61*

2001 • 128 minutes

About this movie

Billy Crystal directed this captivating baseball drama that follows Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris as they chased Babe Ruth's single-season home-run record during the magical 1961 season.

Ratings and reviews

I attended April 11, 1961 Twins - Yankees (opening day) game at Yankee Stadium. There were 2 mistakes in the *61 movie depicting that game: 1] Dick Young of the Daily News -not Mrs. Ruth- presented Maris with 1960 AL MVP award. Mrs. Ruth was sitting in a box next to Yankee dugout but did not go onto the playing field 2] Pedro Ramos - not Camilo Pascual- pitched the entire complete game for the Twins. Crystal probably got that wrong because both Ramos and Pascual were from Cuba. Reference: https

The story of the the Great Home run race of 1961 to hit 61 homeruns is a fantastic story. The actors in this move went all out not only to capture the personalities of the men they portrayed but they captured era itself. Roger Maris got such a raw deal from almost everyone in the world, it was incredibly unfair. Maris was an excellent baseball player doing his job the best that he could but being compared to the supreme legend Babe Ruth every minute of every day was an impossible weight on him.

Great movie.