...I recall in '61 that I could read and comprehend a box score (Dad taught me) much better than written words...The Mick was ahead of Roger most of the year during the HR chase and was on pace to catch The Babe...I remember running to get the paper every day to peer over the previous day's box score to see if Mickey had hit another HR. Then suddenly in September Mantle's name stopped appearing in the box scores and being as young as I was, I was not able to understand why...I mean, The Mick was ALWAYS in the line up. I was inconsolable and Dad finally had to break the news to me that Mantle had been hurting for awhile and finally had to be admitted to the hospital with an abscessed hip. ...The Mick had 50 HRs with about 25 games still left in September but was only able to hit 4 more for the rest of the month....to this day I still wonder "what if".
...yeah, Maris got a raw deal. Hell, if I remember correctly, the Yanx even altered their batting order to favor Mantle.
I'd have to say in my lifetime, this book by Tony Kubek best captures the essence of that infamous year, from Maris and Mick's perspective and inside the Yanx clubhouse. One note from the book focuses on Maris having a lunch date with a NY Sports Writer, and Maris stood up the lunch date and Writer, to see a Kid in a local Hospital who was on death's door. The next day, the Writer bombs, utterly tried to destroy the Man, Maris, the Legend, yet did not even know Maris was giving of his time, to a kid in need.........what an effing joke how Maris was treated that year, and this book exposes a lot of shit I never knew about myself; then some.
ah shit the Amazon.com link failed: here ya' go- Sixty-One: The Team, the Record, the Men: By Tony Kubek
Without sounding redundant my induction to the Yankees was my older brother taking me to the stadium in 1961 where some guy named Roger Maris hit what I was told a historic & record breaking home run.
