Believe it or not, the 1960 Yankees played one tie game, same as the 1927 and 1961 Yankees. June 15, 1960 in Kansas City against the Athletics: 7-7 in 12 innings; each team scored 3 runs in the 12th. Yogi Berra and Clete Boyer homered for the Yanks.
Yankee game 99 (58-40-1):
HR: Roger Maris 2 (35, 1 off Dick Hall, 3rd inn, 1 on, 2 outs to Deep CF, 1 off Ned Garver, 5th inn, 2 on, 2 outs to Deep CF).
Maris had 35 Home Runs (HR) in his team's first 99 games. Let's extrapolate like we've doing with Aaron Judge in 2022. Judge has 61 HR so far with six games remaining, including one later today at Yankee Stadium.
Maris had played in 95 of those 99 Yankee games in 1960.
If Maris played all of the remaining games and continued to homer at that pace he would have hit 53 HR. If he homered at that pace for 154 games, Maris would have hit 54 HR. If he had done it for all 162 games of the new season length that started the following year, Maris would have hit 57 HR ... in 1960.
Before pitching was diluted by the American League expanding from 8 to 10 teams (25%) and adding 8 games (5.2%) in 1961.
And with Maris mostly batting behind Mickey Mantle, not in front of Mantle as happened in 1961. They were switched in September 1960 and in the 1960 World Series with Mantle batting lower in the lineup and protecting Maris.
But Maris did not homer again until September 8, 1960 in a 5-4 loss in Chicago:
HR: Roger Maris (36, off Billy Pierce, 3rd inn, 0 on, 2 outs to Deep CF)
Pierce was a tough lefty.
That was Yankee game 134 (78-55-1). For Maris it was game 115. Here is his 1960 game log:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/gl.fcgi?id=marisro01&t=b&year=1960
Maris failed to homer in 9 consecutive games through August 14, 1960 in the second game of an excruciating doubleheader loss to Washington at Yankee Stadium. In that game Mantle failed to run out a double play grounder on which Maris was injured trying to break it up sliding into second base, resulting in:
Joe DeMaestri replaces Roger Maris (RF) playing SS batting 2nd
Bob Cerv replaces Mickey Mantle (CF) playing LF batting 4th
Tony Kubek moves from SS to CF
Hector Lopez moves from LF to RF
Mantle was publicly benched by Casey Stengel, who was in his final season as Yankee manager. It's unclear if Stengel knew that Maris was hurt when he pulled Mantle. The game dragged on until Washington scored 3 runs in the top of the 15th inning for the sweep.
Mantle was excoriated in the newspapers but redeemed himself the next day with two home runs to win a game 4-3, driving in all the Yankee runs:
HR: Mickey Mantle 2 (29, 1 off Jerry Walker, 4th inn, 1 on, 0 outs to Deep RF, 1 off Hoyt Wilhelm, 8th inn, 1 on, 0 outs to Deep RF).
Mantle was trailing Maris 35 to 29 in Home Runs but Mantle would eventually win that home run race 40 to 39. Mantle had won a HR race in 1958 against Cleveland's Rocky Colavito 42 to 41. In 1961 Mantle would lose the biggest HR race of his career.
Maris missed 10 games then pinch hit in two games then returned to right field. But he took awhile to hit effectively. Maris hit his 39th and final HR September 16, 1960 in 4-2 Yankee win at Yankee Stadium:
HR: Roger Maris (39, off Steve Barber, 5th inn, 1 on, 1 out to RF).
Barber was a tough lefty. That was Yankee game 141 and 122 for Maris.
The next day Mantle hit number 35 and went on to pass Maris.
Maris failed to homer in his final 14 games in the 1960 regular season. Maris did homer in his first World Series plate appearance October 5, 1960, a 6-4 loss in Pittsburgh:
HR: Roger Maris (1, off Vern Law, 1st inn, 0 on, 2 outs to Deep RF)
Vern Law won the Cy Young award for MLB in 1960.
Unfortunately, in the game seven 10-9 loss in Pittsburgh Maris was the only Yankee who batted who failed to reach base: 0 for 5. Roger Maris seemed to have a dark cloud over him, despite being voted AL MVP in 1960 and 1961, with Mickey Mantle a very close second both seasons.
Much more detail in future posts on Maris splits for 1960, 1961, 1962.
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