Summer, 1961: Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle are on pace to break the most hallowed record in U.S. sports, Babe Ruth's single-season 60 home runs. It's a big story, and the intense, plain-spoken Maris is the bad guy: sports writers bait him and minimize his talent, fans cheer Mantle, the league's golden boy, and baseball's .. Read more
| Starring | Barry Pepper, Thomas Jane, Anthony Michael Hall, Richard Masur |
|---|---|
| Director | Billy Crystal |
| Genres | Drama |
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Summer, 1961: Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle are on pace to break the most hallowed record in U.S. sports, Babe Ruth's single-season 60 home runs. It's a big story, and the intense, plain-spoken Maris is the bad guy: sports writers bait him and minimize his talent, fans cheer Mantle, the league's golden boy, and baseball's commissioner announces that Ruth's record stands unless it's broken within 154 games. Any record set after 154 games of the new 162-game schedule will have an asterisk. The film follows the boys of summer, on and off the field: their friendship, the stresses on Maris, his frustration with the negative attention, and his desire to play well, win, and go home.
| Starring | Barry Pepper, Thomas Jane, Anthony Michael Hall, Richard Masur, Bruce McGill |
|---|---|
| Director | Billy Crystal |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Drama |
| Language | DVD: English |
| Released | DVD: not available Production year: 2001 |
| Format | DVD |
Billy Crystal's passion for baseball informs every frame of this sporting biopic, which recalls the summer of 1961 when New York Yankees team-mates Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris went head to head to break Babe Ruth's home run record. With Haskell Wexler's crisp photography helping him avoid overt nostalgia and Hank Steinberg's teleplay providing him with a rousing, intelligent drama, Crystal adroitly combines diamond action with character study, as he contrasts Mantle's public appeal and private misery with Maris's unshowy professionalism. Thomas Jane and Barry Pepper respectively capture their contrasting characters, while also acquitting themselves ably at the plate.