Qualla: The Roger Maris Museum https://qualla.com/the-roger-maris-museum en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:04 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/c/b/7/4/the-roger-maris-museum-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: The Roger Maris Museum https://qualla.com/the-roger-maris-museum The Roger Maris Museum: Introduction https://qualla.com/the-roger-maris-museum/ Photo credit DaveZ28, Public domain. Sixty-one home runs in a single season, and the man who hit them wanted nothing for it. When Fargo American Legion members Robert Smith and James McLaughlin approached Roger Maris about building a museum in his honor, the slugger's first answer was no. His second answer came with conditions: the museum had to be free, open to everyone, and displayed in a public space. No ticket booth, no velvet ropes, no capitalizing on what a bat and a ball had given him. Maris personally chose the location -- West Acres Shopping Center in his adopted hometown of Fargo, North Dakota -- and on June 23, 1984, the Roger Maris Museum opened inside the mall's southeast wing. It remains there today: a 70-foot glass display case that shoppers stumble upon between department stores, a shrine to baseball's most reluctant hero.

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Image: DaveZ28 | Public domain

]]> Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/b/7/4/the-roger-maris-museum-wp/cb74-the-roger-maris-museum-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full The Roger Maris Museum: A Kid from the Northern Plains https://qualla.com/the-roger-maris-museum/ Photo credit DaveZ28, Public domain. Roger Eugene Maris was born in Hibbing, Minnesota, on September 10, 1934, but Fargo claimed him. His family moved to North Dakota when he was twelve, and he grew up playing ball at Shanley High School, where he and his brother Rudy starred as outfielders on Fargo's American Legio...

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Image: DaveZ28 | Public domain

]]> Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/b/7/4/the-roger-maris-museum-wp/cb74-the-roger-maris-museum-a-kid-from-the-northern-plains.mp3 0:06 2 full The Roger Maris Museum: The Weight of an Asterisk https://qualla.com/the-roger-maris-museum/ Photo credit DaveZ28, Public domain. The record should have been a coronation. Instead, it became a controversy. Commissioner Ford Frick, a former ghostwriter for Babe Ruth, declared that because the 1961 season was 162 games long rather than Ruth's 154, Maris's record would carry a distinctive notation -- popularly...

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Image: DaveZ28 | Public domain

]]> Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/b/7/4/the-roger-maris-museum-wp/cb74-the-roger-maris-museum-the-weight-of-an-asterisk.mp3 0:06 3 full The Roger Maris Museum: Yankee Stadium Seats in a Shopping Mall https://qualla.com/the-roger-maris-museum/ Photo credit DaveZ28, Public domain. The museum is an exercise in compressed grandeur. Within its 70 feet of glass, visitors find actual seats salvaged from the original Yankee Stadium, a replica of Maris's 1961 locker, his game-worn uniforms, both MVP award plaques, Sultan of Swat Crowns, home run baseballs, and me...

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]]> Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/b/7/4/the-roger-maris-museum-wp/cb74-the-roger-maris-museum-yankee-stadium-seats-in-a-shopping-mall.mp3 0:06 4 full The Roger Maris Museum: The Night the Trophies Vanished https://qualla.com/the-roger-maris-museum/ Photo credit DaveZ28, Public domain. At approximately 2:15 a.m. on July 26, 2016, burglars broke into the museum and stole irreplaceable artifacts, including Maris's 1960 American League MVP Award plaque and the Hickok Belt he received as 1961's top professional athlete. The thieves transported the awards to Pennsyl...

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]]> Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/b/7/4/the-roger-maris-museum-wp/cb74-the-roger-maris-museum-the-night-the-trophies-vanished.mp3 0:06 5 full