On the blog today, we have my 1969 "Career-capper for Roger Maris, who wrapped up a nice 12-year Major League career in 1968 as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals:
Maris appeared in 100 games for the N.L. champs, hitting .255 with 5 homers and 45 RBIs in the "Year of the Pitcher".
He spent the last two years of his career with the Cardinals after his historic tenure with the New York Yankees.
Talk
about "right place at the right time", Maris came to the Cardinals just
as they put together a World Championship in 1967, and a return to the
World Series in 1968, though that resulted in a loss to the Detroit
Tigers.
Of course his Yankee tenure resulted in that historic
1961 season that saw him hit "61 in '61", setting a new Major League
record with 61 home runs, leading to what was his second straight MVP
Award after a wonderful 1960 season that saw him 39 homers and a
league-leading 112 RBIs.
By the time he hung them up in 1968,
he hit 275 homers with 850 RBIs and 826 runs scored, hitting .260 over
1463 games between 1957 and 1968.
It's easy to forget that he retired very young, at only 33 years of age.
Would have been cool if he got to play into the mid-70's, just as I was getting into baseball...
