As others who have posted comments about "61*", I too am not a Yankee fan. I read a book several years ago called "Dynasty - When Rooting For The Yankess Was Like Rooting for US Steel". It was a great book, but didn't exactly leave you with a warm and fuzzy feeling about the team from the Bronx. Billy Crystal's movie, however, left me blinking back tears. It is nothing less than a love story to two men and a team that is truly legendary in a sport where the term "legend" is too easily used. And he showed Maris and Mantle as real people, warts and all. Barry Pepper and Thomas Jane were brilliant as the M&M Boys and Billy Crystal takes us back in time by giving attention to the tiniest detail. An aging Tiger Stadium was magically transformed into "The House That Ruth Built", monuments and all.
I grew up rooting for the Cleveland Indians, not an easy task. Back then, as now, the Yankees were our hated rivals, but even so there wasn't a kid I knew who wouldn't have given everything to be Micky Mantle. Despite his greatness playing for a team that could beat my local heroes more often than not, The Mick was one of those greats that just transcended partisan sports. It was easy to see why nearly everyone was rooting for him to break the Babe's record, and not Roger Maris. Billy Crystal, truly one who worshiped Mantle, makes Maris's ordeal seem almost mythic, but from all I have read, he exaggerated very little.
"61*" is possibly the greatest baseball movie ever made, and that's saying something. Watch it and relive what may be baseball's greatest season.
I grew up rooting for the Cleveland Indians, not an easy task. Back then, as now, the Yankees were our hated rivals, but even so there wasn't a kid I knew who wouldn't have given everything to be Micky Mantle. Despite his greatness playing for a team that could beat my local heroes more often than not, The Mick was one of those greats that just transcended partisan sports. It was easy to see why nearly everyone was rooting for him to break the Babe's record, and not Roger Maris. Billy Crystal, truly one who worshiped Mantle, makes Maris's ordeal seem almost mythic, but from all I have read, he exaggerated very little.
"61*" is possibly the greatest baseball movie ever made, and that's saying something. Watch it and relive what may be baseball's greatest season.