Ford Frick, an old friend of Babe Ruth’s, announces that should Ruth’s single-season home run record be beaten after 154 games are played, the record will carry a “distinctive mark”. When asked about the ruling, Roger Maris replies, “A season is a season.” Sportswriter Dick Young suggests an asterisk, which is later claimed to be Frick’s idea. No such designation is ever used in the record books, though, but the incident leads to a myth that an “official record book” lists Maris’s record with an asterisk. The myth is still popularly believed over 50 years later.

* Mickey Mantle poles two homers off rookie Joe McClain to pace New York to a 5 – 3 win over the Senators. In pre-game ceremonies, Mantle teamed with New York Congressman Eddie Dooley to win the homer-hitting contest against other Congressional-player duos.

Yankee sluggers Roger Maris (35) and Mickey Mantle (32), both ahead of the Bambino’s record 1927 pace, each lose a homer when the nightcap of a twin bill is rained out in the top of the fifth inning against the Orioles in Baltimore. The Memorial Stadium washout occurs on same day Commissioner Ford Frick decrees that Babe Ruth’s record of 60 home runs will not be broken unless a player hits 61 or more within the first 154 games of the newly expanded 162-game schedule.

Sandy Koufax leaves after one inning of a 7 – 5 loss at Cincinnati. The 14-game winner has a circulatory problem in the index finger and palm of his pitching hand and will be sidelined until late September.

Commissioner Ford Frick decrees that Babe Ruth’s record of 60 home runs in a 154-game schedule in 1927 “cannot be broken unless some batter hits 61 or more within his club’s first 154 games.”