61*

With Postseason baseball officially kicked off, I feel like diving into one of the best, if not the absolute best, baseball film ever made. It is a made for HBO movie written and directed by Billy Crystal. Crystal is quite the historian when it comes to the Yankees, and everything about the film is done so perfectly. The film follows Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris during the 1961 baseball season. These two were cut from two completely different crops. Mantle embraced the big city. The booze, $1000 per night hotel suites, women, fancy cars, and slick suits. Maris was a country boy who just wanted to play ball, and relax in peace and quiet. The story is all about these two men chasing Babe Ruth's single season Home Run record, but it also closely follows the off field relationship of all the ball players, more specifically Mantle and Maris. These two extraordinary athletes are both chasing the same record in the same season. Yes, they are competing, but they also are helping each other out. Crystal recreates that era awesomely. He also made us smarter. By "us", I mean the yutes that were not alive in the sixties. We were raised with cry baby athletes who weren't half as good as these guys, but they earn 100 times more money. Most of these ball players had to get jobs in the off season, and they budget on making it to the World Series for the $8000 bonus. It's amazing the picture that is painted for all us movie lovers and baseball lovers to watch and enjoy. The off field antics of Mantle paired with the tremendous issues Maris has with the New York press, it turns into two guys fighting their demons in their own ways. It is a brilliant movie that is more about human life than baseball. It really gets into the soap opera that is fame, not to mention they are away from their families during the entire season. It would be crazy to miss the birth of a child to play baseball. That's how little these guys got paid, not Mantle. Mantle was treated like a god. The second coming of the Babe himself. He was paid more than anyone, and was never held accountable for his actions. FYI: all the black and white footage throughout the film is actual footage from 1961, and Billy Crystal dubbed the reporter commentary in a few of the TV broadcast scenes. A very cool look back in history. It really makes us appreciate how hard they used to work for the love, not the paycheck.

NBM rates 61* - Phenomenal

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