Oct. 1, 1961 - Roger Maris today became the first major league player in history to hit more than 60 home runs in a season. The 27-year-old Yankee outfielder hit his 61st at Yankee Stadium before a roaring crowd of 23,154 in the Bombers' final game of the regular season. That surpassed by 1 the 60 that Babe Ruth hit in 1927. Maris's homer produced the only run of the game as Ralph Houk's 1961 A.L. champions defeated the Red Sox, 1-0. Maris hit his fourth-inning homer in his second time at bat. The victim of the blow was Tracy Stallard, a 24-year-old Boston rookie right-hander. Stallard's name, perhaps, will gain as much renown as that of Tom Zachary, who delivered the pitch that Ruth slammed in the Stadium's right-field bleachers for No. 60 on the next to last day of the 1927 season. Ruth's record will not be erased, since he hit 60 home runs in the course of a 154-game season. Maris did not his his 60th until the 158th game. But Maris will go into the record book as having hit the 61st in a 162-game schedule.
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