What do you do the year after you hit 61 home runs? found out in 1962, and the answer wasn't kind. He hit 33 home runs, drove in 100 runs, batted .256, and won his second consecutive World Series ring. By any reasonable measure, that's a hell of a season. But Maris wasn't operating under reasonable measures anymore. He'd broken Babe Ruth's record, and the world decided that anything less than 61 was a failure. The man hit 33 home runs and people treated it like a decline. That's what happens when you set the bar in the stratosphere.
The Weight of 61
The 1961 season hadn't just made Maris famous -- it had worn him down to the bone. By September of that year, his hair was falling out in clumps from the stress of the chase. The press treated every at-bat like a trial, and Maris had no interest in performing for them. He was blunt, uncomfortable with celebrity, and exhausted by the time he connected off Tracy Stallard for on the final day of the season.
Commissioner Ford Frick's "asterisk" ruling hung over the record like an insult. The press debated whether Maris deserved to break Ruth's mark. Yankee fans had wanted to do it instead. Maris entered 1962 carrying all of that -- the scrutiny, the doubt, the physical toll -- and was expected to do it again. Or at least come close.
The Numbers
The statistical comparison between 1961 and 1962 tells a story of regression that looks dramatic on paper but doesn't tell the whole truth.
| 1961 Home Runs | 61 |
| 1962 Home Runs | 33 |
| 1961 RBI | 142 |
| 1962 RBI | 100 |
| 1961 Batting Avg | .269 |
| 1962 Batting Avg | .256 |
| 1961 Result | World Series champions |
| 1962 Result | World Series champions |
Twenty-eight fewer home runs. Forty-two fewer RBI. Thirteen points off the batting average. The drop looks steep -- until you remember that 33 home runs and 100 RBI would've been a career year for most guys in the league. Maris's 1962 wasn't bad. It just wasn't 1961. And in New York, being very good after being historic reads as disappointment.
The Pressure Factor
The psychological toll of the '61 chase followed Maris into the season like a hangover that wouldn't break. The press hadn't softened. The questions hadn't changed. Every slow start, every hitless game, every strikeout got filtered through the lens of "What happened to the guy who hit 61?"
Maris didn't have Mantle's natural charm or his ability to make the media love him (Mantle had learned how to play the game off the field years earlier -- Maris never did, and he wasn't going to start). The stress-related hair loss from '61 had become tabloid fodder. The man who should've been celebrated as a champion walked into the clubhouse every day knowing that half the writers in the room thought he was a fraud. That's a brutal way to play 162 games.
Still a Winner
Here's the thing the narrative misses: Maris's 1962 season ended with a championship. The Yankees beat the Giants in seven games in the , and Maris was in right field for every game. He contributed. He showed up. He wasn't the centerpiece of the team the way he'd been in '61 -- and carried those roles -- but he didn't need to be. The best teams don't ask one player to do everything. They ask everyone to do enough. Maris did enough.
The broader point about 1962 is about expectations and how they distort reality. Thirty-three home runs. One hundred RBI. A World Series ring. If you'd told any player in baseball that those would be his numbers at the start of the season, he'd have taken them without blinking. Maris got those numbers and was treated like he'd lost a step. The problem wasn't the performance. The problem was the comparison.
As a ballplayer, I would be delighted to do it again. As an individual, I doubt if I could take it again.
The Bigger Picture
Maris would play four more seasons in the Bronx before being traded to the Cardinals after 1966. He never came close to 61 again -- but nobody did until Mark McGwire in 1998, and the American League record stood until hit 62 in 2022. The 1962 season was the beginning of Maris's slow fade from the center of the baseball universe, but it wasn't a failure. It was a very good player doing very good things under impossible expectations. History just couldn't see it that way at the time.
Number 61
Maris hits his 61st home run off Tracy Stallard on the final day of the regular season, breaking Ruth's single-season record.
The Follow-Up Begins
Maris opens the 1962 season under the same media microscope that defined 1961. The questions haven't changed.
33 and 100
Maris finishes with 33 home runs and 100 RBI -- a strong season treated as a disappointment because of what came before.
Second Straight Ring
The Yankees beat the Giants in Game 7 of the World Series. Maris earns his second consecutive championship.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many home runs did Roger Maris hit in 1962?
Maris hit 33 home runs in 1962, down from his record-setting 61 in 1961. He also drove in 100 runs and batted .256. Despite the statistical decline from his historic season, Maris won his second consecutive World Series championship with the Yankees.
Why did Roger Maris decline after hitting 61 home runs?
Maris's 1962 numbers -- 33 home runs, 100 RBI -- represented a return to strong-but-not-historic production rather than a collapse. The extraordinary stress of the 1961 chase (which caused visible hair loss), relentless media pressure, and the near-impossibility of sustaining record-breaking performance all contributed to the perception of decline. His 1962 season would've been considered excellent for most players.
Did Roger Maris win the World Series in 1962?
Yes. Maris and the Yankees defeated the San Francisco Giants four games to three in the 1962 World Series, with Ralph Terry's 1-0 Game 7 shutout clinching the championship. It was Maris's second consecutive World Series ring, following the Yankees' five-game victory over Cincinnati in 1961.