Maris' good friend reflects on how history dealt idol an unfair hand

Roger Maris haunts baseball history like Banquo's ghost in Shakespeare's "Macbeth," demanding his rightful place among baseball royalty.

Last year, he was back in the conversation for the Hall of Fame, before a committee denied him entry in a special vote.

This year, his specter again emerged as the Yankees' Aaron Judge surpassed him on the list of single-season home run leaders.

Author Andy Strasberg, whom Maris called his most loyal fan and who later became the two-time AL MVP's friend, is acutely aware that history has dealt his idol an unfair hand.

Strasberg, who wrote "My 1961," told from the point of view of his experience as a 13-year-old growing up in New York during Maris' historic year.

It was with the eyes and emotions of that 13-year-old that he witnessed Judge's pursuit and eventual passage of Maris.

"I had been through this before, starting in '98. And so a lot of the same feelings came back. I was upset. I was disappointed. I was concerned," he said.

The 74-year-old former head of marketing for the San Diego Padres, who later was responsible for the United States Postal Service issuing a stamp commemorating the song "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," said he was "fighting with a 13-year-old kid inside of me."

But then he began thinking about his father, who was 14 years old when Babe Ruth hit his 60th home run.

"So I'm thinking to myself, 'He's happy.'"

As a young fan growing up in New York, Strasberg gravitated toward Maris, when most of his contemporaries idolized Mickey Mantle.

"I just fell in love with the guy. He was a fabulous fielder. One of the best runners in breaking up double plays."

He said the turning point for him was a June 11, 1961 doubleheader. Maris hit two homers in one game and robbed hitters of two home runs in the nightcap.

The catches were spectacular.

"He would jump up, catch the ball and fall into the right field stands at Yankee Stadium. To me that was like Superman."

Strasberg said Maris rejuvenated the Yankees after they failed to reach the World Series in 1959.

"Most of the his teammates said that he was the missing piece. He was the one thing that put them over the top."

Strasberg said it is a mistake to compare Ruth's and Maris' historic seasons.

A better comparison between the two seasons is on the basis of plate appearances rather than games played.

"A player can play in five games for defensive purposes and never get an at bat. Well, those are five games, but not plate appearances," he said.

Strasberg pointed out that Maris hit his 60th home run in his 684th plate appearance, whereas Ruth accomplished the feat in 689.

But for those fixated on games played, he also pointed out, "(Maris) did hit 61 home runs in 154 games. It was the last 154 games of the season."

Also, he said that in 1927, Ruth would face pitchers who, if they had been pitching in 1961, "would have been taken out of the game. Ruth hit home runs off of guys that were just trying to get through the game."

Other factors make comparisons odious.

"There wasn't night baseball. It wasn't coast-to-coast. Baseball wasn't integrated," he said.

Another difference between Ruth and Maris was the adulation showered on the Babe and the relative disdain shown Maris.

"I think Roger was a victim of some bad press," Strasberg said. "And back then, that's how people formed their opinion of a player."

Not only was it bad press, but inaccurate press, he said. One writer called Maris a "redneck," which has obvious negative connotations, when it was clear he meant to call him a "red (expletive)," a fiery player. Papers across the country picked up on the term.

"There were two or three writers who did not like Roger. And they based that on the fact that he was not either colorful enough or accessible enough. And they were going to teach him a lesson. And so they started to write about him in a negative way, which I think greatly influenced a lot of people, and it was misleading."

At 13, Strasberg was able to look past that.

"I was the perfect age. I was 13 years old. And I thought that there's got to be more to a guy than how these writers are portraying him."

Strasberg's hero worship would lead to a rewarding lifetime friendship with his idol.

• Coming next week: Andy and Roger, a lifelong friendship