Editing Asterisk (section)

====Baseball====
The usage of the term in sports arose during the 1961 baseball season in which [[Roger Maris]] of the [[New York Yankees]] was threatening to break [[Babe Ruth]]'s 34-year-old single-season [[home run]] record. Ruth had amassed 60 home runs in a season with only 154 games,  but Maris was playing the first season in the American League's newly expanded 162-game season.  Baseball Commissioner [[Ford C. Frick]], a friend of Ruth's during the legendary slugger's lifetime, held a press conference to announce his "ruling" that should Maris take longer than 154 games both records would be acknowledged by Major League Baseball, but that some "distinctive mark" [his term]<ref name=Salon>{{cite web|last1=Barra|first1=Allen|title=The myth of Maris' asterisk|url=http://www.salon.com/2001/10/03/asterisk/|work=[[Salon.com]]|access-date=November 15, 2014|date=October 3, 2001|archive-date=April 12, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210412134133/https://www.salon.com/2001/10/03/asterisk/|url-status=live}}</ref> be placed next to Maris', which should be listed alongside Ruth's achievement in the "record books".  The asterisk as such a mark was suggested at that time by [[New York Daily News]] sportswriter [[Dick Young (sportswriter)|Dick Young]], not Frick.<ref name=Salon/> The reality, however, was that MLB actually had no direct control over any record books until many years later, and it all was merely a suggestion on Frick's part. Within a few years the controversy died down and all prominent baseball record keepers listed Maris as the single-season record holder for as long as he held the record.<ref name=Salon/>

Nevertheless, the stigma of holding a tainted record remained with Maris for many years, and the concept of a real or figurative asterisk denoting less-than-accepted "official" records has become widely used in sports and other competitive endeavors. A 2001 [[TV movie]] about Maris's record-breaking season was called ''[[61*]]'' (pronounced ''sixty-one asterisk'') in reference to the controversy.

Uproar over the integrity of baseball records and whether or not qualifications should be added to them arose again in the late 1990s, when a [[steroid era|steroid-fueled]] power explosion led to the shattering of Maris' record.  Even though it was obvious - and later admitted<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.espn.com/mlb/news/story?id=4816607|title=McGwire comes clean, admits steroids use|date=January 11, 2010|website=ESPN.com|access-date=September 5, 2019|archive-date=January 23, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160123210850/http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4816607|url-status=live}}</ref> - by [[Mark McGwire]] that he was heavily on steroids when he hit 70 home runs in 1998, ruling authorities did nothing - to the annoyance of many fans and sportswriters.  Three years later self-confessed steroid-user [[Barry Bonds]] pushed that record out to 73, and fans once again began to call for an asterisk in the sport's record books.

Fans were especially critical and clamored louder for baseball to act during the 2007 season, as Bonds approached and later broke [[Hank Aaron]]'s career home run record of 755.<ref>{{cite news|title=''Tarnished records deserve an Asterisk''|author=Michael Wilbon|date=2004-12-04|newspaper=Washington Post|page=D10|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33718-2004Dec3.html|access-date=2017-08-24|archive-date=2018-04-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180419091356/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33718-2004Dec3.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

The [[Houston Astros]]' 2017 World Series win was marred after an investigation by MLB revealed the team's involvement in a [[Houston Astros sign stealing scandal|sign-stealing scheme]] during that season. Fans, appalled by what they perceived to be overly lenient discipline against the Astros players, nicknamed the team the "Houston Asterisks".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnbaldoni/2020/02/17/lets-call-them-the-houston-asterisks/#5066794640c9|title=Let's Call Them the Houston Asterisks|website=[[Forbes]]|access-date=2020-08-26|archive-date=2020-10-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201003062529/https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnbaldoni/2020/02/17/lets-call-them-the-houston-asterisks/#5066794640c9|url-status=live}}</ref>

In recent years, the asterisk has come into use on baseball scorecards to denote a "great defensive play."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://baseball-almanac.com/score2b.shtml |title=Scoring Baseball: Advanced Symbols |publisher=Baseball Almanac |access-date=2018-09-18 |archive-date=2011-10-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111012234604/http://www.baseball-almanac.com/score2b.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref>