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Roger Maris
A
1AST SEPTEMBER, cheering
J fans made Roger Mar
is step from the New York
Yankees' dugout to take an
unprecedented bow after
hitting his historic 61st
home run.
Today the sight of his No. 9 can
shake a stadium with boos as
leather-lunged bleacherites bellow
at his reddening neck.
Fickle fandom has turned many
heroes into villains but seldom
with the vengeance reserved for
"Raj." And Maris is much too hon
est to deny it bothers him.
"How do I like it?" he repeated
my question. "How do you think I
like it?" And there is enough bit
terness to show that the small
town boy who was genuinely
embarrassed by last year's adula
tion is genuinely disappointed by
this year's vilification.
Clutching a soft-drink bottle
as if it might be some tormentor's
When bothersome boos led to dan
gerous bottle tossing, Maris had to
be led back to work by umpire.
s
Tamily Weekly, June 3, 1962
What made the cheers
are Raj's chances of winning
neck, he will tell postgame inter
viewers that booing is "part of
the game" and that much of it can
be explained because of a slow
start this spring which sent his
batting average under .150.
But Maris' soft-spoken philoso
phies vanish when he talks about
"a few, a dozen or so fans among
all the thousands out there." These
hecklers, he nnva nhnkincr Vila hnv-
ish head, "get rough; they get
vulgar even about your family."
His voice trails off, but his silence
is tough and sour even tougher
than some of the retorts he has
fired back at hecklers in the 75
cent seats.
This last habit of Roger's
gives a clue to why he has
become the-player-you-love-to-hate
and how, within the limits of
ingrained stubbornness and sus
picion, he is trying to become a
baseball favorite again.
In a lifetime of athletic prowess,
Roger Maris has consistently
played into the hands of the fans,
writers, and dugout jockeys who
feel part of sportsmanship is
sticking pins into sacred images.
In high school in Fargo, N.D., for
example, he and his older brother
Bud, now his business manager,
were stars in football, baseball,
track, and basketball. But the pair
felt they were being downgraded
by a new football coach. Other
athletes might have worked harder
to convince the coach he was
wrong. Not the Maris boys. They
switched to a rival high school.
The Maris combination changed
Bishop Shanley High School from
underdog to all-around- winner.
The most delicious victory was
over the coach who snubbed the
Marises Roger caught two touch
down passes from Bud for the win.
The coach lost his football assign
ment, and the teen-age Marises
chortled in triumph.
They could never understand
why local sportswriters felt they
had showed poor sportsmanship,
and even today Roger is puzzled
because he has never made it as
a home-town hero. He claims he
The Story Behind the Boos
go sour for the slugger who set a home-run record last season and what
back the popularity he deserves? By JACK RYAN
doesn't care: "I live in Kansas City
now (actually suburban Raytown
where he has just built a sprawling
new home), and that's what counts.
Most of my friends are there."
The Fargo incident helped deepen
Maris' natural suspicions of anybody
who questions what he does. It also
convinced him that if he could take
on Fargo and win, he could take on
anybody. When the first boos rever
berated on his sensitive eardrums
last season, Roger was advised to
ignore them. Instead, he said:
"They (the booers) are a lousy
bunch of front runners, that's what
they are. Hit a home run and they
love you, but make an out and they
start booing. I have as much love for
them as they've got for me." Later,
he said he wished he had apologized
for the remarks. But he never did.
About this time, the jeers swelled
.mostly around fellow slugger
Mickey Mantle, but 10 years with
the same scapegoat is wearying. Be
sides, Mickey, once hot-tempered and
graceless, had mellowed with experi
ence. He could now flash a disarming,
Critics call Roger sullen, but wife
Dad's Japj. Roger, Jr. (center), Kevin
freckle-faced smile at barbs and fend
off bothersome questions with an in
gratiating backwoods humor. The
gods of sport had delivered Roger
Maris to the sacrificial altar on sched
ule, and Maris was most obliging.
"If people are going to like me,"
Maris says, "they'll have to take me
as I am. My friends understand me.
The others don't count." .
This may have been true in Fargo
with the Maris boys standing against
half the town. But now Roger stands
alone in right fields across the nation
in what amounts to open warfare
kindled by newspaper communiques:
"Maris the Whiner, a Threat to Yank
Pennant," and "'A Busher,' Says
Rogers Hornsby of Mr. Maris."
His unpopularity so overwhelmed
Maris this spring that he ran from
clubhouse to apartment like a hunted
man. Manager Ralph Houk finally
called for a truce among sports
writers, at least. Houk got the truce,
and since .then Maris has falteringly
attempted to bring out the side of
him which inspires great loyalty
among teammates and unquestioning
affection among family.
Pat says he's .good-natured. Susan (on
(right, and Randy not shown) agree.
And it is team and family that
motivate Roger's efforts at a new
look, not any personal capitulation.
For example, Roger was accused
falsely of hurting the team with his
feuding. Actually, he's a favorite
among the cliquish Yankees. In the
television room of the Yankee club
house, a wide sofa accommodates
weary players after a game. Any
body can sit there, but tacitly it's
reserved for the most respected and
best-liked players.
After one recent game, Maris
stopped to congratulate John Blanch
ard on a game-winning homer.
He was the last man in the crowded
tv room but a spot on the sofa
awaited him, between bantering
Mantle and Moose Skowron.
THE IMPORTANT reason for Maris'
more expansive mood is his family
his wife Pat (whom he met at
Bishop Shanley) and their four chil
dren, all under five. In his more des
pairing moments, Roger has admitted
he looks on baseball chiefly as a way
of winning financial security for
them; there is little love and no sen
timent toward his career. But he is
stuck with it for the next 10 years or
more and, much to his chagrin, so
are Pat and the kids.
"Do you think I like to have my
parents and wife read things about
me that aren't true or are all mixed
up?" he asks. "Do you think I like
to have my wife call me up and say,
'Your father wants to know what's
going on what's the matter?' "
The Marises obviously have been
hurt by Roger's battles more than he
has been, and Roger would rather
stifle his inclination to fight back
than upset his closely knit family.
By himself, Maris might go through
life stacking chips on his beam
length shoulders, but he realizes now
he is n?t by himself. What he says
or does hurts those he likes and loves
more than it does his detractors.
"I'm Roger Maris, nobody else,"
he frequently explains, "and I can't
change that." But those who know
his devotion to team and family think
he's overestimating his surliness and
characteristically playing down the
nice-guy side of a deserving hero.
13
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