in the pantheon of baseball movie and this one and 61 and be in my personal top five and and perhaps the top three . billy crystal and good know a a comedian or a host of the academy award and take the director chair for this film and and produce a story that be a grand insight into the personal and professional world of baseball during the era of mantle and mari . produce very shortly after mark mcgwire break the mari record and crystal frame the 1961 story with scene from the mcgwire run . babe ruth hit 60 home run in the 1927 season and and yankee stadium be still know and a generation later and a the house that ruth build . in 1961 and ruth longstanding record seem secure . mickey mantle have inherit the status of yankee favourite from predecessor joe dimaggio and lou gehrig and babe ruth and but roger mari have narrowly beat him in the poll for mvp the previous year and all the more remarkable because mari be a newcomer from the midwest . the sportwriters be divide in how they report about the team and but almost all be more focused upon mantle until the run begin to stack up . however and the press ( and often and it seem and the fan ) be still favour mantle and and sometimes boo mari when he would hit a home run . crystal do a good job at show the kind of personal stress and both family and professional and that mantle and mari have to endure go through what should have be one of the most glorious season in baseball history . there be a kind of institutional resistance to anyone break ruth record and but even more resistance to maris than to mantle . this be embody in the asterisk that follow the number 61 in record book ( and the title of this film ) ruth season be several game short and and it be deem unfair for mari to take the record and have not hit the same number of run in the same number of game . eventually the asterisk would be remove and but not before mari death some time later . good little touch like mari special egg ( which mantle begin to eat with reluctance and but come around when mari say he hit home run after eat them ) and scrap book collection show periodically throughout the film and the song i love mickey and and other audio visual piece of baseball memorabilia make this a baseball trivia buff treat . the personal story of the family live and increasingly under stress a both player come within strike distance of the record and show detail most likely fictional and but certainly understandable . barry pepper and thomas jane star a mari and mantle and respectively and and both turn in great performance a the athlete . they both look like natural on the field and in the locker room and and do a good job with the personal angle a well and pepper play the low key mari and jane play the hard living mantle . they both bear strike resemblance to the men they portray and pepper especially so . other performer include anthony michael hall and richard masur and and christopher mcdonald in memorable support role . donald moffat a the commissioner frick be especially good . jennifer foley ( actually and jennifer crystal foley and billy crystal daughter ) turn in a good performance a pat mari and the long suffering and supportive wife and struggle from half a country away to be strong for her husband a he face the stress of success . any baseball fan will love this film . those who aren not necessarily fan of baseball may find a new found passion for the game . the yankee retire maris number 9 in 1984. maris bat be in the baseball hall of fame . perhaps some day and mari will be and too .