Williams, who won 1,571 games, was inducted in the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2008. He also managed the California Angels, Montreal Expos, San Diego Padres and Seattle Mariners, winning the National League with the Padres in 1984 to join Bill McKecnie as the only managers to win pennants with three different clubs. Three years after he retired, he managed the Red Sox to the 1967 American League pennant, known as the “Impossible Dream.” The Sox lost to the Cardinals in the World Series in seven games, but Williams managed the Oakland Athletics to World Series victories in 1972 and ’73. 206 with eight homers and 24 RBIs in 1961. In fact, he's still famous in Baltimore for "Boog's Barbecue" at Camden Yards. He hit 339 home runs (including 37 in 1969 when he won the American League MVP award) and drove in 1,187 run during his 16-year career. But he became a regular the following season and quickly earned a reputation as one of the most dangerous power hitters of his era. He struck out in his first at-bat and had only three more at-bats that season. On the day Maris tied Ruth’s record, Williams, batting sixth, was 0-for-2 with a walk before being pinch-hit for in the sixth inning by Boog Powell, who was just called up from the minors and was making his major league debut. He also played for the Brooklyn Dodgers, Cleveland Indians, Kansas City Athletics, and the Boston Red Sox his last two seasons in 1963 and ’64. Williams was nearing the end of a 13-year career in the big leagues, including three different stints with Baltimore. Fisher, who would pitch for the Mets from 1964-67 (losing 24 games in 1965), fell to 10-13.ĭid You Know … The starting leftfielder for the Orioles 50 years ago was Dick Williams, who would become a Hall of Fame manager. Rollie Sheldon, who was born in Putnam, Connecticut and pitched for UConn, hurled the last three innings in relief to get the win and improve to 10-5. He started in center and walked in the bottom of the first inning, but Lopez pinch-ran for him and went to right field while Maris moved over to center. Mantle, who had 54 home runs, was still not 100 percent after missing some games with a hip abscess. Then in the seventh, Billy Gardner and Tom Tresh, a September call-up, singled, and after Maris flied out to short right, Lopez reached on an error as Gardner scored the go-ahead run. The 1927 Yankees also had to make up a tie game, so Ruth technically set the record in 155 games (although he didn’t homer in the last game of the season). So, when you think about it, he actually hit his 60 homers in 149 games. Maris didn’t homer in the tie game, and, in fact, he didn’t hit his first HR until his 11 th game of the season. Since the Yankees played a tied game earlier in the season that had to be made up, the team technically played 163 games in 1961. American League President Joe Cronin, however, came out later and said if someone surpassed 60 home runs, it would be considered an American League record. With Maris and teammate Mickey Mantle hotly pursuing the record, Baseball Commissioner Ford Frick, a close friend of Ruth’s, announced in July that the record had to be tied or broken in 154 games in order to be recognized. Ruth set the record in 1927 when they played 154 games. Maris tied the historic mark in his 159 th game in 1961, the first season the American League expanded to a 162-game schedule. Roger Maris joined The Bambino as the only players in baseball history to hit 60 home runs in a season when he belted his record-tying HR 50 years ago today in the Yankees’ 3-2 win over the Baltimore Orioles in the Bronx.
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