This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 1/28/2009
Hank Aaron on Roger Maris: "You know, I had to tell someone recently that Roger Maris was a damn good ballplayer People think he had just one big year, but he was a very good ballplayer I thought he was one of the best outfielders I have seen, and he was a very good clutch hitter. "
In 1961, when Roger Maris broke Babe Ruth's single season home run record, his private world collided with public fervor. He filmed the movie "Safe At Home" with Mickey Mantle, endorsed products such as soda and tried to relax and prepare for the 1962 season.
In the spring of 1962, Leslie Lieber, a freelance writer for the Sunday "This Week" News Magazine had a thought that blossomed into a full blown experiment involving the new "Home Run King". Lieber, learning that Roger used a baseball bat that was 11 ounces lighter than that of
the Babe, theorized that the older and heavier bats
used by the legends of the game from baseballs by gone era, would be more difficult to use to hit home runs that the sleek modern lighter bats. Even Joe DiMaggio hinted at that to Lieber the year before and there were whispers within baseball circles that seemed to lend credence to this theory.
Lieber asked Maris to test the bat theory in what would be a very special experiment. Maris would use four different bats to hit a baseball as long as he could by using representative bats of lumber used by four different baseball legends. Then the Rog would test the four by using his own bat as well.
The greats' bats selected for this experiment were; Ty Cobb (42 oz. 34 1/2 inches); Babe Ruth (44 oz. 35 1/2 inches); Frank "Home Run" Baker the relatively little man whose name was legendary and who used the heaviest bat of the four (47 oz. 34 inches); and the 19th century long ball hitter, Pete Browning (46 oz. 37 inches). It was Browning who in the 1880's was so enamored with his own baseball bat that he accepted an offer by woodworker Bud Hillerich to fashion a new one specifically tailored to his discerning taste. Other players were so impressed with the bat, the very first bat called the "Louisville Slugger", that Browning is credited with helping launch the bat company, Hillerich & Bradsby that still supplies bats to the majors. Lieber later wrote that the Browning model was a "bologna-shaped bludgeon with a handle as think as a tree trunk.
The legends would be represented by their bats with dimensions, records showed, that mirrored the actual baseball bat weights and lengths used by each. Roger was to use his own bat, one that weighed 33 ounces and was 35 inches in length. Lieber, a well respected journalist who wrote a story the previous year on the home run chase that the brass at Hillerich and Bradsby enjoyed was able to easily persuade them to craft four new bats for the effort and join in the fun.
The Yankees and their legendary coach Frank Crosetti came on board to help in the experiment as well. It helped, of course, that the team was promised a nice springtime spread in the Sunday Supplement. The team made their spring training ballpark in Fort Lauderdale available contributed 30 new baseballs to the effort, a nice sunny day was selected, and everything was set.
With Frank Crosetti measuring the distance of the balls hit by Roger outside of the ball park fence and Lieber doing the same for those that might not reach the outer walls, the grand experiment took place. Maris used five bats and in rapid succession and propelled five balls high up into the clear Florida sun. Lieber later wrote that "A light breeze blew in
right field against Maris throughout the test". ,Crosetti and Leiber scampered around and made their estimates on little scraps of paper.
What was the recorded distance of the ball that shot from he "winning" bat?
TY Cobb's bat was used by Roger to hit a baseball that eached a distance of 1,621 feet. What about the rest? he "Home Run" Baker bat was good for 1,549 feet, Pete Browning's "bludgeon" hit the ball 8 feet less; and the Bambino's bat caused the ball to travel 1,524 feet. Lastly, Rogers "little" bat came in last place, the ball being hit 1st one foot shorter than the Babe's. The experiment weals that on this home run "chase", Maris fell just a action off the Ruth mark.
In the May 20, 1952 issue of "This Week" Lieber asked Maris whether he was now tempted to switch bats for the heavier earlier model for the upcoming season. "Never in million years" said Roger "Against fast mid season itching, it takes a light bat to give you that split second wing. I'll take my hat off to the Old Timers. But when a bat can come through with 61 homers in a season, I'm not in the market for a replacement"!
included with the four bats is a copy of the "This Week" article by Leslie Lieber. LOA from MEARS