61*

Starring Barry Pepper, Thomas Jane, Jennifer Crystal Foley, Christopher Bauer, Bruce McGill, Christopher McDonald, Richard Masur and Anthony Michael Hall. Written by Hank Steinberg. Directed by Billy Crystal.

HBO Original Films are often hit and miss for me. Often times I really enjoy the made-for-HBO movies, and often times I wonder why they were made. They certainly fill a need for quality programming that just wouldn’t make it in the theatres. In the past HBO has taken risks in the programming, choosing Abortion, Lesbianism (the two If these Walls Could Talk films) and other taboo topics. They do literate adaptations of best-sellers (Always Outnumbered by Walter Mosely and Fatherland by Robert Harris come to mind). They make films for ethnic audiences that wouldn’t normally be made, and they do celebrity vanity projects, which 61* most certainly is.

It’s not a big secret that Billy Crystal is a lifetime Yankee fan, and that the 1961 season was the greatest time of his life. The year that Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris chased Babe Ruth’s single season home run record if for many Baseball fans the greatest single year in baseball history. Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa’s 1998 run for the record evoked a lot of Maris/Mantle memories, and probably sparked the writing of this film. Indeed, the film starts with real footage of McGwire’s record-breaking home run, and flashes back almost forty years to when the M&M boys were chasing the Babe’s record.

Thomas Jane plays Mickey Mantle and Barry Pepper portrays Roger Maris. Mantle, the older, somewhat wiser playboy obviously cares about the record, but shrugs it off, as he has done with most of his accomplishments. Maris is the haunted family man, who coming off of an MVP season in 1960 feels like he’s being put upon by the media. Maris is a quiet, unassuming man from Nebraska who doesn’t understand why the entire world takes notice of what he does on the field, because after-all, he’s just a ball-player. The two men don’t start off to break a long-standing record, and as the season moves along, they turn their friendship into the focal point for the film. Through the season and the film, Maris pulls ahead, becoming in the process a hated man to the Yankee fans and the media. From the commissioner of baseball, Babe Ruth’s widow to the common fan, it seems no one wants Maris to break the record. The commissioner goes so far as to declare that any record broken in 162 games will be listed separately from the previous 154 game records. In the end, we know that Mantle drops out of the race with an injury, and Maris does indeed break the record on the last day of the season, ending with 61 home runs in 1961. That record would stand until 1998, when Mark McGwire shattered it with 70. Maris would get a second MVP that year, but the toll would be taken, Maris would lose his hair, and would never be a great player. Mantle would be beloved in New York, and around the world for years to come, and be elected to the Baseball hall of fame in his first year of eligibility (1974). Maris is still waiting.

This isn’t a great film, by any stretch of the imagination, but it isn’t a bad film either. First time director Crystal has placed many comedic touches throughout the film, never letting the comedy overpower the drama inherent in sports. He gets fantastic performances out of Pepper and Jane, neither of which had distinguished acting careers prior to this film. Outstanding performances also come from Bruce McGill as manager Ralph Houk and Richard Masur as the only journalist on Maris’ side. I didn’t even recognize Anthony Michael Hall as Whitey Ford until halfway through the film. Steinberg’s script is competent, if somewhat boring. Unless you really, really enjoy Baseball, you won’t really, really enjoy this mediocre film.

My rating *** out of 5.