Sal Durante, Who Caught a Bit of Baseball History, Dies at 81

Sal Durante, who grew to become an immediate celeb when he boldly snared Roger Maris’s record-breaking 61st house run in a single hand at Yankee Stadium through the ultimate recreation of the 1961 common season, died on Thursday on Staten Island. He was 81.

His son Sal Jr. mentioned the trigger was dementia.

On that fall afternoon, Maris was tied with Babe Ruth for the single-season main league document of 60 house runs. Mr. Durante, a 19-year-old truck driver who delivered auto components and had performed sandlot baseball, bought seats in proper discipline for himself; his fiancée, Rosemarie Calabrese; his cousin John; and John’s date. Mr. Durante was broke, so Ms. Calabrese paid $10 for the 4 tickets.

With one out within the fourth inning, Maris smashed the third pitch off the Boston Purple Sox right-hander Tracy Stallard past the brief fence in proper discipline.

“I watched the pitching movement, the discharge of the ball, and I had my eye on the ball all the best way to Roger’s bat,” Mr. Durante mentioned at a commemorative occasion 50 years later on the new Yankee Stadium, which had changed the outdated one in 2009. “I didn’t take my eye off that ball for a second.”

Because the ball soared towards him, he mentioned, he jumped onto his seat and caught it within the palm of his proper hand. “I bought it! I bought it!” he shouted, earlier than falling into the row behind him.

After a scuffle with different followers, two safety guards hustled Mr. Durante to the Yankees’ clubhouse, the place he deliberate to present the ball to Maris.

However as they stood collectively, Maris refused to take it. He knew that Sam Gordon, a restaurateur in Sacramento, had provided $5,000 for the ball Maris hit for his 61st house run to whoever caught it. He instructed Mr. Durante to take the money.

Mr. Durante did, and Mr. Gordon then gave the ball to Maris. He stored it till 1973, when he donated it to the Nationwide Baseball Corridor of Fame.

After assembly Maris, Mr. Durante was delivered to the WPIX-TV broadcast sales space to be interviewed and was greeted by Phil Rizzuto, one of many workforce’s announcers and a former star shortstop for the Yankees. Mr. Durante recalled Mr. Rizzuto telling him, “I’m glad you’re a paesano.”

Salvatore Durante was born on Nov. 11, 1941, in Brooklyn. His father, Gabriel, was a postal employee who had to surrender his job after he grew to become disabled, inflicting Sal to drop out of highschool six months earlier than commencement to assist assist his household. His mom, Catherine (Marino) Durante, was a homemaker.

Mr. Durante and Ms. Calabrese had been married at a church in Brooklyn just a few weeks after he caught the ball after which flew to Sacramento to gather the $5,000 (practically $50,000 in right now’s {dollars}). Half the cash went to start out the Durantes’ married life, half to assist Mr. Durante’s mother and father. Mr. Gordon additionally paid for the couple’s honeymoon in Palm Springs.

The following August, Mr. Durante was invited to the Seattle World’s Honest, the place he was provided $1,000 to catch a ball off the Area Needle. When it was decided {that a} ball thrown from the 605-foot-tall tower would generate an excessive amount of pace, the stunt (with Stallard, then pitching for a neighborhood minor league workforce, throwing the ball) was moved to a 100-foot-tall Ferris wheel.

After catching some observe throws from decrease heights, Mr. Durante dropped the one for all the cash (he bought the cash anyway). When Stallard requested what occurred, Mr. Durante instructed United Press Worldwide, “I assume I wasn’t relaxed after I knew the cash was using on the toss.”

Along with his son Sal Jr., Mr. Durante is survived by two different sons, Robert and Thomas; six grandchildren; his sisters, Mary Serpe and Susan Monaco; and his brother, Joseph.

Mr. Durante later owned a messenger service after which drove a college bus earlier than retiring to maintain his spouse, who died in 2014.

On the Fiftieth-anniversary occasion, Mr. Durante was requested if Maris’s 61-home-run season ought to stand as the foremost league document regardless of having been exceeded many years later by Barry Bonds — who holds the mark with 73, which he hit in 2001 — and by Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. All three males’s legacies are clouded by ties to performance-enhancing medication.

“How about if I simply say Roger deserved it,” he mentioned. “He did it on his personal, you realize, the ability.”

Due to his dementia, he was unaware that the Yankees’ Aaron Decide hit 62 homers final season.