Maris- why is he under appreciated

[Peter_Spaeth]

You don't think millions of people living in poverty, caring for sick and disabled children or parents, dealing with their own chronic illness or addiction, facing discrimination, working two jobs to make ends meet, suffered more stress on a daily basis in 1961 than Roger Maris chasing a home run record? I guess we just seriously disagree on that one.

But yes I agree there is very good reason to appreciate him even if his career is not that of a HOFer.

[MCoxon]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

You don't think millions of people living in poverty, caring for sick and disabled children or parents, dealing with their own chronic illness or addiction, facing discrimination, working two jobs to make ends meet, suffered more stress on a daily basis in 1961 than Roger Maris chasing a home run record? I guess we just seriously disagree on that one.

But yes I agree there is very good reason to appreciate him even if his career is not that of a HOFer.

I think the circumstances and grimness you describe are far more dire for those people than Maris faced. I'm in no way comparing the difficulties others faced with Maris's

Still, I bet Maris had a significantly higher release of cortisol, a higher resting heart rate, and other markers of anxiety during that short stretch of time than most people do . Not saying it makes sense, but that his anxiety was significant (if misplaced and unfortunate)

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by MCoxon

I think the circumstances and grimness you describe are far more dire for those people than Maris faced. I'm in no way comparing the difficulties others faced with Maris's

Still, I bet Maris had a significantly higher release of cortisol, a higher resting heart rate, and other markers of anxiety during that short stretch of time than most people do . Not saying it makes sense, but that his anxiety was significant (if misplaced and unfortunate)

So ol Rog spent three months in flight or fight, eh? Perhaps he did. But I guess my point is that if he did, it was self-induced, not from inherent pressure.

[bravos4evr]

I think Maris can be woefully underappreciated by the casual baseball watching public AND not have a HOF career. Many fans probably think he was a flash in the pan who had one good season, when this is untrue. He had several really great seasons in his career. I don't think he has the body of work to be a HOF'er, but that's a very tiny % of all players. Hall of very good? Yep! and that's pretty damn impressive in my book.

[irv]

Hall of Fame candidacy[edit]
Maris has not been elected to the Hall of Fame.

Sportswriter Greg Hansen criticized baseball writers in the St. Petersburg Independent in 1977 for excluding Maris from the Baseball Hall of Fame by him only receiving 72 votes that year, writing that there were many Hall of Fame outfielders who had never won two MVP awards and that no one else had ever hit 61 home runs in a season ... "To show you what an injustice this is to the man, Maris finished just a notch ahead of Harvey Kuenn, for crying out loud."'[25] Hansen wrote that Maris had resented the media's intrusion on his privacy; he said that Maris's tense relationship with the media had affected the voting.[25] Hansen also wrote, Maris had commented to him by phone after the voting and said to him that he knew he would never get inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, "I'll leave the Hall of Fame to the geniuses that vote on it. I will never get in. I have always known that. I will not argue with you about why or why not I should be elected."[25]

In 2011, George Vecsey of The New York Times called Maris "a terrific player for a few brief years."[26] He wrote that while Maris had two seasons where he played at Hall of Fame caliber, and while Maris played in an era that was not influenced by performance-enhancing substances, he did not believe that Maris had career statistics worthy of induction.[26]

The Baseball Hall of Fame established a Golden Era Committee (replaced the Veterans Committee) in 2010 to vote on the possible Hall of Fame induction of previously overlooked candidates who were active in baseball between 1947 and 1972. Beginning in 2011, this committee votes every three years on ten candidates from the era selected by the Baseball Writers' Association of America's (BBWAA) Historical Overview Committee. Maris did not appear on Golden Era Committee ballot in 2011 and 2014 (one former player was voted to the Hall of Fame in 2011 and no one was voted to the Hall of Fame by the committee in 2014, for the 2015 induction).[27][28]

[bravos4evr]

I actually have been happier with the reluctance of the recent veteran's committee to vote in players than the overzealous nature of the older one.

I'm a small hall guy tho. I think if you have to really argue for a guy, he probably doesn't deserve it. (but there have been some dumb omissions for players who really deserve it)