What he enjoys as much - maybe more - is studying film of his grandfather throwing and playing outfield defense.īlaise’s father coached him throughout his youth. “He really kept it simple when he was hitting, and he was very successful with it,” Blaise said. Maris said when he falls into a slump at the plate he will go and study film of his grandfather’s swing. It makes me feel like I know him better, even though I never had a chance to meet him.” “They did a Q&A panel,” Maris said, ”and there’s a lot of stories from their playing days, stories about how they knew my grandpa and playing against him. Among those appearing this year were Hall of Famers Rollie Fingers, Goose Gossage and Johnny Bench. There also are the stories from friends and fans.Įach summer the Maris family hosts a celebrity charity golf tournament. There are the stories from his father Randy, the fourth of Roger Maris’ six children, as well as other family members. Maris was born 11 years after Roger Maris died, so he never got to know his grandfather in person. “I’ve learned so much in the past few days,” Maris said, “that has gotten me very excited and passionate about it and (eager) to put my mark on it as well.” “So I’m going to try to get a leg up and get some experience in it.”įormer Padres executive Andy Strasberg, a close family friend, helped Maris line up nearly a dozen meetings at the Meetings, with everyone ranging from executives to scouts to agents to player union reps. If it’s not, and it’s sooner rather than later, this is what I want to do. “You never know when someone is going to tell you that you’ve got to stop playing,” Maris said. Unlike most players, Maris is preparing Plan B in the event Plan A doesn’t pan out.
#Roger maris professional#
Like most players, Maris has his eye on a professional playing career. But that can't be the entire explanation, can it? Not that I have the answer, except to wager that on any similar occasions, Yankee Stadium or Fenway Park would certainly be jam-packed today.Maris, 23, is a senior catcher for Florida Tech who graduates in May. True, the two games were played in the afternoon, and 50 years ago adults went to work (had the notion of "flex time" even been invented?) on weekdays and parents made sure that their children went to school. The thinness of the crowds was apparently regarded as nothing out of the ordinary-baseball business as usual for end of the season games with no pennant on the line. Fifty years later, this indifference at the turnstiles seems unfathomable. So two of baseball's most historic days, and two mostly empty ball parks. If there were any Harvard professors of the type who nowadays want everyone to know that they are fans of the Bosox and therefore just one of the guys (or gals) or hedge fund managers on hand, they passed unrecorded by Updike. But truth to tell there were just not that many of those Hub Fans on hand-"I, and 10,453 others " as Updike wrote.Īnd the fans who did turn out, and did get to see (in person, and not in the retelling) Williams end his tour of duty at Fenway with a home run in his final at bat, were an unremarkable, unfashionable, and decidedly ordinary lot. John Updike, who did appreciate that it was not just another day at the ball park for a seventh-place team at the tail end of a horrible season, recorded it all in his classic account of the game, Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu.
But any sense that it was indeed a historic occasion was apparently lost to the multitudes. Williams announced beforehand that he would be retiring at the end of the 1960 season, and that the Sox's final home game on September 28 would be his last appearance before the Boston fans-the termination of what was probably the most intensely tangled love-hate relationship in all of baseball. Much the same had been true the year before when Red Sox legend Ted Williams played his last game at Fenway Park. Roger Maris's Misunderstood Quest to Break the Home Run Record The Red Sox Weren't Cursed, They Were Just Terribleġ2 Major League Sports Teams That Are Losing Fans Fast
0 kommentar(er)
