Aaron Judge Hits 61st Home Run to Tie Roger Maris' Record and Gifts Historic Ball to His Mother

Table of Content

• THIS DAY IN HISTORY
• Brooklyn native sees Aaron Judge pursuit 61 years after Maris
• Roger Maris Signed 8x10 Photo, 61st Home Run 1961 Yankees. Auto JSA
• Roger Maris breaks home run record
• Roger Maris Baseball Bat Louisville Slugger Powerized 125LL Model POLARIZED
• Man who caught Roger Maris' 61st home run baseball dies
• Sales tax for an item #275518117156

Roger Eugene Maris (September 10, 1934 – December 14, 1985) was an American professional baseball right fielder who played 12 seasons in Major League Baseball . He is best known for setting a new MLB single-season home run record with 61 home runs in 1961. The record remained unbroken until 1998 and remained the American League record until Aaron Judge broke it in 2022. Maris hit only 58 homers in the Yankees' first 154 games that season, and yes, many folks wanted to put an asterisk next to his home run total in the record books. They didn't think it was fair he had the advantage of eight extra games to break the record. There are still 7 games left in the season for Judge to set a new record.

Those records are seen as tainted by many inside and outside the game — including by the Maris family — because McGwire has admitted to steroid use and Bonds is accused of it, although he has denied it. Judge, a Northern California native who grew a Giants fan, has said he considers Bonds the single-season (as well as the all-time) home run king. Judge grounded out in the eight inning Wednesday night — his fifth at-bat of the contest.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY

He finished the season leading the AL in slugging percentage (.581), runs batted in , and extra base hits . He won the American League's Most Valuable Player award and was recognized as an outstanding defensive outfielder with a Gold Glove Award. The Yankees won the American League pennant, the first of five consecutive pennants, but lost a seven-game World Series to the Pittsburgh Pirates culminating in Bill Mazeroski's dramatic walk-off home run. Through all the turmoil the shy slugger always had the unstinting support of his teammates, who watched in awe as the 27-year-old player dealt with unprecedented amounts of pressure and attention.

With all five teams for which Maris played in the minors, the clubs' win-loss records improved from the prior season. Judge walked an astounding 13 times in 34 plate appearances between his 60th and 61st. Judge, who walked his final four plate appearances Tuesday night and in his first time up Wednesday, can pass Maris this weekend at the Stadium, where the Yankees start a three-game series Friday night against the Orioles. The Yankees (96-59), who clinched the AL East crown Tuesday night along with the No. 2 seed for the AL playoffs, have seven games remaining. With special baseballs for the purposes of authentication in play — the case starting in the ninth inning Sept. 18 in Milwaukee when Judge came to the plate with 59 homers — Judge hammered a full-count, 95-mph sinker into the leftfield stands.

Brooklyn native sees Aaron Judge pursuit 61 years after Maris

As of the past several months, Durante, now 80, is hospitalized and suffering from dementia, his son, Tom, a 58-year-old New York City real estate broker, informed The Post. According to the CPI calculator, which measures the tides of inflation, the $5,000 Durante received in 1961 is the equivalent of nearly $50,000 today. In September, when Judge was chasing Maris’ American League record, The Post spoke to Durante’s son, Tom, who said his 80-year-old father had been suffering from dementia. Sam Gordon, a restaurateur in California, bought the ball from Durante for $5,000 — worth about $50,000 in today’s money — and it eventually made its way to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

In 1991, 30 years after hitting 61 homers, Maris received recognition as the official holder of baseball's single-season home run record. To compare, it was reported last month that Cory Youmans, the man who caught Judge's AL record-setting 62nd home run baseball, declined a $3 million offer for that piece of sports history and instead put it up for auction via the Goldin Auctions house. Maris did not appear on the first Golden Era Committee ballot in 2011 or on the second one in 2014 .

Roger Maris Signed 8x10 Photo, 61st Home Run 1961 Yankees. Auto JSA

The long ball gave the Yankees a 5-3 lead, and the Pinstripes led 6-3 after a three-run seventh inning. Judge hit the landmark deep shot off Blue Jays' relief pitcher Tim Mayza in the seventh inning of Wednesday's game. After Judge rounded the bases, the Yankees piled onto the field to greet the man who had just made history. Maris hit No 61 for the Yankees on 1 October 1961, against Boston pitcher Tracy Stallard.

The inscribed plaque, subtitled "Against All Odds", calls Maris "A great player and author of one of the most remarkable chapters in the history of major league baseball." Maris participated in the ceremony, wearing a Yankee #9 uniform. Elston Howard (No. 32), a teammate of Maris, was honored along with Maris. After 34 plate appearances, which included being walked 13 times, Yankees slugger hammered his 61st home run of the season off Blue Jays’ lefty Tim Mayza at the Rogers Centre to tie the American League single-season home run record. Then with the score tied in the seventh inning on Wednesday night, he drove a 94.5mph belt-high sinker to left, a no doubt rocket.

With the Yankees leading 1–0 and Matty Alou on first, Willie Mays doubled toward the right-field line. In 1960, Maris hit a single, double, and two home runs in his first game as a Yankee. He was named to the AL All-Star roster again and played in both games.

After catching the ball, Durante met Maris in the Yankees’ locker room at the game. Durante would’ve been happy to hand it over to the slugger, but Maris advised him to keep it and sell it. On that fateful day in 1961, Durante was on a double-date with his future wife, Rosemarie, to watch the Yankees host the Red Sox in the right field bleachers at the old Yankee Stadium. Sal Durante, who famously caught Roger Maris’ 61st home run ball, has died.

Aaron Judge tied Roger Maris' single-season American League home run record after smashing his MLB-leading 61st long ball of the season in an 8-3 victory over the Blue Jays Wednesday night. Gallo hit .160 and posted a 79 OPS+, 21% worse than league average, during a difficult 2022 season split between the Yankees and Dodgers. Judge moved past the 60 home runs Babe Ruth hit in 1927, which had stood as the major league mark until Maris broke it in 1961.

The Yankees will return home to play the Orioles Friday night in a three-game series, as Judge will look to break Maris' record in front of his home crowd. During Maris' record-breaking season in 1961, he led the MLB by only seven home runs over his Yankee teammate, Mickey Mantle. Bonds led by nine when he hit 73 in 2001 — Sosa sent 64 balls over the fence that season.

Man who caught Roger Maris' 61st home run baseball dies

He had tied Roger Maris’ American League record of 61 home runs in a season, what many fans consider baseball’s ‘clean’ standard for the sport. Maris hit his 61st home run in the Yankees' 163rd and final game of the regular season, topping the record set by Ruth over a 154-game season in 1927. The disparity of games led then-MLB commissioner Ford Frick to make a mid-season declaration regarding the home run record, appeasing those who resented Maris for chasing the mythical Ruth and his sacred number. Maris made his major league debut on April 16, 1957, with the Cleveland Indians.