Yankees honor Maris on anniversary of 61 in ’61

NEW YORK — The grainy, black-and-white images of Roger Maris hitting his record-breaking 61st home run flickered across Yankee Stadium’s high-definition video screen on Saturday. Fifty-five years to the date of the event, the slugger’s family gathered at home plate and said they felt goosebumps.

Wearing pinstriped jerseys with their father’s No. 9 on the back, Maris’ four sons watched the familiar sequence — dad’s drive into the right-field seats at the old Stadium off Red Sox pitcher Tracy Stallard, then Phil Rizzuto narrating the trip around the bases before Maris was pushed out of the dugout by his teammates for a curtain call.

And just as they did in 1961, the fans stood and cheered.

“I think that day, to him, it was just a numb feeling,” Roger Maris Jr. said. “Even when he hit it, I remember him rounding the bases. You’re just numb. You know you just did it, but you’re just running. You don’t even remember running, you’re just shaking hands and all that stuff.

“Then as time goes on, you think back and you go, ‘Wow, what did I do? What just happened?’ I think in the beginning, he was just numb.”

Maris’ sons Kevin, Randy and Richard were also on hand as the Yankees celebrated their father’s …

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