Talk:1961 New York Yankees season

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BetacommandBot 05:03, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

List of Roger Marris 61 Homers
Should a full list of Roger Marris's homers be listed here? Shouldn't it be on his own page? Boardg (talk) 21:11, 7 October 2015 (UTC)

Game Count for the Yankees (and Roger Maris)
The "Game #" in the table of Roger Maris home runs is important because of Commissioner Ford Frick's 1961 ruling that he had to tie or break Babe Ruth's single-season record without taking advantage of the fact that his season was scheduled as eight games longer.

On 4/22/1961, the Yankees played a 7-inning, 5-5 tie at Baltimore. This would require the teams to make up the missing game sometime later in the season, (unless it would have no impact upon the pennant race). The Yankees' won-lost record stood at 5-2 with 1 tie after 8 games were completed. (I checked these figures using retrosheet.org's Game Log for the 1961 Yankees.)

In the game of 9/20/1961, Maris hit his 59th off Milt Pappas in the 3rd inning, but was stopped thereafter by Pappas and Hoyt Wilhlem. After that game, the Yankees' record stood at 104-50, which is consistent with this being the 154th decision, and the 155th game, accounting for that tie.

The final game was played on 10/1/1961. Maris homered off Tracy Stallard in the 4th, (ultimately for a 1-0 win). The Yankees record stood at 109-53, 162 decisions in 163 games.

The Wikipedia article's Maris Table credits Baseball Almanac for the data. The source (http://www.baseball-almanac.com/feats/feats12b.shtml) has the final game numbered 163, which is consistent with the numbering of the other games, which include the tie. It would appear that someone along the way "corrected" the final game count to 162.

Perhaps the reason why nobody (in 1961) chose to make an issue of this in was that in 1927, when Babe Ruth set the record with 60 home runs, his Yankees also played a tie (on the third day of the season). Therefore, their 110-44 record denotes 154 decisions, in 155 games. Ruth hit his 60th in Game 154, and did not extend the record in Game 155. Both players thus had an extra game in which to set or break the record. Frick, with an asterisk in his pistol, ready to shoot down the challenge, still ruled, that Maris' chance to tie or break the record in a "regulation" season would end with the team's 154th decision. This was a fair-minded ruling, if indeed you accept Frick's argument in the first place. The above is a long-winded explanation of why I changed the number to 163.

WHPratt (talk) 02:33, 18 February 2019 (UTC)