I'm not saying the players themselves did anything but could it be MLB made sure the baseballs would fly outta the park that year? I think they call that "juicing" the balls. Something I noticed in 1960 looking at the MVP voting was that it was very evident that the AL had a really moribund year for offense. Maris' numbers for an MVP season were nothing special but it was hard to make a case for anyone else except Mantle and even his numbers in '60 were not eye popping. They probably should've been co-MVPs. The votes were very close.

And then you look at the 1961 MVP race and the stats just jump off the page. You had these guys were just tearing the cover off the ball. So something was maybe amiss or it was just a statistical anomaly that year.