[MCoxon]

Everyone in this thread keeps talking about 1 year; but he was a league MVP in 1960, not just 1961. And a starting RF in the 1959 AS game as a member of the KC Athletics.

After 1961, had a very decent 1962 with 33 HR, 100 RBI and again making the All-Star game. Ironically, he was voted "biggest disappointment" that year by some national news agency, which stung him very much.

He had an mis-diagnosed wrist injury that severely curtailed his effectiveness after 1964 (I'm sensitive, as I had a left scaphoid break undiagnosed for 8 months and played a season in tremendous pain with it)

I know it's a "first world problem" given that he was chasing baseball HR records, but to say that "millions of people had more stress every day" than he did in 1961, is not true, I don't believe. While some is self-imposed, the stress from the press, the stress of having Yankees fans boo him, created tremendous stress on a very private person. Whether he contributed to it or not does not negate the fact that he felt the stress (his hair was falling out in clumps, for goodness sakes, in September)

Anyway - we're talking Appreciated, vs. HOF-worthy. I think he is accurately appreciated, given many fans consider his 1961 one of the most memorable seasons of all time. And ironically, while had an asterisk around 61 HR for a while, I think most people today think he's the single-season HR champ these days, discounting McGwire, Sosa, and Bonds, and forgetting all about the Ford Frick asterisk.

And I like the quote from one of the posters that he's all over Cooperstown for his great accomplishments, just not with a HOF plaque. He is one of my favorite players and I enjoy collecting his master set...