Roger and Judy

Today, Tuesday, 8 July is the last day before I start my drive down the Great River Road. I’m staying at the wonderfully named C’Mon Inn in Park Rapids tonight where I will be about 20 miles south of Itasca State Park and Lake Itasca – the source of the Mississippi. But I have two stops planned before I go on in.

My first stop will be the West Acres Mall in Fargo, North Dakota. Why, you might wonder, would this particular mall in this particular city be a place I planned to stop? I’m stopping there because it’s home to the Roger Maris Museum.

(For those interested, the Coen brothers movie of the same name was not filmed in Fargo. Most of the film was shot in and around Minneapolis though it did move north to Hallock, MN because of a mild winter in Minneapolis. The Paul Bunyan statue seen in the film was constructed in Bathgate, ND.)

For the very young among you, in 1961, Roger Maris hit 61 home runs breaking the single season record of 60 that had been held for 33 years by Babe Ruth. He spent much of the year chasing down the Babe’s record in a head-to-head duel (anyone remember McGuire – Sosa) with his much more popular and media savvy teammate, Mickey Mantle. With about 12 games to play in the season, Maris had 56 home runs and Mantle had 53. However, Mantle missed 10 of the Yankees’ last 12 games due to illness and injury and finished the season with 54.

Maris continued chasing the record on his own eventually hitting his sixtieth against the Orioles’ Jack Fisher in the 159th game of the season. In the fourth inning of the season’s final game, Roger pulled a pitch from Boston’s Tracy Stallard into the right field seats to break the record. Only about 23,000 people attended the game. (If you haven’t seen it, I recommend you watch the wonderful movie 61* directed by Billy Crystal. The asterisk is based on the decision of then Commissioner Ford Frick – a close friend of Ruth’s – to list two home run records one for a 154-game season and one for Maris’ 162-game season.)

Though he never approached that home run total before or after his record-breaking season, Maris was a solid player who won two American League MVP Awards (1960 & 1961), played in seven All-Star games, and seven World Series. He played a dozen seasons for four teams but often found his playing time and eventually his career shortened by injuries. Still, the Yankees saw fit to honor him by retiring his number and adding a monument to him at Yankee Stadium.

Though born in Hibbing, MN, the Maris family moved to Fargo when Roger was eight and he always considered the city his home. In high school, Roger was a standout in basketball, track, baseball, and football. He was good enough a football player to be offered a scholarship to the University of Oklahoma but opted instead to sign a $15,000 contract with Cleveland.

Largely because he shied away from the spotlight in New York, was reticent with the press, and was only in his second season with the Yankees, Roger was frequently cast in the role of the bad guy who had an ongoing feud with Mantle. This was not the case. He and Mantle were roommates and good friends.

I note this because in many ways, placing the museum in a shopping mall reflects the man Maris was. In fact, when he was first approached about having a museum, he would agree to it only if the sponsors would, “Put it where people will see it, and where they won’t have to pay for it.”

As someone who has loved baseball from a very young age, I can say that this was a worthwhile stop to make. There is some great memorabilia

and a series of videos that take about half an hour to cycle through that you watch while sitting in these

original seats from Yankee Stadium.

From Fargo I was off to Minnesota blowing 90 miles or so past Park Rapids to another fast town, Grand Rapids (and I don’t mean the one in Michigan). My target there was a white frame house that was the childhood home of Frances Ethel Gumm and its adjoining museum. If you don’t recognize the name, perhaps it would help if I told you she and her family moved to California when Frances was four and that at age 12 she changed her name to Judy Garland.

In the late 1930s, Judy starred in a series of films with Mickey Rooney that garnered her a fair measure of fame. But it was, of course, in 1939 that she became a huge star taking on the role of Dorothy Gale in a small movie called The Wizard of Oz.

The museum is home to a huge display of Wizard of Oz memorabilia including the carriage that Dorothy rides in when she visits the Emerald City.

Passing through the Wizard of Oz exhibit, with a looped recording of Judy singing Rock A Bye Your Baby (To a Dixie Melody), you encounter a hallway filled with Gumm family mementos. From there, you enter the house itself.

The house is not in its original location. In fact, it’s been moved twice. The first time happened in 1937 when it was relocated to make way for a store that was never built. It was moved to its current location in 1994 where it was restored to its present condition. It’s been furnished and decorated as authentically as possible.

Once back in Park Rapids, I went on in to the C’mon Inn, checked on in, and then traveled a few blocks to the center of town where I had my first real sit-down meal of the trip to date. I chose the restaurant, Necce’s (pronounced neesees) based on TripAdvisor reviews. It’s an Italian restaurant and, while okay, it wasn’t memorable enough to even make note of what I ate as a main course. I got a good chuckle when my waiter told me that one of the available beers was Stella are-TOE-iss (accenting the second syllable).

Tomorrow, the Mississippi journey begins.