Roger Maris Ties Babe Ruth with His 60th Home Run

On September 26, 1961, Roger Maris hit his 60th home run of the season, tying Babe Ruth's 34-year-old record. He drove a Jack Fisher fastball into the right-field seats at Yankee Stadium as the Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles 3-2. Fewer than 20,000 fans were in the stands.

The small crowd reflected the public's complicated relationship with Maris's pursuit. Many fans wanted the record to belong to Ruth forever. Commissioner Ford Frick had ruled in July that any record set after the 154th game of the season, the length of the schedule when Ruth hit 60 in 1927, would carry a "distinctive mark" in the record books. The expanded 162-game schedule gave Maris eight additional games that Ruth never had, and Frick's ruling cast a shadow over the accomplishment before Maris even reached it.

Maris was a private, quiet player from Fargo, North Dakota, playing in the most intense media market in the country. The daily press conferences, the questions about whether he deserved to break the record, and the open hostility from some Ruth loyalists took a physical toll. He lost clumps of hair to stress during the season.

The 60th home run came in game 158. Five days later, on October 1, Maris hit number 61 off Tracy Stallard of the Boston Red Sox in the final game of the season. Only 23,154 people were there to see it. Maris's record stood for 37 years until Mark McGwire hit 70 in 1998.