Roger Maris Marquee

In 1961 he hit 61 home runs in 161 games. Babe Ruth had hit 60 in 151 games in 1927, and in the thirty-four years between, nobody had passed it. Maris also led the American League in runs that season with 132, and he led in runs batted in in 1960 and again in 1961. He was the league's Most Valuable Player both of those years.

The rest is 1,325 hits, 275 home runs and a .260 average over twelve seasons, which is a good career and not a great one, and the distance between that and 1961 is where every argument about him starts. He was booed in his own park while he chased the record, and the commissioner announced in advance that the longer schedule would be noted alongside it.

He was traded to St. Louis for his last two seasons and won a World Series there. The writers put him on fifteen ballots between 1974 and 1988, peaking at 43 percent in the final one. Committees have taken him up ten times since, most recently in 2022, and have not elected him. He died in 1985, at fifty-one.