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ROGER MARIS- 60 HOMERS CLUB MEMBER

Roger Maris was born in Hibbing, Minnesota on September 10, 1934
Died on December 14, 1985 of lymphoma cancer at the age of 51.

Roger spent four years in the minor leagues playing for Fargo-Moorhead, Keokuk, Tulsa, Reading, and Indianapolis before making it to the major leagues.

During his first year in the major leagues, Roger hit 14 home runs and drove in 51 RBI's for the Cleveland Indians. Midway through his second year, Roger was traded to the Kansas City Athletics and finished the season with 28 home runs and 81 RBI's. Roger received attention and in his third year, was elected to the 1959 All-Star team.

After the 1959 season, Roger Maris was traded to the New York Yankees. In 1960, his first season with the Yankees, Roger led the major leagues with 27 home runs and 69 RBI's by the halfway point and was again named to the All-Star team. An injury sliding into second to break up a double play caused him to miss 17 games. However, Roger still finished the season first in RBI's with 112, second in home runs with 39 (one behind Mickey Mantle who led the majors with 40), won the Gold Glove Award, and was named the American League's Most Valuable Player. He also hit 2 World Series home runs, but it would be for the following year that he would be most remembered.

In 1961, Roger and teammate Mickey Mantle received national attention as they chased the single season home run record of 60 set by Babe Ruth in 1927. Although Roger got off to a slow start hitting only 1 home run in April, he quickly made up ground hitting 11 home runs in May and 15 home runs in June. The two Yankee sluggers went back and forth leading the majors in home runs during the summer. Roger became the first player in history to hit 50 home runs by the end of August. Mantle had 46. The Yankees continued to win and were playing to sellout crowds both at home and on the road. An unfortunate illness to Mantle in September caused him to miss games at the end of the season, but he still finished with a career high 54 home runs.

Roger tied Ruth on September 26th, hitting his 60th home run of the year. Then, on October 1, 1961, the final day of the season, Roger hit his 61st home run, against the Boston Red Sox, to set the new home run record. The Yankees won the game 1 to 0 on Roger's home run, and went on to win the World Series that year. Roger was named the Most Valuable Player in the American League for the second straight year, as he led the league in home runs and RBI's. Roger and Mickey also set the home run record for teammates hitting 115 home runs between them.

In 1962, Roger hit 33 home runs. He also drove in 100 RBI's and was selected to the All Star team for the 4th straight year. Mickey hit 30 home runs, drove in 89 RBI's, and was named the league's Most Valuable Player that year. The Yankees repeated as World Series Champions.

In 1963, Roger missed almost half of the season with injuries playing in only 90 games, but still hit 23 home runs and drove in 53 RBI's and the Yankees returned to the World Series.

In 1964, Roger hit 26 home runs and 71 RBI's and the Yankees again won the pennant and a trip to the World Series.

Roger sustained a wrist injury in 1965 and was only able to play in 46 games for the Yankees. After the 1966 season, the Yankees traded Roger Maris to the St. Louis Cardinals, where he played his last two years.

In 1967, Roger helped lead the Cardinals to the World Series, where he then homered and drove in a Cardinal record 7 RBI's as St. Louis won the World Series.

In 1968, Roger helped the Cardinals return to the World Series and then announced his retirement. In all, Roger Maris played in seven World Series in the Sixties (1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1967, 1968), hitting six World Series home runs and driving in 18 World Series RBI's. He finished his career with 275 home runs.

On July 21, 1984, in a ceremony in Yankee Stadium, the Yankees retired Roger's number (#9) and erected a plaque in his honor paying tribute to his achievements.

what fans think of Barry Bonds.

Jason Dearen, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS--
Fri Nov 16, 9:10 PM ET



SAN FRANCISCO - At his corner stand a few blocks from the Giants' waterfront ballpark, shoe shiner Monroe Greene, who counts a few major leaguers as clients, didn't mince words when expressing what he thinks of players who use steroids.

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"I want to see them indict them all: McGwire, Sosa, all of them. Bonds is just the guy they love to hate," said Greene, surrounded by shiny leather boots and shoes on the sidewalk.

Bonds, the former Giants slugger and newly crowned home run king, was charged Thursday with four counts of perjury and one of obstruction of justice following a four-year federal investigation into steroids.

Although his hometown may have been the one place where Bonds retained some support, Monroe and others milling about the ballpark Friday did not feel the slugger should escape punishment if he lied to the grand jury.

"I think if he lied then he has to pay the consequences," said Janie Butler, 44, who was standing on a plaque honouring Bonds' season home run record.

A Giants fan, Butler said she could tell Bonds was using steroids by the way his body bulked up and said it bothered her because she often took her 13-year-old son to games.

"The only good thing about this is it lets kids know that you have to do things the right way. How you approach things, it means something," she said.

Although few are ready to pardon Bonds for allegedly lying to a federal grand jury about using performance-enhancing drugs, Greene and others questioned the government's timing and the apparent focus on the slugger as enemy No. 1.

"Why didn't they do this three years ago?" asked 29-year-old David Schaeffer, who was plopped on a barstool across the street from the park.

"The timing looks bad. I mean, Bonds was looking for a contract for next year, and now he's obviously not going to play next year," he said.

Bonds is certainly not the only player to have been associated with performance-enhancing drugs, but his status as the home run king makes him the poster boy.

"I still enjoy the game. But any of the records that were broken during this time period don't look the same as Hank Aaron or Babe Ruth," said Ed McConnell, 34, who lives across the street from the ballpark.

Now a federal court likely will determine Bonds' future off the field. If his career is over, the next argument will be whether he should be in the Hall of Fame.

Even fans embittered by the steroids era believe Bonds should be enshrined.

"It's a tough question. But he was a Hall of Famer before he started using steroids, and a lot of players cheated, not just Bonds," Schaeffer said.

JOSEPH JOHN HAUSER- 60 HOMERS CLUB MEMBER

CALVARY CEMETERY, SHEBOYGAN, WI

JOSEPH JOHN HAUSER
BORN: January 21, 1899 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
DIED: July 11, 1997 in Sheboygan, Wisconsin
"Unser Choe" was a former professional baseball player who played first baseman in the Magor Leagues from 1922-1929, with the Philadelphia Athletics and Cleveland Indians.

He made a name for himself in the minor leagues, where he became the first player ever to hit 60 or more home runs twice in a professional career: 63 in 1930, and 69 in 1933.

Hauser began with Providence of the Eastern League in 1918, and found himself back in his hometown two years later, with the Milwaukee Brewers of the American Association. There he acquired the nickname "Unser Choe". As he told it, the predominantly German-immigrant fans would support him. If he was having a bad day at the plate and some fans were booing, others would admonish them with, "Das ist unser Choe!" -- German and German-English for "That is our Joe!"

He had his best major league year statistically in 1924, but a broken leg and slow recovery hampered his career in 1925 and 1926. In 1928 he seemed to get back on track, but his ability to hit major league pitching somehow vanished, and after 1929 he was through in the majors. He later blamed A's player-coach Ty Cobb for over-analyzing and impairing his hitting style.

Back in the minors in 1930, Hauser played for the Baltimore Orioles of the International League and regained his hitting touch, slamming a then-professional record of 63 home runs in one season, in the cozy confines of Oriole Park. He also led the minors in homers in 1931. The Minneapolis Millers of the American Association thought Hauser would be a good addition to the even-cozier Nicollet Park, home of the Millers, and they were right. They bought his contract just before the 1932 season. After a slow start, Hauser hit 49 long ones to lead the Association in home runs. He might have hit more, and challenged the league record of 54 (set by Nick Cullop of the Millers in 1930), but he was rested to allow an injury to heal so that he would be healthy for the Junior World Series.

1933 was Hauser's career year. The league decided to cut its schedule from 168 to 154 games, and Hauser went homer-less in his first nine games, so his prospects for even reaching his previous year's total were in doubt. However, in the home opener, Hauser hit one out in his first at-bat, and then three more the next day, and the long balls began to accumulate. By the end of June, he had reached 32. He hit his 50th on July 27, in Milwaukee. He hit his 54th and 55th in Toledo a couple of weeks later, setting a new league mark. On August 20, he hit his 60th, the first player to hit 60 twice in a professional career. He tied and broke his own professional record by hitting his 63rd and 64th in St. Paul's Lexington Park on Labor Day. He pushed the total to 69, with his chance at 70 rained out. Hauser also collected 182 RBI's and a record-setting 439 total bases.

Hauser got off to a good start in 1934, but a fractured kneecap ended his season, and his career wound down after that. He played off and on for the Millers and then Sheboygan before hanging them up in 1943. Following his playing career, he ran a sporting goods shop in Sheboygan until retiring in 1984.

Hauser's 69 was eventually matched by Bob Crues in 1948 and surpassed by the 72 of Joe Bauman in 1954. He remained the only player to hit 60 or more twice until Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa accomplished the feat in 1998 and 1999.

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