Of Asterisks and Baseball Records: Allen Barra has a fascinating article today about the history of the asterisk on Roger Maris's single-season home run record. As it turns out, there was never an asterisk in the record book on Maris's record, mostly because there is no "official" baseball record book (only books published by independent sources, such as The Sporting News). Over time, though, the myth of the asterisk grew and as Bob Costas stated, "The asterisk was real because the majority of fans believed it was. When they stopped believing, it vanished." A very interesting read.

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