September 3, 1961
It was on this day in 1961 that
Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris of the New York Yankees became the first
teammates in Major League Baseball history to both hit 50 home runs in the same
season. Maris entered the game with 53 homers and Mantle had 49. His 50th
came leading off the bottom of the ninth to tie the game with the Detroit
Tigers at five. The Yankees would later win the game 8-5.
Maris would go on to finish the
season with 61 home runs, passing Babe Ruth’s record of 60 hit back in 1927.
Maris’s record would last for 37 years until 1998 when Mark McGwire of the St.
Louis Cardinals hit 70. McGwire’s record would fall only three years later when
Barry Bonds blasted 73 in 2001. Mantle would miss significant
time due to injury for the most of September 1961 and finished the season at 52
homeruns.
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