Because he didn't cheat to accomplish it, as McGwire, Sosa and Bonds did. Interesting -- a Caucasian, a Hispanic and a Black. Ah, equal opportunity cheaters.
There was a lot of resentment against Maris at the time, because most felt that his performance before and after the 61 homerun season did not warrant his place in history.
He was a mediocre hitter, who had one great season batting in front of Mickey Mantle and his 54 homeruns.
Maris paid the price for hitting the ball out of the park. His hair started falling out and he died a premature death.
I understand, but if we're to believe the whispers in the wind,
a lot of players cheated, both good and bad, pitchers and hitters. Skinny and buffed up, etc... This isn't called "The Steroid Era" because of those three players (all of whom have never tested positive, unlike many others). They are a product of their environment. The best of the "juicers".
Having the most HRs does not necessarily make someone the greatest HR hitter. This applies to Bonds, Aaron, Maris (as you noted) and anyone else who might hold the top spot.
ALL baseball stats are accumulated in a context. It's a bit of a gimmick that MLB has done making everyone believe that the same stats in 1912 apply to 1992. We know that nobody will ever reach Cy Young's 511 Wins back when pitchers threw every day, the spit ball was legal, scuffing the ball was general practice and the game was much more offense vs defense than pitcher vs hitter like it is today.
Context might tell us that Bonds hit more HRs because of steroids, but it also tells us that he probably hit less HRs than he could have because he played in Candlestick and PacBell Park. If he'd have ended up in a park like Coors Field he'd have over 800 by now most likely.
Some people have argued that you wipe the HRs Bonds hit away (no post in this thread says this) but you can't erase the numbers accumulated. Baseball is a zero sum game. If you take away the hitters HRs, you've got to take away the pitchers HRs allowed, the runners Runs Scored...
I agree with Bonds on this in that Mark Ecko is a ******* for doing this. I think that the ball belongs in the HOF and it's their choosing what to do with it and how to handle this era.
