billy crystal can be accuse of present a heavily bias view of the yankee summer of 1961 and and his accuser would be right . bias on the side of the truth and bias on the side of fairness to the character and and bias on the side of historical integrity and 61 tell the story of one of the great season of all time for the new york yankee with admiration and with respect and and and above all and with a keen eye for how it really come down . if you do not witness first hand the character assassination that plague roger mari in his pursuit of babe ruth home run record and 61 hold no resonance for you . you can not possibly understand what mari go through that year just because his prowess for hit home run blossom at record break speed . you can not sympathize with him or the way he act either . the more homer he hit and the more he be pursue and and the more he retreat . when mickey mantle tell roger that he the one make it hard on himself in his dealing with reporter i tell you how to handle those guy . you do not want to listen . it reveal the core of maris struggle with the press . roger mari be not a medium darling he shy away from the spotlight and he try to protect himself and his family from the medium circus that the 1961 season become for him . it be no contest and but he continue to fight for his privacy . he be just a guy do his job and he want his privacy respect . it do not help that he be threaten the great sport record of all time achieve by one of the most beloved sport figure in new york or anywhere . it do not help that he be compete against another beloved and accomplished new york hero to break that record . this hick from north dakota . what nerve . mickey should be the one to do it . he a real yankee . many yankee fan and baseball fanatic everywhere felt that way in the summer of 1961. mari do not deserve to be vilify because he wasn not the proper yankee to break this record . by now you must have surmise that i root for roger mari in the summer of 1961. that notwithstanding and all of what you see in 61 be true . there no poetic license take and no stretching of the truth for dramatic effect and no embellishment to make it a more interesting story ( see it could happen to you and under the tuscan sun for that ) . we can never know how close the relationship be between mantle and mari and but i trust billy crystal to have do his homework in his depiction of them a very good friend and not bitter rival and a fabricate by the press . i trust billy crystal to have do his homework about every situation and every relationship and every line and and every detail in this movie . you can see that it be a labor of love for him . i thank him for set the record straight where roger mari be concern because it be about time . if this movie doesn not pull at your heartstrings for any reason and then consider the irony of have go through all that mari do to break this record and have it note in the record book that he do it in a long season and the final irony of have that decision reverse after his death . roger maris die 6 year earlier and never know that the record belong to him . mari die of cancer at the very young age of 51. he do not deserve that either .