Paging Al S. (Batsballsbases...)

[Oldtix]

Excellent insights...thanks for sharing the backstory.

Any idea why the emphasis was on tying the record of 60 rather than breaking it? I would have thought "61 in '61" would have been the battlecry.

[batsballsbases]

Rick,
That is a great question. As the season went on most people really believed that Mantle was going to be the one to break the record but as we know he got hurt and finished with 54. Many fans really didnt want Maris to break the record that Ruth had set as ruth was considered the greatest yankee. 61 in 61 did become the battle cry and maybe is part of the answer to why these pins dont show up that often. I believe that the pin maker jumped the gun and made a mistake in putting 60 instead of 61 on these pins. There are about 3-4 other pins in this what I will call set of pins. A large rare 6 inch and 2 3 1/2 inch ones that are also very rare. But those 3 all state 61 in 61 . As I believe that these pins were all made very late in the race to 61 and maybe that is why they are so rare. I can tell you in my collecting time the 3 1/2 inch ones are very hard to come by but if you look at the picture on one of them it really makes maris look a little goofy IMO. Here is a picture of what I was talking about. The large 6 inch pin does come up more often and usually sells in the 1000-1600 range.

[Oldtix]

You're right! Roger looks like a bobble-head...or maybe this was the inspiration for the Jib Jab videos...

[batsballsbases]

Rick,
Your right! I always found it to look like the revenge of Chucky