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Fan Who Caught Maris’s 61st Homer Weds

Oct. 30, 1961 - Sal Durante (right), the 19-year-old Brooklyn truck driver who caught Roger Maris’s 61st home run, arrived in Sacramento today with both the ball and his new bride (left), Rose Calabrese, 17, a secretary. A Sacramento restaurant owner, Sam Gordon, greeted the newlyweds at the airport and said he would give Durante a $5,000 check Saturday for the ball. Mr. Gordon will then present the ball to Maris. Durante and his bride will have an all-expenses-paid honeymoon, financed by Gordon. They were married in New York yesterday. The ball was taken in an armored car to a Sacramento bank, where it will remain until Saturday’s ceremony. Durante said he had no firm plans for the money. “I’ll probably give it to my mother and father,” he said.



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