61*

Director: Billy Crystal (2001)

Cast: Barry Pepper, Thomas Jane, Anthony Michael Hall

Roger Maris was a fantastic baseball player who had 2-3 phenominal years as a New York Yankee. He was definitely the underdog in his his quest to catch Babe Ruth’s vaunting single season home run record of 60 homers in 1927. He and Mickey Mantle were both on pace to break the record. This is a great Billy Krystal-directed film. A must see.

This was actor/director Billy Crystal's love  letter to his beloved New York Yankees of the late 1950's and the early 1960's.A dominant team led by Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, Yogi Berra and Roger Maris who was traded to the team a year before  and won the AL MVP award.In 1961, under new manager Ralph Houk this Yankee team was working on all cylanders with Mantle and Maris leading the way with a barrage of of home run  power ever seen in the game. The jovial Mantel took everything in stride, while the low key Maris struggled with all the extra media attention from the and the fans.Mantle and Maris ended up being housemates that season that helped them they chased Babe Ruth's single season home run record of 60.The pressure was unbearable. Mantle injured his leg and the low key Maris was so nervous,his hair started falling out. Somehow Maris was able to hold it together and break the record at 61 and the Yankees won another world series. Mantle and Maris would win another championship in 1962 and Maris would win a championship with the St.Louis Cardinals in 1967.

Fun Facts: Billy Crystal struggled to cast the two lead actors. Luckily his friend Tom Hanks invited him to a screening of his movie "Saving Private Ryan" and and saw actor Barry Pepper playing one of the soldiers in the platoon, he said to himself, "I found my Maris"! Thomas Jayne was a whole other story. The Canadian actor had never played baseball so he spent 3 months training with former Red Sox and Dodger player Reggie Smith to make him into a ballplayer.

Crystal cast his daughter actress Jennifer Crystal Foley  to play Pat Maris.

Crystal had a dilemma Yankee Stadium was being renovated when the movie was in production, but they had access to the soon to be demolished Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Crystal wanted the seats in the stadium to be the green seats he had grown with, but those seats were gone.The Yankees scoured the entire stadium and found an old broken chair that an employee had saved as a memento that had had the paint on it. So Billy got his wish.