Roger Maris Museum
The last place you’d look for a sports museum dedicated to a baseball great is inside the largest shopping mall in the region, but that’s exactly where you’ll find the Roger Maris Museum in Fargo, ND.
For baseball fans, this shrine to Roger Maris is a must-see Fargo attraction.
The Roger Maris Museum, inside the West Acres Mall in Fargo, ND, walks you through the life and baseball career of Roger Maris, a Fargo native.
What’s so special about Roger Maris? He broke Babe Ruth’s single-season home run record, hitting 61 home runs in his 1961 baseball season with the New York Yankees.
Sit in actual seats from Yankee Stadium as you watch documentary films about Maris before checking out his uniforms, a replica of his 1961 locker, his two MVP awards, and the multiple bats, home run balls, baseball cards, and memorabilia on display.
The museum has no entry fee, so if you’re looking for free things to do in Fargo, you found a great one at the Roger Maris museum.
HOURS
The Roger Maris Museum is open during all opening hours of Fargo’s West Acres Mall. Please click on the website link above to see the most current hours.
ADMISSION
Free
FUN FACTS
• Maris’ 1961 single-season home run record stood for 37 years, longer than the record Maris broke of Babe Ruth’s 60 homers in 1927.
• The Yankees retired #9, Maris’ uniform number, on July 21, 1984. A new Roger Maris plaque was also dedicated in Monument Park at Yankee Stadium.
HISTORY
Roger Maris was born September 10, 1934, in Hibbing, Minnesota, moving with his family to Fargo when he was 10. He attended Shanley High School and there began an incredible string of sports successes.
These successes set him up to earn a scholarship to the famed Oklahoma University football program, which he eventually passed up to remain in Fargo.
While football was his passion, he played baseball in Fargo from 1949 to 1951, and once said, “Baseball was just something to do in the summer.”
After that, he began his minor league career in the Class C Northern League. When he was one year out of high school, he was recruited by the Cleveland organization and attended spring training in Daytona Beach, Florida. Eventually, he began playing for the Fargo-Moorhead Chicks and earned himself the league’s Rookie of the Year Award with a .325 batting average, nine home runs, and 13 triples.
He quickly moved on to the Class B Three-Eye League for the 1954 season, followed by Class AA Tulsa of the Texas League and Reading, Pennsylvania.
But it was his stay at Indianapolis, Indiana that solidified his major league potential. In his 1956 season, he batted .293, hit 17 homers, drove in 75 runs, and helped carry the team to the Little World Series championship.
Back in 1953, the Cleveland organization had signed Maris for $15,000 plus a $10,000 bonus if he made it to the majors. His performance made that look like a steal, and he began the 1957 season with the Cleveland Indians in the big leagues.
Maris was traded to Kansas City in the off-season, and had a great season in 1958 before being traded to New York, where his performance has left a mark on baseball history.