It was the summer of 1961. The Yankees were on pace for another World Series appearance despite loosing to the Pirates the previous year. It seemed like just another year in baseball history. With stars like Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle and Moose Skowron, people knew there would be homeruns, with each of those players hitting more than twenty the previous year, but no one knew what was in store by the time the dog days of summer rolled around.

But there was a huge change in baseball in 1961. Instead of playing the normal 154 games in a season, the commissioner increased the amount of games played to 162. This seemed like an unimportant change, just another way for the owners of teams to rack in more money. But it proved to be a hot topic by the time August and September rolled around.

The reason why is because there was a homerun race. And not any homerun race: this homerun race would not only determine who led the league in dingers, but it would also determine the future of baseball and erase the past. That’s right; two players were chasing Babe Ruth’s unreachable mark of 60 homeruns in one season.

The catch was that both of these players were on the same team. Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris were chasing Ruth. Mantle was the clear favorite of the fans, while Maris was a lifetime .260 hitter and never put more than 25 homeruns out in his previous seasons.

When the 154th game came, some questioned the legitimacy of the breaking of the record. Mantle was out of the race with a serious leg injury. He ended his season with 54 homeruns. Maris, on the other hand, was on pace to break the record. He had 60 homeruns going into the 154th game. If he didn’t hit a homerun here, the sixty-one homeruns that would be marked down in the record book would have an asterisk next to it because of the extra amount of games played that season.

Maris would not hit a homerun in the 154th game. Against the Orioles he struck out twice and singled. In fact, in his last at-bat of the game, the Orioles, down by four runs, substituted in their best pitcher to face Maris. The nasty knuckleballer, who led the league in strikeouts made Maris whiff on three straight pitches.

Marris would hit only one more homerun in his last eight games, but that was enough to break the record. Some even booed when he did break Ruth’s record because Maris was so reserved and disliked in the public. The Yankees would go on to win 109 games out of 162 that year and destroy the Reds in the World Series, beating them 4-1 in the series. But that is not what 1961 is remembered for. '61 is remembered for Marris’ 61*.