1962 Topps #53 AL Home Run Leaders PSA 3 Roger Maris Mickey Mantle ‘61 HR Chase

Description: 1962 Topps AL Home Run Leaders #53 PSA 3. In an epic drama spiced with improbable plot twists, New York Yankees stars Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris dueled in 1961 to break Babe Ruth’s Major League Baseball season record for home runs. Their pursuit of the magical mark of 60, set by the Yankees’ legend in 1927, captured the imaginations of the nation’s baseball fans and dominated America’s sports sections. Mantle, a 29-year-old center fielder from Oklahoma, was a longtime Yankees star, a fan favorite and face of the franchise. “By 1960, he was a myth,” recalls George Vescey, who as a 22-year-old newlywed and rookie reporter for New York’s Newsday covered the Yankees in 1961. “The fans had finally taken to Mantle after booing his [butt] for five, six, seven years.” Maris was the interloper, a 26-year-old Midwesterner whose years with the Kansas City Athletics and Cleveland Indians had not prepared the right fielder for New York's bright lights. “A wonderful player,” remembers Vescey, who went on to have a lengthy career as one of the New York Times’ top columnists. The double pursuit of Ruth was a preseason storyline, and the intensity of the chase built by the end of June, when Maris and Mantle were ahead of the Bambino's 1927 pace. Then the pressure really ratcheted up that sizzling summer. By August, a new storyline emerged, one that contrived an unfriendly competition between Maris and Mantle. But "The M&M Boys” shared a New York apartment with outfielder Bob Cerv, the Yankees' left fielder, and all got along well. By mid-September, Maris led his teammates 56 home runs to 53. Then Mantle developed an infection in his hip, forcing him to stop playing. Just like that, the two-man race became a solo act, with all the pressure squarely on Maris, who was buckling under the weight of media demands for his time. "Irritating," Maris described the attention he was receiving, according to Sports Illustrated. "I enjoy bull sessions with the guys [reporters]. But this is different, the questions day after day, the big story." In a span of 10 days that month, Maris criticized Yankees fans and an umpire and refused to meet with the media after a doubleheader in Detroit. "Not-so-jolly Roger," a sports writer called him afterward. Yankees fans occasionally even booed Maris. “The only time Roger can relax is during a ballgame,” Cerv told reporters. Maris put it more bluntly to Mantle himself: “I’m going nuts, Mick.” he said, according to the Orlando Sentinel. “I can’t stand much more of this.” Late in the season, Maris even began losing his hair in clumps—his wife, Pat, said he looked like a molting bird. “It was only when Roger started losing his hair that we understood what kind of pressure he was under,” Yankees third baseman Clete Boyer recalled after the chase was over. On Sept. 26, against the Baltimore Orioles, Maris hit his 60th home run to tie Ruth’s mark. Five days later, on the last day of the regular season, the American League champion Yankees played the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium. Most of New York was focused on the upcoming World Series against the Cincinnati Reds. Vecsey wasn’t even at Yankees Stadium that day—his newspaper decided a New York Titans football game at the Polo Grounds was the bigger story. “Somebody in the press box had a transistor radio,” he recalls. “I remember hearing somebody say, ‘He did it.’" Maris flied out to left field in his first at-bat against Boston rookie Tracy Stallard. In the fourth inning, Maris took two pitches, both balls. Then he hammered Stallard's waist-high third pitch 10 rows into the right-field stands. Most of the 23,154 fans in attendance cheered as Maris rounded the bases. He reached the dugout and then stepped out to wave his cap and acknowledge the crowd. “This was the big one,” Maris told reporters afterward. “I can’t remember much after I hit. I was happy."

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Location: West Linn, Oregon

End Time: 2024-10-27T02:45:10.000Z

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