tied for the league lead with 119 RBIs, hit 30 home runs, stole 22 bases, and compiled a .317 batting average, .402 on-base percentage, and .576 slugging percentage. Detroit Tigers Boros spent the full 1961 season with the Detroit Tigers, including 115 games as the team's starting third baseman. As the season got underway, Boros was touted as a "can't miss" star. Joe Falls, who was later inducted into the writers' wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame, wrote: 'Steve Boros can't miss. He's got all the tools. Great hands, great speed, great desire – and watch him swing that bat. He's got everything.' It may be so, too. For this young man up from Denver ... is the most celebrated rookie to move up to the Detroit Tigers since Frank Bolling in 1954. He got off to a quick start, and by late May, he was batting .341 and "getting as much ink as Roger Maris" who went on to hit 61 home runs for the season. On May 23, 1961, he tied a major league record when Norm Cash, Boros, and Dick Brown hit successive home runs for the Tigers in a game against the Minnesota Twins. A 5-for-55 slump followed, and his batting average dipped to .283 by July. He was hospitalized overnight at Detroit Osteopathic Hospital after being struck behind the left ear and knocked unconscious by an Eli Grba pitch on July 9 at Tiger Stadium. Boros, who was carried off the field on a stretcher, said he never saw the pitch. Detroit manager Bob Scheffing said the batting helmet had saved Boros from a serious injury. Boros suffered a more serious injury on July 24, 1961, after colliding with pitcher Frank Lary while both were chasing a bunt. Boros suffered a broken left collar bone and missed six weeks as the Tigers fought for the pennant with the New York Yankees. At the time of the injury, the Tigers were in first place in the American League, and Boros already had 53 RBIs, one more than Al Kaline. Boros spent the night at St. Luke's Hospital in Kansas City before flying home to Detroit while the rest of the team flew to the west coast for a road trip. The 1961 Tigers finished with an impressive 101–61 record, but the 1961 Yankees won the pennant with a 109–53 record. Despite missing six weeks with