When I was a kid, baseball reigned supreme, easily the most popular sport in America and while baseball has today yielded the crown to the NFL, for many people of my generation baseball still retains its preeminent position.
I think the reason for that is that there is something of an intimate relationship between the baseball players and fans. Baseball is a game of stories handed down from one generation to the next, which makes sense. After all, all intimate relationships, actual or imagined, are built on stories and memories.
Tuesday evening provided yet another story that gives baseball its special appeal.
In the top of the first inning in Arlington, Texas, Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge deposited a slider in the first row of the left-field bleachers for his 62nd home run, breaking the American League record of 61 set in 1961 by another Yankee, Roger Maris.
The official major-league record of 73 homers in a season belongs to Barry Bonds, who along with Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa made a mockery of the home run records in the late 1990’s and early 2000s, a period known as the Steroid Era, when those men used steroids to gain an unfair advantage. Although not technically illegal at the time, those players used steroids surreptitiously, well aware that what is technically legal is not always right. They disrespected the game for personal fame and wound up with infamy not fame, at least in the eyes of baseball purists.
As far as I’m concerned, Judge is now the single-season home run champion. I’m not alone in that sentiment: Roger Maris Jr., the son of the late slugger, has said as much, too.
So what happened Tuesday is a new story and also an old story retold.
Judge and Maris are now connected by a special bond.
But there are two other stories, stories of a pair of baseball fans that yet again remind us of the special bond between players and fans.
It is the story of Sal Durante and Cory Youmans.
On Oct. 1, 1961, Durante, a 19-year-old working class kid from Brooklyn and three friends, including his future wife, decided on a whim to go to Yankee Stadium for the last game of the 1961 season. Maris needed one more home run to break Babe Ruth’s record of 60 homers in a season, set in 1927. Durante and his companions secured seats high up in the right-field bleachers, the area where the left-handed hitting Maris hit most of his home runs.
In the fourth inning, Maris hit a towering fly ball into those same right-field bleachers and into the hands of Durante. You could argue it was the biggest catch in baseball history at the time, considering its implications.
After the game, Durante was escorted to the Yankees clubhouse to meet Maris, where Durante offered the historic home run ball to the slugger. “He just said, ‘Keep the ball and make yourself some money,’” Durante recalled.
Sure enough, later that fall, a California restaurant owner offered Durante $5,000 for the ball (about $50,000 in today’s currency). There was a catch, however. Maris would have to agree to fly out to Sacramento for a photo-op as Durante and the restaurant owner completed the sale. That was a big ask, for sure.
Again remarkably, Maris obliged, flying to California to help Durante collect the $5,000, money Durante spent to purchase his first home.
Tuesday night, Youmans, a Dallas resident, caught Judge’s 62nd home run ball.
Asked after the game what he intended to do with the ball, estimated to be worth millions of dollars, Youmans responded: “That’s a good question,” Youmans responded. “I haven’t thought about it.”
Chances are, he will give it plenty of thought. Youmans is no working-class kid from Brooklyn. He’s a vice president at Fisher Investments, which manages $197 billion worldwide. He is pretty well equipped to know the value the ball represents.
As for Judge, he struck the same gracious tone as the man whose record he surpassed.
“It’d be great to get it back, but you know, that’s a souvenir for a fan,” Judge said. “(He) made a great catch out there, and (has) every right to it.”
That, folks, is why I love baseball.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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