Sport: Year of the Homer (Contd.)

Was the ball livelier? Were the pitchers duller? Were the bats whippier? American League hitters heated up the argument last week by blasting out two new home-run records:

CJ Mickey Mantle hit his 48th. to give the New York Yankees 193 for the season, tying the American League team record that the Yankees set last year. Teammates Moose Skowron and Hector Lopez promptly hit two more homers to set a new record. With a month to go, the Yankees seem certain to better the major league mark of 221 home runs. CJ The Los Angeles Angels and Baltimore Orioles sent six home runs sailing out of the Angels’ Wrigley Field, to push the season’s total in the West Coast bandbox to 204. Previous American League record for an individual ball park was 200. set at Detroit’s Briggs Stadium in 1959. Next target for the American Leaguers: the major league record of 219 set at Cincinnati’s Crosley Field in 1957.