"He was just loved by so many people," Fargoan Jackie Shaw said.
The Maris museum is free to anyone strolling by the West Acres Mall. If you need another reason to visit, you can always get a manicure across the hall at Nails Pro.
The tribute to Maris is straightforward and honest. There are old clippings, old bats, black and white pictures. It brings back memories of a time when things were simpler.
Those times were long gone by the time Mark McGwire broke Maris's record in 1998. By then, players had grown oversized muscles the likes of which were never seen on Maris when he passed Babe Ruth at Yankee Stadium Oct. 1, 1961.
Now, with a new baseball season beginning tonight, everyone -- and everything -- suddenly is suspect in a game that was never supposed to change.
It begins with McGwire disgraced after an embarrassing performance before Congress in which he did everything but admit he used steroids.
It begins with questions swirling about Barry Bonds, his chase of Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron on the career homer list, and his eventual place in baseball's pumped-up Hall of Shame.
It begins with baseball's home run records now nothing but a sham, in need of a bigger asterisk beside them than the mythical one once given Maris.
And it begins with the people of North Dakota wanting some justice for their hero.
"I think everybody knows Roger wasn't using anything," said Jim Deutsch, who with Shaw helps run the annual Roger Maris charity golf tournament. "I think everybody here in their hearts thinks he still has the record."
Earlier this week, the North Dakota Senate passed a resolution asking baseball commissioner Bud Selig to reinstate Maris's 61 home runs as the official major league record.
That's likely to happen about the same time that Bonds hosts an appreciation party for the media, or the shrinking violet McGwire decides that, yes, he would like to talk about the past after all.
But the mere fact that North Dakotans are upset ought to jolt some sense into the otherwise senseless Selig.
These are people who know something about humility and fair play. Living through miserable and seemingly endless winters also teaches them something about the human spirit.
