve him
well.
A couple of years after breaking the home run record, Maris hurt his
hand reaching for home plate on a slide. He was slow to heal, irking a
front office that already was tiring of his chip-on-the-shoulder attitude
and diminishing production.
So the home run king was traded away, swapped to St. Louis for an
anonymous third baseman named Charlie Smith. The deal was a perfect fit. It
turned out Smith was a curmudgeon, too.
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