Roger Maris: 1961 Male Athlete of the Year Is Underrated After All These Years

Roger Maris will never be voted into the Hall of Fame, but Roger Maris won an honor that only 24 other baseball players have received.

In 1961, Maris was voted the Male Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press. The award was instituted in 1931, the same year that the MVP award that is determined by the Baseball Writers' Association of America was created.

Maris finished with 555 points on the basis of three points for a first place vote, two points for a second place vote and one point for a third place vote.  Paul Hornung finished a distant second with 108 points.

The usually reticent Maris, who rarely showed emotion, was impressed and humbled.

"It's got to mean a lot to me when they rank you ahead of every athlete in the world," Maris said. "There are some mighty good ones on that list."

Maris had one of the great seasons in baseball history as he helped the New York Yankees win the 1961 World Series while setting the single-season home run record with 61.

Purists, whatever they are, claimed and many still claim that Maris' season was blemished because he batted only .269. They point out that when Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs, he batted .356.

Maris had 159 hits, a .269 batting average and a .372 on base percentage, none of which is especially impressive.

But he lead the league with 132 runs scored. He led the league by driving in 142 runs. He led the league with 366 total bases and, of course, he set the all-time single-season home run record. Maris made the most of his hits.

The Yankees didn't coast to the 1961 pennant.

On Sept. 1, they held a slim 1.5-game lead over the Detroit Tigers. The teams were starting, as Mel Allen said, a crucial three-game series at Yankee Stadium.

The Yankees won the first game. The Tigers almost had to win the next game. Maris went 3-for-4 with two home runs and a double to almost bury them. He had that kind of season.

In the World Series, the Cincinnati Reds were on the verge of taking a two games to one lead. It was probably the most important game of the Yankees season.

They had lost to the upstart Pittsburgh Pirates the year before and followed that with one of the greatest regular seasons in history, but it would have meant little if a second consecutive World Series loss followed.

At the end of seven innings, the Reds were in front, 2-1.

The Yankees'  vaunted offense that had set a new major league team record of 240 home runs in a season, the offense that was led by the "M & M" boys, the offense that averaged more than five runs a game, was being stopped.

Bob Purkey retired the first two Yankees in the eighth. Ralph Houk sent up left-handed power hitter Johnny Blanchard to pinch hit for pitcher Bud Daley. Blanchard promptly tied the game with a home run to right field.

With the score tied 2-2, Purkey remained in the game to pitch the ninth inning.

The Yankees struck quickly. Maris led off by hitting a long home run to put the Yankees ahead for the first time. They held on behind Luis Arroyo to win.

Maris had only two hits in 23 at-bats in the Series for a .105 batting average, but his home run was vital in the Yankees win.

Maris' defense has been virtually ignored, but he was an excellent outfielder, as the San Francisco Giants discovered in the 1962 World Series when Maris cut off WIllie Mays' ninth inning double near the right field line to prevent Matty Alou from scoring the tying run.

McCovey lined out to Richardson and the Yankees won their second consecutive World Series.

Maris hit only .174 in the Series against the Giants, but without his play in the seventh game, the Yankees probably don't win.

It's too bad Maris was, is and always will be terribly underrated.