April 28, 2001: 61* premieres on HBO. Directed by Billy Crystal, one of the biggest New York Yankees fans alive, it tells the story of the 1961 Yankees, as Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris pursued Babe Ruth’s 1927 record of 60 home runs in a season. (Crystal was then 13 years old.)
Thomas Jane played Mantle. Barry Pepper played Maris. Billy knew that Pepper was right for the part when he saw Saving Private Ryan, and saw Pepper's face, and said, "My God, that's Roger Maris!" Pepper proved to be just right for the role. As for Jane, he looked a bit like Mantle, and copied the Oklahoma drawl and limp right. But as for swinging the bat...
On the YES Network interview show CenterStage, host Michael Kay, a Yankee broadcaster, born just before the 1961 Yankees headed to Spring Training, and thus with no memory of this team, interviewed Crystal, who had played in the Broadway Show League, an amateur baseball league that plays in Central Park. Billy said he wanted to recruit actors who had played baseball, so they looked like ballplayers. He wanted to avoid them looking like Anthony Perkins had when playing Jimmy Piersall in Fear Strikes Out.
But when Billy asked Jane what kind of ballplayer he was, Jane said, "Let's just say I don't got any bad habits."
Crystal: "And I said, 'Oh, no.' And then, he actually got out there."
Kay: "Was he Tony Perkins bad?"
Crystal: "He was Tommy Tune bad!"
Kay, a devotee of Broadway, had to explain the inside joke to his studio audience: Tune was tall and thin, a great singer and dancer, certainly athletic. But Kay had seen him play ball, and he was no good.
Fortunately, Crystal held a training camp for the actors, and he brought in Reggie Smith. The former Boston and Los Angeles star was 3rd on the all-time home run list among switch-hitters, behind Mantle and Eddie Murray. He showed Jane how to properly swing the bat and, as a former right fielder, taught Jane how to properly play the outfield. Soon, having studied Mantle's swing from each side of the plate, Jane looked like Mickey Mantle at bat.
Anthony Michael Hall, the geekiest of the 1980s movie teen idols, played Yankee pitching ace Whitey Ford. But, try as he might, he couldn't throw lefthanded. So Crystal did for him what was done for Gary Cooper in The Pride of the Yankees: A Yankee uniform was made with the NY crest and the uniform number (in Ford's case, 16) reversed, Hall was filmed throwing righthanded, and the film was reversed, so it looked right.
Crystal's daughter, Jennifer Crystal Foley, played Maris' wife Pat. Bruce McGill -- D-Day in Animal House and Vince Korsak on Rizzoli & Isles -- played manager Ralph Houk. And, with help from CGI, Tiger Stadium in Detroit "played" the pre-renovation original Yankee Stadium.
Michael Nouri played Joe DiMaggio, Paul Borghese played Yogi Berra, Christopher McDonald played Mel Allen, and Joe Grifasi played Phil Rizzuto. When ESPN made The Bronx Is Burning, about the 1977 Yankees, McDonald played DiMaggio, Grifasi played Berra, Rizzuto was not shown but his real broadcasts were used, and Allen was not a character.
Crystal said he wanted to show the players as they really were, "warts and all." He did not shy away from Mickey's drinking, and the effect it had on them. At one point, he crashes his car, and Ford pays somebody off to say, "This never happened." Then he turns to Mantle, using each man's nickname for the other, and says, "Hey, Slick: How come every time you get drunk, it ends up costing me money?"
So to cut back on shenanigans, Maris invites Mantle to move in with him and his roommate, fellow outfielder Bob Cerv, in a rented house in Forest Hills, Queens, far from the temptations of Manhattan. Things settle down, and "The M&M Boys" start hitting home runs at a pace faster than Babe Ruth did in his 1927 season, when he set the record of 60.
The sportswriters and the fans both support Mantle breaking the record, because he's a "real Yankee" and a "great player"; while Maris -- the previous season's American League Most Valuable Player -- isn't a "real Yankee" (people forgot that Ruth didn't start out with the Yankees, either) and just a .270 hitter. Even Ruth's widow, Claire (Renée Taylor), doesn't want Roger to break the record -- but then, she doesn't want Mickey to break it, either.
At Yankee Stadium, the home fans boo Maris, the way they had once booed Mantle, for not having lived up to the legends of Ruth, Lou Gehrig and DiMaggio. But now, Mantle gets cheered harder than ever before. Richard Masur, playing a composite of some of the sportswriters, says, "That's because he's never been the underdog before."
Commissioner Ford Frick (Donald Moffat) orders that, in this 1st season of the expanded AL and the increased 162-game schedule, if Maris doesn't get to 61 within the 1st 154 games, there would be 2 separate records in the record book. The myth of "the asterisk" in the record book was born, but there never really was one. Nevertheless, the title of the movie is 61* -- Sixty-one, asterisk.
The myth of the "feud" between Mantle and Maris is also addressed. There never was one. But they do have one argument. Maris gets on Mickey for his drinking. Mickey responds by chiding Roger for his smoking.
In the end, Mickey has to bow out of the home run record chase due to a bizarre illness, finishing the season with a career-high 54 home runs; while Roger gets his 59th in the 154th game, and hits his 61st on the last day of the regular season. He gets a standing ovation from the 23,000 people who actually showed up.
He visits Mickey in the hospital, and Mickey tells him not only that it's the greatest thing he's ever seen in baseball, but that, if he had to choose, he'd want his kids to grow up like Roger, not like himself.
In the end? Roger Maris died in 1985, at the age of 51, due to lung cancer, from smoking. Mickey Mantle died in 1995, at the age of 63, also due to lung cancer, the cancer having spread from his liver, due to over 40 years of hard drinking. Neither lived to see the movie -- or to see the single-season MLB home run record rise to 70 under Mark McGwire in 1998 (the Maris children were in attendance in St. Louis that night), or to 73 under Barry Bonds in 2001.
*
April 28, 2001 was a Saturday. This was also the day that Dennis Tito became Earth's 1st "space tourist." I have a separate entry for that event.
And this turned out to be an interesting day in Yankee history for a 2nd reason: Future shortstop Anthony Volpe was born.
These Major League Baseball games were played:
* The New York Yankees beat the Oakland Athletics, 7-6 at Yankee Stadium. Ted Lilly outpitched Tim Hudson. Chuck Knoblauch went 4-for-5 with a home run and 3 RBIs. Paul O'Neill went 3-for-5 with an RBI. Derek Jeter went 0-for-3 with a walk.
* The New York Mets beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-5 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Benny Agbayani singled Desi Relaford home with the winning run in the top of the 11th inning, making Armando Benítez a winning pitcher, in relief of Rick Reed.
The Mets got home runs from Mike Piazza and Joe McEwing; and 3 hits each from Relaford, McEwing and Jay Payton. The Cardinals got home runs from Jim Edmonds, J.D. Drew, Édgar Rentería, and rookie sensation Albert Pujols -- but not from Mark McGwire, entering what turned out to be his final season. He was injured from April 15 to May 28.
* The Kansas City Royals beat the Boston Red Sox, 8-2 at Fenway Park in Boston.
* The Anaheim Angels beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 4-1 at the SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre) in Toronto.
* The Cleveland Indians beat the Texas Rangers, 7-3 at Jacobs Field (now Progressive Field) in Cleveland.
* The Tampa Bay Devil Rays beat the Detroit Tigers, 7-3 at Comerica Park in Detroit.
* The Seattle Mariners beat the Chicago White Sox, 8-5 at the new Comiskey Park (now Rate Field) in Chicago. Rookie sensation Ichiro Suzuki went 3-for-6.
* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Montreal Expos, 8-4 at Miller Park (now American Family Field) in Milwaukee.
* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Minnesota Twins, 5-2 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis. Cal Ripken, in his final season, went 1-for-4.
* The Houston Astros beat the Florida Marlins, 6-4 at Enron Field (now Daikin Park) in Houston.
* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Colorado Rockies, 9-4 at Coors Field in Denver.
* The Atlanta Braves beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 3-1 at Bank One Ballpark (now Chase Field) in Phoenix. Despite 12 strikeouts, Randy Johnson was outpitched by Tom Glavine.
* The San Diego Padres beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 8-1 at Qualcomm Stadium (formerly San Diego Stadium and Jack Murphy Stadium). Tony Gwynn, in his final season, did not play, but Rickey Henderson went 2-for-3 with a walk and 2 stolen bases for the Padres.
* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 7-6 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.
* And the San Francisco Giants beat the Chicago Cubs, 5-0 at Pacific Bell Park (now Oracle Park) in San Francisco. Shawn Estes pitched 7 innings of 5-hit shutout ball, and Félix Rodríguez and Robb Nenn each pitched a perfect inning. Barry Bonds did not play.
Football was out of season. There were 4 games played in the NBA Playoffs:
* The Orlando Magic beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 121-116 in overtime at the TD Waterhouse Centre (formerly the Orlando Arena). Tracy McGrady led all scorers on the day with 42 points for the Magic.
* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Indiana Pacers, 92-87 at the Conseco Fieldhouse (now the Gainbridge Fieldhouse) in Indianapolis. Allen Iverson scored 32 points for the Sixers. Reggie Miller scored 35 in defeat for the Pacers.
* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Utah Jazz, 94-91 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. Dirk Nowitzki scored 33 for the Mavs.
* And the Minnesota Timberwolves beat the San Antonio Spurs, 93-84 at the Target Center in Minneapolis.
And there were 3 games in the Stanley Cup Playoffs:
* The New Jersey Devils beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 6-5 at the Continental Airlines Arena at the Meadowlands. Randy McKay scored the winning goal, 5:31 into overtime.
* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Buffalo Sabres, 3-1 at the HSBC Arena (now the KeyBank Center) in Buffalo.
* And the Colorado Avalanche beat the Los Angeles Kings, 2-0 at the Pepsi Center (now the Ball Arena) in Denver.
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