1961 Major League Baseball season

The original Washington Senators moved to Minnesota and became the Minnesota Twins.

The team relocated to Minnesota and was renamed the Minnesota Twins at the start of the 1961 season.

The National League played a 154 game schedule for the final time in 1961 before switching to 162 games when they also expanded to ten teams for the following season.

The American League had played its first 162-game schedule a year earlier.

The season is best known for Yankee teammates Roger Maris' and Mickey Mantle's pursuit of Babe Ruth's prestigious 34-year-old single-season home run record of 60.

During the 1961 season, Mantle and teammate Roger Maris, known as the M&M Boys, chased Babe Ruth's 1927 single-season home run record.

That year, the Reds won the league pennant, going 93-61 (a 26 game improvement) while gaining the right to play the New York Yankees in the 1961 World Series.

*1961 Nippon Professional Baseball season

*1961 Major League Baseball season

That season saw the New York Yankees defeat the Cincinnati Reds in five games in the World Series.

That season saw the New York Yankees defeat the Cincinnati Reds in five games in the World Series.

That season saw the New York Yankees defeat the Cincinnati Reds in five games in the World Series.

The season is best known for Yankee teammates Roger Maris' and Mickey Mantle's pursuit of Babe Ruth's prestigious 34-year-old single-season home run record of 60.

The season is best known for Yankee teammates Roger Maris' and Mickey Mantle's pursuit of Babe Ruth's prestigious 34-year-old single-season home run record of 60.

In response to the proposed Continental League, the American League expanded by two teams in the first MLB expansion since 1901.

The original Washington Senators moved to Minnesota and became the Minnesota Twins.

The American League therefore placed a new team in Washington, also called the Senators.

Also, the American League placed a team in Los Angeles called the Los Angeles Angels.