January 22, 2021: Magical Mystery Tour

It was back to the archives for another baseball season. I thought I would go year by year, starting at 1959, as long as I could through this series. Yet, I couldn’t find 1960 for the life of me. I looked it up, and sure enough, it didn’t seem to exist; 1961 it is. They did give 1960 a minute or two in the start of the episode. Of course 1960 brought to us one of the most famous home runs of all time: a walk off HR in Game 7 of the World Series by Bill Mazeroski as the Pirates beat the heavily favored Yankees. That was that, and now 1961.

It was sort of a magical mystery tour. 1961 brought two new teams into the major leagues: the Minnesota Twins and Los Angeles Angels. That meant it would be the first year the major league season would include 162 games… only in the American League; that’s kind of crazy. The NL played 154 that year, but joined the AL the following year with 162, which remains the same to this day. The magical part of the year was the famous home run chase. Recently, we’ve watched the ESPN documentary on the McGwire and Sosa battle; most of us lived through it. But in 1961, it was the original home run chase, with both guys on the same team: Mantle vs Maris.

I’m sure many folks hated the Yankees, for all those winning seasons. I have to admit, seeing them with all those World Series titles, I’m not exactly a fan. Yet, watching the recap of this year, it was hard not to be a fan. The greatness of the Yankees was on full display around that time. This year in particular, where a home run chase brought more attention to baseball than ever. Mantle was the golden boy, and Maris was the small town boy… but Ruth was god. Yankee fans didn’t want the record broken, heck even the commissioner, who was a friend of Ruth’s said that unless it was broken in 154 games, the same number of games Ruth played, there would be an asterisk; ah, the asterisk… If anybody was going to break it, Yankee fans surely wanted Mantle to do it, but an injury cut his chase short at 54. Maris continued on, sometimes getting booed for getting closer; that’s just nuts. If he got booed for trying to top Ruth for the single season home run record, imagine Hank Aaron, chasing Ruth’s all time home run record; RIP Hammerin’ Hank. Maris did it, in game 162; 61 home runs in the ’61 season.

On the other side of the league, it would be Frank Robinson, the NL MVP, leading the Reds into the World Series. Without Mantle, would the Yankees be able to win the series? Well, I guess I didn’t realize how good Whitey Ford was. The year before, he pitched two shutout wins in the World Series against the Pirates; the manager Casey Stengel was criticized for not having him pitch in game 1, allowing him to start potentially 3 games in the series; yes, the Yankees lost in 7. Whitey would pitch game 1 in this series, and throw ANOTHER shutout. Another one of Ruth’s records would fall, when Whitey took the mound in Game 4; the consecutive scoreless innings pitched streak. Yeah, Ruth pitched too… and was damn good at that! That’s wild. Mantle would return for Games 3 & 4 and would get an important RBI; Maris would hit a HR in Game 3. The Yankees would take the series in 5.

I’m really enjoying this walk back in time. I wish every year would be represented; I’m not sure which year in the 60s is next. But whatever it may be, I’m sure I will enjoy it. Yeah, not many Cubs Sox World Series wins to relive back then, but plenty of great baseball. Now back to the present day, and a recap of an action packed Friday night.