Tonight is the MLB All Star Game in Anahiem, California, home of the Los Angeles Angels. It would have been a nice touch for MLB Hall Of Fame to have announced they had put Yankee great Roger Maris into the Hall. Roger Maris was the type of player who did everything right, and was everything we, as fans, hope our sports stars are. Family man, clean living, shy, and a terrific talent. In 1961, Maris and his counterpart, Mickey Mantle, engaged in a season long home run derby, attempting to break the single season home run record of 60, held by Babe Ruth. N.Y. Yankee fans would have always accepted their star, The Mick, breaking Ruth's record, but not Roger Maris. He was the first victim of sports paparazzi, who hounded him throughout the season, claimed he was arrogant (he was shy around the press), and wrote ugly stories about him. the Yankees always have a large press following, but in the Mantle-Maris HR derby that year, as many as 120 writers followed the team to every game. Late in the season, Mickey Mantle took an injury, ended up hitting 54 home runs. Roger Maris went on to hit 61, breaking Ruth's record on the final day of the season. Such was the legend of the long dead Babe Ruth (one of only three people just about everybody in the world knows is an American - Henry Ford and Al Capone being the other two), that baseball tried to qualify Maris' accomplishment. They put a sentence in the record books reflecting that Roger Maris hit 61 home runs in 162 games while Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs in 154 games. 1961 was an expansion year for MLB, with the California (now Anaheim) Angels coming into the league, adding eight more games to the schedule. The entry was not an asterisk as many believed. MLB commish Bart Giamatti had that sentence removed from the record book, allowing Maris' 61 homers to stand, until 1998, when the steroid trio of McGuire, Sosa, and later Bonds, broke that record. Roger Maris held the single season home run record longer than Babe Ruth did. He also was playing in what is essentially a "dead ball" era, compared to the modern game. Maris had to hit in canyons like Griffith Stadium, Washington, Memorial Stadium, Baltimore, Municipal Stadium, Cleveland (the mistake on the lake, was there many times), the Los Angeles Colisium, Fenway Park, Boston, as a lefty and Comiskey Park, Chicago. In old Comiskey, you had to hit the ball to Indiana for a homer. Mark McGuire, Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds, Jr., all hit their record HR's in new bandbox National League parks, or Wrigley Field, Chicago, which is a Little League field when the wind is blowing out. Sosa was caught using a corked bat, and all three admitted to heavy steroid use, something Roger Maris never did. Once again, in 2009, the nomination Veterans Committee of the Baseball Hall of Fame, failed to put Roger Maris into the Hall of Fame. Only Andre Dawson will go in, as a Montreal Expo (the HOF decides what team you represent when you enter the hall). Dawson put up the numbers, playing on concrete in Olympic Stadium in Montreal, so much so, he demanded a trade because he was tearing up his knees. He won a National League MVP award playing for the Chicago Cubs, who were a last place team that year (when are the Cubbies not second division?). Dawson ended his career with the Florida Marlins, where he hit his 400th HR. But lets quickly look at Roger Maris. Two (that's right, two), American League MVP awards. Only one other player in MLB history has won two MVP's, and hasn't been elected to the Hall of Fame. Maris hit 275 home runs in his career, won several Golden Gloves, was a four time All Star, and played in seven World Series. 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964 for the Yankees, and 1967 and 1968 for the St.Louis Cardinals. Another point. 1961 was an historic year, many of the Hall of Fame writer's who are on the selection committee never saw Maris play, and baseball is a game measured in statistics. Or, perhaps, the sportswriters don't know anyting about American History - that's why they are sportswriters. Others have put up better statistics, Jim Rice for example, but Roger Maris' chasing Babe Ruth's legend was THE STORY of that year. We had a young, inexperienced new President in John Kennedy take office, and by August, most Americans felt they had made a mistake on youth. Kennedy had launched the failed Cuban invasion called the Bay of Pigs. He had been humbled by Castro, who demanded a million dollars and tractors for the return of the prisoners involved, which Kennedy had to pay, and he had been humbled again at the Vienna Conference by USSR Premier Kruschev. Also, the Russians beat us on technology again (Spudnik first), by putting the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin, in 1961. America put up a monkey (who came back alive, but real agitated). Exciting, and embarassing moments for the nation, yes, but Roger Maris continuing to approach Babe Ruth's record throughout the summer remained the only story everybody followed, every single day. If Maris only played one season in MLB, it would have been THE STORY. The fact he played ball with Cleveland, Kansas City, New York and St.Louis, just emphasizes his ability to stay a starter all those years, with all those teams and how great a ballplayer he was. Maris died young of lymphoma, and on his tombstone are the numbers 61 on each side. One representing his 1961 season, the other representing his 61 home runs (still the American League record). Sportwriters and sports EM (Electronic Media) talking heads think they know it all. They refuse to look past "stats" to one of America's premier sports heroes, a man of the Jim Thorpe caliber and vote Roger Maris into the Baseball Hall of Fame. If he doesn't deserve a spot among all those greats, I can't think of anybody who ever played the game, and lived up to his hero image off the field, who did. It would have been nice, if during introductions to tonights baseball Hall of Fame game in Anaheim, the Hall of Fame Veteran's Committee put "statistics" aside, and announced they had put a true baseball legend - Roger Maris - into the HOF.....Stan