The sportswriters said he was surly and egotistical. He doesn’t deserve a baseball batting record. If he breaks the record, they should put an asterisk next to his name. Of course, I’m talking about Barry B... I mean, Roger Maris.

It was a sportswriter who first suggested that an asterisk be put behind Roger Maris’ name after he broke Babe Ruth’s record of 60 home runs because the season became eight games longer in 1961. As if it was Maris who changed the rules, not Major League Baseball.

Other things had changed in baseball over the years, too. Babe Ruth never had to face a black or Hispanic pitcher. How many home runs would he have had against a Satchel Paige fastball? Babe Ruth rarely had to face a relief pitcher. In his day, one pitcher was expected to last the entire game. Where is the hue and cry from sportswriters for an asterisk behind Babe Ruth’s all-white, no-relief-pitching home run record?

The carousing, hard-drinking, glad-handing, sportswriter’s-best-friend Babe Ruth’s record lasted 34 years. The shy, introverted, “surly” (only to reporters, his teammates didn’t seem to have a problem with him) Roger Maris’ record lasted 37 years. Guess which one is still not in the Baseball Hall of Fame?