December 9th, 2017 at 8:00 am 
by Ron Cervenka It was a great time to be a kid. The year was 1961 and Yankee teammates Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris were locked in an epic and historic battle to break the single-season home run record set by yet another former Yankee – that of the 60 home runs hit by the great Babe Ruth in 1927. As a kid, you simply could not have too many Mantle and Maris Topps baseball cards – gum notwithstanding – even an an absolute die-hard Dodger fan.
During the 1961 season, you could never have too many Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris baseball cards. (Courtesy of Google images)
As things turned out, Mantle finished that remarkable 1961 season with only 54 home runs having missed considerable time due to a late-season injury. Maris, however, would indeed go on to break the Babe’s record with his 61 round-trippers. The difference, of course, is that Maris had done so on October 1, 1961 in the 162nd and final game of the 1961 season, whereas Ruth had slugged his 60th home run on September 30, 1927 in game number 154 of an unusual 155-game season. Until the 1961 season, American League teams played a total of 154 games in a season, but in 1927 the Yankees played 155 games due to an official game that ended in a 9-9 tie against the Philadelphia Athletics on April 14, 1927.
Because of the 154-game versus 162-game dispute, Maris’s 61 home run record carried an asterisk with it until 1991, when then MLB commissioner Fay Vincent decreed Maris’s record as the official single-season home run record. Vincent based his decision on the fact that Ruth had hit his 60th home run in his 689th plate appearance of the 1927 season and Maris his 61st home run in his 684th plate appearance in 1961. Dispute resolved, asterisk removed.
The point became moot in 1998 when St. Louis Cardinals slugger Mark McGwire blew away the Maris record when he hit 70 home runs. Three seasons later, San Francisco Giants outfielder Barry Bonds topped McGwire’s record when he slugged 73 home runs in 2001. Unfortunately for Bonds, his 73-home-run record shall forever be tainted when it was confirmed that he had used performance enhancing drugs during that and several other seasons. And while it was also confirmed that McGwire had been a PED user in the latter part of his 16-year MLB career, it was never confirmed that he had done so during his (then) record-setting 1998 season. But unfortunately for Big Mac, it will forever be presumed that he had.
Bonds would go on to beat Hank Aaron’s career home run record mark of 755 and would finish his tainted career with 762 career home runs. And even though his record-breaking 756th career home run ball is on display at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York, it carries an asterisk not only in the record books but also very prominently on that actual baseball itself.
After paying $752,467.20 for Barry Bonds’s record-breaking 756th career home run ball at an auction, New York fashion designer Marc Ecko intentionally defaced the historic ball with an asterisk before donating it to the Hall of Fame.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)
Fast-forward to December 9, 2017.
On Saturday morning, it was being widely reported that Miami Marlins slugger and 2017 National League MVP Giancarlo Stanton had (finally) waived his no-trade clause and accepted a trade to the New York Yankees, thus giving the Bronx Bombers not one but two 50+ home-run-hitting right fielders. Stanton, who finished the 2017 season with a MLB-best 59 home runs will join 25-year-old Yankees right fielder and 2017 AL Rookie of the Year Aaron Judge, who hit 52 home runs in his rookie campaign, during which he played in (wait for it…) 155 games.
Could Stanton and Judge become the Yankees next Mantle and Maris?
(Photo credit – Getty Images and Bill Kostroun)
Although most Dodger fans are undoubtedly disappointed that the 28-year-old Stanton, who was born in Panorama City, California and grew up a die-hard Dodger fan himself, approved the trade to the Evil Empire, it is impossible – as a baseball fan – not to be excited over potential Mantle / Maris-like battles over the next decade, just like when we were kids.
…well some of us, that is.
Play Ball!
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Unbelievable report.
Stanton/Judge? Forget that, I was excited about Stanton/Bellinger.
Oh well, by now we know FAZ, Stanton was only going to become a Dodger if he could help the Dodgers solve their luxury tax problem in 2018.
It’s now 8:45AM Saturday, we still hear that Stanton has to accept the deal. Will he? Hang tough Stanton, Dodgers want you!
I remember Mantle/Maris like it was yesterday, used to check out the MLB league leaders in the newspaper everyday. It was good times, but the great memories are the Dodgers 1959 Championship (my first MLB memory) the 1962 steamrolling Dodgers (till the bitter end) and the 1963 four game sweeping Dodgers dynamo. Oh yeah, the 1965 Dodger championship made that Mantle/Maris thing a trivial thought.
Dodgers could have made this Stanton deal happen if they wanted but the concern is reducing payroll, getting under that tax threshold, their # 1 priority over getting back to the WS, let alone winning it. I look for this team to miss the PS for the first time since 2012.
WOW! 114 wins in 2017, but doom and gloom for 2018 because Dodgers do not add another $250M in payroll.
Maybe that prediction was a bit harsh but at least Dodgers can go to Winter Meetings and concentrate on any upgrades that may be worth pursuing.
there are some holes on the roster due to free agency, in particular the bull pen, but the core of the team that won the NL West, swept the Dbacks in playoffs, won the NL pennant, and went to game 7 in the WS against a very good team returns AND has Toles, Verdugo, Buehler, and by June Urias competing for roster spots is very strong and currently the odds on favorites to once again go to the WS.
Well here is the latest at 10:56am.
Jon Heyman of FanRag reports via Twitter that the Yankees will receive about $35MM from the Marlins in the deal, and confirms that they’ll send back Castro and prospects. Heyman also adds in a separate tweet that Stanton is on his way to NYC for a physical, making it clear that he is waiving his no-trade clause.
If this is the deal, looks like homerism by Jeter. It’s going to be real interesting to see what the Dodgers were offering.
Jeter and owners not off to a rousing start, but Jeter seemingly in a Catch-22 with Stanton’s full no trade clause and apparent edict to dump as much of his salary as possible. Stanton practically took out a full page ad in the LA Times telling Dodgers “I want to be a Dodgers” but no trade.
It looks like Stanton has agreed to go to Yankees to get past all this drama associated with it, but we know his t first choice obviously was with Dodgers, but we now must move on.
I would love to have a Marlins OF’er on the Dodgers, but it wasn’t Stanton — Christian Yelich. IF Marlins are rebuilding then it may be willing to trade Yelich if Dodgers would also take Martin Prado ($28.5M over next 2 years). Would have to include a top prospect like Verdugo, a couple of young pitchers (Stripling and Oaks?), and a player like Kike Hernandez with Marlins taking McCarthy to help off set Prado’s contract.
Stanton will not be a Dodger and at $250M that is just fine.The Dodgers could go after Ozuna but I don’t see that happing.Left field looks like Toles or Verdugo.
Toles or Verdugo platooning with Kiki. Probably not bad at all.
I am disappointed Dodgers didn’t get Stanton. It seemed a match made in heaven, Stanton/Bellinger wasn’t only a 21st century Mantle/Maris, but the 2018 Dodgers could have been the 21st century version of Murderers Row. I could also see 4 million fans streaming into Dodger Stadium for the first time to pay for Stanton’s huge salary. But it just wasn’t meant to be.
I don’t always agree with FAZ from my GM Seat, but I must give them the benefit of the doubt. They have demonstrated that they most assuredly do know how to build a great MLB team. As I contemplate the Dodgers next moves, I keep reminding myself, pitching, pitching, pitching. That is what wins championships.