What does the asterisk mean for Roger Maris?

Answer 1

The asterisk was proposed because Maris played a 162 game schedule to break a record, Babe Ruth's single season home run record, that was set in a 154 game season. It must be noted that the Commissioner of Baseball at the time, Ford Frick, was a close friend of Ruth's and ghost wrote many articles attributed to Ruth during his playing days. The asterisk was a shameful act and, if we were to use that 'thought process' today, all records set earlier than 1961 that were broken after 1961 would have an asterisk next to them in the record books. The thing is, there was no official record book at the time. Hence, no Asterisk. Think about looking at a book of Major League Baseball records and seeing asterisks next to:

1) Ichiro Suzuki's MLB record of 262 base hits set in 2004 that broke George Sisler's old record of 257 base hits set in 1920.

2) Sandy Koufax' record of 382 strikeouts (since broken by Nolan Ryan) set in 1965 that broke Walter Johnson's old record of 313 set in 1910.

3) Pete Rose's MLB record of 4,256 career base hits that broke Ty Cobb's old record of 4,191 career base hits. Granted, this is a career record but if a career record is set while playing seasons of 162 games when the old record was set playing seasons of 154 games, what's the difference? And on and on and on.

Answer 2

Sometimes it is used on scorecards to denote a great defensive play

Some Fans used the asterisk when Barry Bonds approached and eventually broke Hank Aaron's home run record because of his possible use of performance enhancing drugs