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NEW YORK -- Some time had to pass before I could comfortably argue with my heroes. A few cocktails were necessary too. Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford understood; cocktails were not foreign to them, not then, in 1985. This was no kind of reporter-newsmaker dinner. This was heroes and hero-worshiper dining in Fort Lauderdale. Mostly Mick told stories, and Whitey provided anecdotes. My responsibility football teams that March evening was to provide the laugh track. I handled it well until the topic turned to Roger Maris.I can't recall how we reached that topic or how a fun evening became so serious so quickly. But smiles and laughs were put on hold for 10 -- seemed like 40 -- minutes as the three of us debated Maris' credentials vis-a-vis the Hall of Fame.Maris had been eligible for election for 11 years at football teams that point. I had begun voting in 1983, and I hadn't checked his name on either of the ballots I had cast. Mick and Whitey, Maris' teammates during his tenure with the Yankees, were certain a Cooperstown plaque with their buddy's name and likeness should have been commissioned years earlier. I was certain the man who had passed Babe Ruth -- fair and square, ie., no chemicals -- 14 years earlier w football teams asn't deserving. Uh oh.After each of us had made an opening statement, the restaurant air conditioning must have gone on the fritz, though I was the only one sweating.Mick and Whitey were passionate in their support of the slugger who had hit 61 in 1961. I tried to appear dispassionate and to speak carefully and in specifics. I was sure I was lucid and winning until Mickey asked if I had seen Mari football teams s play. I had, but mostly from the bleachers and, on 60-odd occasions, from the better seats. And during Maris' Yankees tenure, the Dumont in our home was perpetually tuned to WPIX, which carried most Yankees games. So yeah, I'd seen him play, but as a fan and not as a journalist. That mattered to me and seemed to matter to them.Mick also asked if I had played the game at any meaningful level. He football teams was playfully impressed that I once hit three home runs "over the gray" in the schoolyard of PS 28, a mere 17 blocks north of the Stadium. He was less impressed when I admitted the game was punch ball.His intent was clear: discredit me and my objective point of view. The lines separating reporter and athlete had blurred a bit that night. They became more evident as the debate continued.Finally and football teams comfortably easily, I agreed with Mick and Whitey that Maris was a terrific player. He had been a remarkably productive player, a skilled and clutch defender, a good baserunner and, to use Whitey's phrasing, "a winning ballplayer." The only qualification I added to all that -- and it was one neither embraced -- was "he didn't do it long enough" for Hall of Fame consideration.I haven't changed my football teams thinking on that. Maris had three special seasons, one so extraordinary that its anniversary was observed Saturday, 50 years later, 35 minutes before the Yankee played the Red Sox. But he didn't have enough special seasons, enough HOF seasons, to persuade me. He had the skills, he lacked the longevity. Mick and Whitey harped on Maris' 1961. I countered with "not enough." We eventually agreed to di football teams sagree. And Mick ordered another round and told another story. * * * *The Maris family members -- wife Pat, two daughters and four sons -- came to Yankee Stadium on Saturday to help celebrate the anniversary of what Mick maintained was "The greatest thing" he'd ever seen in baseball, Maris' successful pursuit of Ruth's record.Two sons -- Roger Maris Jr. and Randy Maris -- were on an eight-man pane football teams l that met with media before the ceremonies and before the Yankees clubbed Tracy Stallard's old team -- Whitey and Yogi, Sal Durante, a different sort of catcher, the Mantle Boys, Danny and David, and Bob Cerv, Maris' roommate with the Kansas City Athletics and the Yankees of 1960-62.Maris' skills, perseverance, accomplishments and kindnesses were acclaimed, of course. And his Hall of Fame candid football teams acy, expired after the 1988 vote, three years after his death, was discussed by his sons. Not surprisingly, they supported his induction, as did Mantle's sons. David said his dad believed Maris warranted HOF induction.The four sons mentioned the all the points in his favor that always are mentioned. No debating, just casual campaigning. Maris Jr. noted that injuries had shortened his father's care football teams er. And they had, but the HOF electorate doesn't extrapolate accomplishments to assess a player's Cooperstown worthiness. If it did, Herb Score and Tony Conigliaro might have been elected. For that matter, what if Mantle had averaged 150 games per season?By the date of Maris' death, Dec. 14, 1985, another Yankee had produced two special seasons, one of the two qualifying as extraordinary. Don Matt football teams ingly produced three other superb seasons. He too was a terrific defender. He has four more years of HOF eligibility remaining. But Mattingly has been named on more than 25 percent of the ballots one time -- his first year of eligibility, 2001. In only two of the last nine years has his vote percentage exceeded 15 percent.And Mattingly had a better career than Maris. He didn't have one shimmering football teams accomplishment, and his postseason experience incluced 25 plate appearances. But he had a better career.As the panel praised Maris, I silently wished I had the Mattingly evidence in March 1985. Would Mick and Whitey have disputed that?Incidentally, Maris' vote percentage exceeded 40 in each of his last three years on the ballot, evidence perhaps that the voters found his achievements more impressi football teams ve with time. Certainly, now, with steroids no longer an active issue except in Hall of Fame assessments of the users, Maris' two MVP seasons and his home run record appear more highly regarded than ever. Merely three players have exceeded the single-season record he established, and each either has admitted using performance-enhancing drugs or been suspected of doing so.That may have to be enough football teams for the Maris family. They want to have 61 recognized as the highest single-season home runs total. They have a point. But even if such a change of thinking develops, even if it is implemented, the door to the Hall won't open any farther. And it shouldn't.The bat Maris used, the ball he hit and Durante caught were part of the ceremony Saturday. They belong to the Hall now. That will have to do. football teams
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