Mark McGwire versus Sammy Sosa. Barry Bonds versus the history books. Pete Alonso’s chase for the all-time rookie home run record, set just the year before by rival Aaron Judge. In the last 30 years of Major League Baseball (MLB) history, and more so recently, the idea of the home run race has taken over. Just last year, MLB players combined to hit more home runs in a single season than any other season in history.

However, one of the first revolutionary home run races happened in 1961, between Yankees teammates Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle. Maris eventually won, hitting 61 home runs and breaking Babe Ruth’s all-time single-season record. The idea of somebody, especially a midwestern boy in his first year with the Yankees, breaking the Babe’s record caused a lot of drama. This drama set the stage for the movie “61*,” directed by Billy Crystal and starring Barry Pepper as Maris and Thomas Jane as Mantle. The movie, directed and written by lifelong Yankee fans, shows great care in delving into the human aspect of what it’s like to chase the record of a legend, even if it’s not entirely historically accurate.

The script and direction of “61*” were handled with care. However, fantastic performances from the lead actors stole the show. Pepper and Jane gave excellent and dynamic depictions, pulling the curtain on Maris’ stoicism and Mantle’s extravagance. One moment, they’re clobbering home runs and showing nothing but smiles as they’re starting the “M+M Boys” brand. However, just a scene later, Mantle is helping Maris deal with the stress of being hated by the media and his home fans. They transition between emotions with ease and maintain a great sense of chemistry.

One of the most significant issues in casting for sports movies is trying to strike a balance between acting talent and the ability to look like a professional athlete. Some casting directors try to circumvent the issue by hiring professional athletes and teaching them how to act. However, in instances like Ray Allen in “He Got Game,” it’s evident that these athletes aren’t quick learners, giving stiff performances and ruining the tension of dramatic scenes. In the case of “61*,” they went a different route by casting actors who had never played organized baseball and teaching them how to swing and throw. Pepper and Jane went to a baseball academy in which they trained under former all-star outfielder Reggie Smith in order to look good when playing baseball. Given their limitations, they both did very well, swinging and throwing with solid mechanics that don’t take the viewer out of the experience.

While the performances for the rest of the cast were impressive, the writing for the reporters and commissioner Ford C. Frick seemed comically evil. With 1961 being the first year of 162-game seasons, Frick eventually decided to label any record broken after game 154 of the season with an asterisk. Additionally, Maris was incredibly reserved and did not give much attention to the media, causing him to be a villain among them. The music and framing of scenes where Maris is in a media scrum feel even more dramatic, to give the movie an antagonist. For the most part, Crystal handles this well. However, there are aspects where the drama is exaggerated to further the plot.

Crystal also bent some of the historical facts of the 1961 season for the sake of creating tension, exaggerating drama and furthering the plot. For example, most of the hate given to Maris from fans happened following the 1961 season, when he lost some of the joy of playing baseball after breaking the record. As part of the emotional climax in the movie, Maris gets heckled by a fan wearing a fake Babe Ruth jersey and the incident culminates with a fan throwing a chair onto the field. This actually happened in the 1962 season, the year after Maris broke the record. Despite the historical inaccuracy, the scene does a great job of showing the friendship that Mantle and Maris had, despite the narrative of the two hating each other that the media tried to create.

One of the motivations in the creation of this movie was to allow people to respect the greatness of Maris. The combination of media coverage and the asterisk on his record has caused him to be the victim of disrespect in recent memory. Even still, he is not a member of the Hall of Fame. Eventual MLB commissioner Fay Vincent removed the asterisk in 1991, six years after Maris passed away.

Even with historical flaws, Crystal and writer Hank Steinberg combined to tell a story that puts Maris in proper context, remembering him as a man who simply wanted to play the game he loved. Pepper gave a fantastic, layered performance that humanized Maris in a way never before seen. Overall, it’s a great movie that should be a favorite for any baseball fan.

Photo Courtesy of IMBD