Surly Roger Maris: Too Bad

[LouGehrig]

Roger irritated many with his angry stubbornness and his fierce, combative integrity. Integrity is not appreciated by those in power.

http://baseball.suite101.com/article.cfm/surly_roger_maris

[Yankeebiscuitfan]

I still don't understand why he was treated that way by the NY media and fans. He was a Yankee.

If Giambi was about to break the season homerun record, I would root for him, eventhough I am not a fan of him.

The same with Moose. I am very critical, but I would never boo him. I always hope that he wins the game he pitches. He is pitching for my Yankees. So why would I boo him?

In fact it seems that nothing has changed during the years with Yankee fans.

[RubeBaker]

Before satellite packages and blogs and 24 hour sports networks, fans had to rely on the local media as a window to their favorite players.

Look at who Maris played with. Mantle was smooth, Yogi Berra was a sound bite waiting to happen, and Whitey Ford got along well with the press. Maris was none of those with the media and paled in comparison to how well his teammates got along with the press. He may have been a bit surly, but certainly not Barry Bonds or Jeff Kent surly.

[NYMets523]

Back then, no one wanted him to break the record because of how idolized Babe Ruth was. He also had 162 games to break the record while Babe Ruth only had 154 to set it.

[steve rogers]

Mantle was booed mercilessly his first few years. DiMaggio was booed when he held out for more money. Babe Ruth was booed a lot too (like Ty Cobb he even ran into the stands to fight a heckler and screamed at the crowd "you're all yellow"). There was a guy in Boston named Dave Egan that would write stuff about Ted Williams that makes me want to go back in time and punch him in the face. When Williams was going back into the Marines to serve his country again in the Korean War and the Red Sox held a special ceremony to honor Teddy Ballgame's service Egan said "why are we having a day to honor this guy?". Um maybe because he's one of the greatest players of all time and he already served his country once and now he's doing it again. Oh yeah and he might be killed in the process.

Yankee fans were booing Arod like crazy in 2006. He had an off year. A Hall of Fame caliber year but an off year for him. So they booed him. When Jeter got off to a terrible start a few years ago they booed him too. The bleacher creature's even went so far as to start chanting "Nomar is better".

What's my point? People are stupid. Fans are stupid and the media is even stupider. Not all of them, but the majority are for sure. They're like little children. "Yes Arod won an MVP for the Yankees in 2005 and we wouldn't have even made it to the playoffs without him but he struck out today!!! so I should boo him." When fans and the media do stupid things it's because they are just that. Stupid.

Scott

[Pinstripes]

While Billy Crystal's movie "61" may not be 100% historically accurate, you definitely have to watch it. It will give you a lot of insight as to how things went. Most of the Yankee players that saw it say it's fairly accurate (with some obviously creative liberties taken). On top of that, it's just a really great movie that every Yankee fan should see, but probably not recommended for kids.