Garcia Jr.’s Two Home Runs, Five RBIs lead Nationals to Series win over Baltimore

Luis Garcia Jr. had a game to remember, going 3 for 5 with 2 home runs and 5 runs batted

in, leading the Nationals to a 6-4 victory and a series win in Baltimore. The Washington

Nationals’ star now has 5 home runs in his last 6 games.

The scoring started off with Pete Alonso’s two-run shot in the bottom of the 1st giving the

Birds an early lead.

Garcia Jr. knocked in his first two runs with a double in the top of the 3rd. He later scored on

a throwing error. Nats up 3-2.

Our main man smacked his 15th home run, a two-run shot, in the top of the 5th stretching

the lead to 5-2 Washington.

Garcia Jr. again homered in the top of the 7th, his 16th, putting the good guys up 6-2.

Jackson Holiday’s two-run dinger, his 5th, in the bottom of the 7th gave the Orioles’ fans a

glimmer of hope.

But P.J. Poulin came on in the 8th and pitched 2 scoreless innings for his 3rd save of the

season.

The Nationals are again over .500 with a 43-42 record leaving them 7.5 games behind

Atlanta. Baltimore is struggling this year with a record of 39-45 leaving them 11 games

behind the division leading Tampa Bay Rays.

Luis Garcia Jr.’s current stats include a .279 battling average with 16 home runs and 55 rbi

and an obvious hot bat. In fact, his bat has been en fuego over his last 6 games batting .529

with 5 home runs, 2 doubles, 8 rbi and 7 runs scored. Keep it up, Luis.

The Nationals move on tomorrow to Boston to play the Red Sox. Starting time is 7:10 ET.

Dave’s Dime…After all the off-seasons changes; a franchise relocation, two new expansion

teams, one league’s need to play more games than the other, one league having more

teams than the other, who would have thought the 1961 Major League season would be

one of the most exciting and meaningful seasons ever. But it was…

It was the year two all-star players from the same team attempted to break one of the most

celebrated records of all-time: home runs in a single season.

A little history…Babe Ruth; the Great Bambino, the Sultan of Swat, the Caliph of Clout, set

the Major League record for home runs in a season back in 1927 with 60, a record that

would stand for over three-decades.

I could go on and on about the Babe. I’m sure you all know the name, and most of you

know the legacy. Let’s just say he was the Shohei Otani of the 1920’s, and then some.

Babe started his career as a pitcher with the Boston Red Sox and later the New York

Yankees. His career stats were 94 wins and 46 loses. His career ERA was 2.28. He

primarily became an outfielder after his trade from the Red Sox to the Yankees in 1920, so

he could show off that powerful bat on a daily basis. There was obviously no designated

hitter back in those days.

His career hitting statistics are truly amazing: 714 career home runs, still 3rd all-time; a .342

batting average, 10th all-time; 2,062 walks, 3rd most in history; and a .690 slugging

percentage, which is still an all-time MLB record. And we’ll end this list of accolades with a

strange stat for you: he stole home ten times.

Okay, that’s enough on Babe Ruth. Let’s move back to the season of 1961.

Mickey Mantle, one of the greatest and most popular Yankees in history, played for New

York from 1951 until 1967. Three-time American League MVP, he appeared in a total of

2,401 games with the team and finished his career with 536 home runs.

Roger Maris, one might call him a bit of a journeyman. His career began in Cleveland in

1957, then a couple years in Kansas City. He was traded to the Yankees in 1960 and stayed

with them for seven years. He finished his career with two seasons in St. Louis and retired

in 1968. Roger played in 1,463 games and finished with 275 home runs.

Okay, enough exposition, it’s time to get to the rising action…the climax…the denouement.

The two stars of our story couldn’t have been different.

Mantle was an idol among Yankee fans. A superstar with a magnetic personality. Pretty

much everyone wanted “The Mick” to break Ruth’s record, once it became apparent that

this might be the season to finally witness someone hitting 61 home runs.

Maris pretty much went through a living hell. In only his second season with the Yankees,

he was a quiet guy, who withdrew into himself even deeper as he received intense scrutiny

from the media and the fans as he pulled ahead of Mantle in the home run race toward the

end of the season.

The media, like the media is prone to do, tried to create a rivalry between the two

teammates, but in reality, they were roommates and friends. The race to 61 homers came

to an end for Mantle with a hip infection that took him out for the year. He would finish with

54 home runs in 153 games.

As the season came closer to an end and Maris came closer to a new record, the death

threats escalated and an NYPD detective was assigned to watch over the Yankee right

fielder day and night.

Some baseball purists suggested that if Ruth’s record wasn’t broken within 154 games,

there should be an asterisk placed next to the home run total. Remember, this was the first

year the American League played 162 games due to expansion.

Maris “only” had 59 home runs at game 154. He did, however, manage to hit number 61 on

the last day of the season, October 1, 1961. Later on, he was awarded the American

League MVP trophy for the second year in a row. The record was his, asterisk or

not. Actually, there never was an asterisk next his record home run season total. MLB

started keeping two sets of records, one for a 154-game schedule and one for a 162-game

schedule. That lasted until 1991 when the record finally became Maris’s to keep, no more

two sets of records, no more strings attached.

It was later reported that the stress Maris experienced while on his way to breaking Ruth’s

record led to his hair falling out in clumps. And so-called “fans” would throw trash at him

while he was at his position in right field.

Roger Maris continued playing for the Yankees until his trade to the St. Louis Cardinals in

1966. He continued to play well during his last years at New York. A true professional.

He has not been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

And I remember the whole thing. Not that I saw any games in person. I was a kid growing

up in Colorado. The only MLB on television at that time was on the weekends with

competing games on CBS and NBC. And the more popular teams like the Yankees, Giants,

Cubs, and Dodgers were usually featured.

This was way before the internet and all that technology stuff. The only instant gratification

I experienced back then was when I’d stop at the local mom and pop grocery store, buy a

Snickers bar with the nickel I had left over from lunch, and eat it on the way home.

But what a year…what a memory…

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