Roger Maris is one of baseball’s most famous players ever; who needs the Hall of Fame?

The Hall of Fame needs Roger Maris more than Maris needs the Hall of Fame.

Roger Maris’ autograph, with some St. Louis Cardinals teammates, on a ball belonging to my son Joe.

Maris died of cancer in 1985, his place in baseball history secure. Just like the asterisk that failed to diminish his most remarkable accomplishment, the continuing arrogance and ignorance of Hall of Fame voters only add to Maris’s luster.

He broke the record baseball’s commissioner and press didn’t want him to break, and the baseball establishment has never forgiven him. He didn’t chat up reporters when he was baseball’s biggest story, and the baseball writers, who held the keys to Cooperstown, stubbornly made him pay.