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61*

223 statements
43 feature instances
1 referencing feature instances

61*	type	TVTItem
61*	label	61*
61*	page	SixtyOne
61*	comment	61* is a 2001 HBO Based on a True Story sports film directed by Billy Crystal.In 1961, the New York Yankees seemed poised to make another run at the World Series, having lost a tough seven-game series the year before. Fans are highly optimistic due to the wealth of talent in pinstripes, led by Living Legend Mickey Mantle (Thomas Jane) and the previous year's MVP, Roger Maris (Barry Pepper). In addition, with more games on the schedule to accommodate new teams joining the league (read: more roster spots for fringe pitchers), there is serious belief that someone could make a run at Babe Ruth's fabled single-season home run record of 60, set in 1927.As the season progresses, the Yankees are winning, but even more importantly, both Mantle & Maris are on pace to break Ruth's record. When the record has a real shot of being felled, sides are taken from everyone in the baseball world. Fans rally behind Mantle, already regarded as one of the best to ever play and heir apparent to Yankee greatness; his charming persona, movie-star looks, and embracing of the New York spotlight makes him the most beloved man in the Bronx. Meanwhile, Roger Maris is his complete antithesis; perceived as not a "true Yankee" due to being acquired in a trade, his country-boy roots show through his quiet, private personality amidst the hoopla, which leaves baseball fans — especially Yankee fans — uninspired. The baseball higher-ups also seem to conspire against both men, as commissioner Ford Frick, in an effort to preserve the sanctity of Ruth's record, rules that one must best Ruth's record in 154 games, as Ruth did; if it is beaten in the expanded eight games beyond that point, it would be treated as a separate record.With Mantle struggling with his alcohol-related issues and mounting injuries, and Maris combating the tough media and lack of support as he pulls away from Mantle and stays with Ruth's pace, all while both are still trying to lead the team to a championship, what should be a celebrated chase for history is instead a stress-inducing trial that will test both men's reserve as they chase a ghost and a number.
61*	fetched	2024-04-05T17:16:40Z
61*	parsed	2024-04-05T17:16:40Z
61*	isPartOf	DBTropes
61* / int_127fc252	type	Creator Cameo
61* / int_127fc252	comment	Creator Cameo: Doubles as a Freeze-Frame Bonus, in the upper deck crowd shot when Mickey Mantle warms up at bat, Billy Crystal was digitally inserted into the cheering fans at the railing.
61* / int_127fc252	featureApplicability	1.0
61* / int_127fc252	featureConfidence	1.0
61*	hasFeature	61* / int_127fc252
61* / int_1439161f	type	Heroic BSoD
61* / int_1439161f	comment	Heroic BSoD: Maris has one when the pressure gets to be too tough for him, asking Houk to give him a day off.
61* / int_1439161f	featureApplicability	1.0
61* / int_1439161f	featureConfidence	1.0
61*	hasFeature	61* / int_1439161f
61* / int_1da5941e	type	The Quiet One
61* / int_1da5941e	comment	The Quiet One: Roger Maris, to the chagrin of the press and fans.
61* / int_1da5941e	featureApplicability	1.0
61* / int_1da5941e	featureConfidence	1.0
61*	hasFeature	61* / int_1da5941e
61* / int_1f862cf	type	Dare to Be Badass
61* / int_1f862cf	comment	Dare to Be Badass: When Maris begs off wanting to play one day, he tells manager Houk that the record doesn't mean anything to him and he owes nothing to the fans who have nothing but contempt for him. Houk instead challenges him, saying that by backing down, he's giving all the naysayers the satisfaction that they broke him and that this is his one opportunity at sports immortality. Mantle also echoes this to Roger once he's shut down with injury.
61* / int_1f862cf	featureApplicability	1.0
61* / int_1f862cf	featureConfidence	1.0
61*	hasFeature	61* / int_1f862cf
61* / int_233da103	type	Cordon Bleugh Chef
61* / int_233da103	comment	Cordon Bleugh Chef: Roger is terrible at making scrambled eggs, but when he tells Mickey that he hit a home run when he ate them, Mickey wills himself through it because he's slumping. Mick hits a home run that day.
61* / int_233da103	featureApplicability	1.0
61* / int_233da103	featureConfidence	1.0
61*	hasFeature	61* / int_233da103
61* / int_24321e44	type	Only Sane Man
61* / int_24321e44	comment	Only Sane Man: Bob Cerv, Roger and Mickey's roommate and fellow teammate. As Mantle and Maris alternate trying to handle with the pressure, poor Bob has to keep both men sane at times.
61* / int_24321e44	featureApplicability	1.0
61* / int_24321e44	featureConfidence	1.0
61*	hasFeature	61* / int_24321e44
61* / int_2764d432	type	Bitch in Sheep's Clothing
61* / int_2764d432	comment	Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Commissioner Frick and Babe Ruth's widow, who put on a pleasant face in front of Mr. and Mrs. Maris, but are actively shown to be rooting against Roger breaking the record.
61* / int_2764d432	featureApplicability	1.0
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61* / int_313e9485	type	Hero with Bad Publicity
61* / int_313e9485	comment	Hero with Bad Publicity: Roger Maris puts up one of the greatest two-year stretches in history and helps the team win, and what he gets in return? A press who vilifies him and fans who not just refuse to support him, but send him death threats, even to his wife at home. It's enough to make him start chain-smoking and lose his hair in clumps.
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61* / int_3d2c6d30	type	Skewed Priorities
61* / int_3d2c6d30	comment	Skewed Priorities: Ralph Houk is none too pleased that the Yankees top brass cares more about the home run race (and the unpopular Maris winning it) than the team's pennant race.
61* / int_3d2c6d30	featureApplicability	1.0
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61* / int_40cc0c7e	type	Bittersweet Ending
61* / int_40cc0c7e	comment	Bittersweet Ending: Roger sets the home run record with 61, but it is indeed treated as a separate record. By the time Commissioner Fay Vincent amended the record books to have one set of records in 1991, leaving Roger as the undisputed home run king, he had already died in 1985. In real life, it's even worse, as the first three players who have since passed Maris — Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, and Sammy Sosa — have ties to performance-enhancing drugs. (Aaron Judge, who passed Maris in 2022, does not.)
61* / int_40cc0c7e	featureApplicability	1.0
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61* / int_4781adbb	type	Jerk with a Heart of Gold
61* / int_4781adbb	comment	Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite being an alcoholic and a womanizer, everyone loves Mickey because he cares about his teammates and the fans. Elston Howard recalls an incident during Spring Training when a restaurant wouldn't let him inside to eat with the other players. Mickey proceeded to take his food from the restaurant, sit with Elston outside and share it with him.
61* / int_4781adbb	featureApplicability	1.0
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61* / int_4a3e547f	type	Leaning on the Fourth Wall
61* / int_4a3e547f	comment	Leaning on the Fourth Wall: From announcer Mel Allen during game 154: "You know, I imagine someday someone will write about the month-long, day-in, day-out pressure on Roger Maris."
61* / int_4a3e547f	featureApplicability	1.0
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61* / int_4e3decd5	type	A Friend in Need
61* / int_4e3decd5	comment	A Friend in Need: Drunken Mickey, whose teammates have to wake up and stop his carousing at 2am; Whitey Ford has to continuously bribe people and owners caught in his debauchery to keep it on the down low.
61* / int_4e3decd5	featureApplicability	1.0
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61* / int_4f84cdef	type	Smug Snake
61* / int_4f84cdef	comment	Smug Snake: Frick gives a satisfied smile when Maris fails to hit his 60th in his 154th game. Of course, all his petty efforts do in the end is temporarily delay Maris from achieving the greatness he deserves.
61* / int_4f84cdef	featureApplicability	1.0
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61* / int_50b05d30	type	Disproportionate Retribution
61* / int_50b05d30	comment	Disproportionate Retribution: The Baltimore coach threatens Wilhelm with a $5,000 fine if he throws Maris a fastball. This was equivalent to almost a quarter of his yearly salary.
61* / int_50b05d30	featureApplicability	1.0
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61* / int_52d1f46e	type	Not What It Looks Like
61* / int_52d1f46e	comment	Not What It Looks Like: Maris and Mantle pose with a couple of female fans while on the road, but the press crops the photo so it looks like it's Maris with two women on his arms. Naturally, his wife is not pleased.
61* / int_52d1f46e	featureApplicability	1.0
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61* / int_5313c266	type	Bookends
61* / int_5313c266	comment	Book Ends: The film begins and ends with the Maris children and widow Pat watching Mark McGwire break Roger's record.
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61* / int_5f6c6cc1	type	Can't Get Away with Nuthin'
61* / int_5f6c6cc1	comment	Can't Get Away with Nuthin': Poor Roger. He takes a photo with admiring fans and his wife questions his faithfulness. In a rare moment of humor, when a fan asks for his "X" for his kid, Roger scribbles an X on the baseball, but the fan rushes off and Roger is ushered on the team bus before he could put his real autograph on it, which angers the fan when he realizes what happened. When Roger snaps to the press that he's "not a New York kind of guy", meaning that he's not a guy who loves the spotlight, the writers turn it into an affront to the city, which turns the fans on him. And so forth.
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61* / int_6381b11	type	Game-Breaking Injury
61* / int_6381b11	comment	Game-Breaking Injury: Late in the season, Mickey suffers an arm injury in tandem with a shot that leaves him with an infected hip that shelves him for the rest of the regular season, leaving Roger all alone to chase the Babe.
61* / int_6381b11	featureApplicability	1.0
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61* / int_69121204	type	The Un-Favourite
61* / int_69121204	comment	The Un Favourite: The crux of the film. Roger is treated as this, despite winning the MVP the year before and having an even better year in 1961 (he again won the MVP that year). As someone who didn't start his career with the Yankees, he faces far more scrutiny than his teammates, and fans recoil that Babe Ruth's record could be broken by a quiet, soft-spoken player with an unremarkable career up to that point as opposed to another legendary Yankee with Hall of Fame credentials like Mantle, who was deemed worthy of carrying the record's torch. In addition, Maris's lack of charm and reluctance to talk to the press exasperates sportswriters, who paint him in the papers as sullen and aloof, which the fans eat up.
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61* / int_75aa4ad2	type	Slippery Slope Fallacy
61* / int_75aa4ad2	comment	Slippery Slope Fallacy: One sportswriter notes this as the commissioner and other writers mull possibilities of separate records if something (read: Ruth's record) is broken past the 154-game mark, noting that it would make a mess out of baseball's fabled records and questions where it would end. He also notes that it's hypocritical, since Ruth broke the record with an expanded schedule over the previous holders, but there's no separate record for him.
61* / int_75aa4ad2	featureApplicability	1.0
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61* / int_adfd3165	type	For the Evulz
61* / int_adfd3165	comment	For the Evulz: During the final inning of 154th game of the season with the game and AL pennant out of reach, the Orioles bring in Hoyt Wilhelm, a knuckleballer who usually only comes in relief to preserve a lead, solely so Roger won't be able to tie Babe's record. The Yankees are not happy about this.
61* / int_adfd3165	featureApplicability	1.0
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61* / int_b4a6ae4c	type	Everyone Has Standards
61* / int_b4a6ae4c	comment	Everyone Has Standards: Even Sam Simon note the white-haired journalist, who has been rooting against Maris the entire time, thinks it's a cheap move to bring in knuckleballer Hoyt Wilhelm just to pitch to Roger and calls out Artie Green for supporting it.
61* / int_b4a6ae4c	featureApplicability	1.0
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61* / int_b6de94d1	type	Executive Meddling
61* / int_b6de94d1	comment	Executive Meddling: In-Universe; when Maris begins to gain separation from Mantle in the home run chase, Yankee brass want manager Ralph Houk to flip-flop them in the lineup to benefit Mantle. Houk stands up to them, saying that as long as he's manager, the lineup will reflect their best chance to win and when it comes to the chase, "the right man is going break that stupid record."
61* / int_b6de94d1	featureApplicability	1.0
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61* / int_b707726f	type	Hypocritical Humor
61* / int_b707726f	comment	Hypocritical Humor: When Roger is getting booed in his own stadium, Artie Greene mentions that it was very strange. Milt Kahn simply says "I wonder why..." and trails off, since Artie Greene had been writing scathing half-truths about Maris all season.
61* / int_b707726f	featureApplicability	1.0
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61* / int_bce728ca	type	Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal
61* / int_bce728ca	comment	Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Milt Kahn is the only reporter who defends Roger throughout the season. However, when Roger has enough with the media and stands Milt up on an exclusive interview he promised him, Milt, feeling hurt and needing to get something to his editor to keep his job, writes a scathing column about him.
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61* / int_c335b9ec	type	Irony
61* / int_c335b9ec	comment	Irony: Baseball fans, the press, and even the Yankees top brass all start fawning and looking up to Mickey Mantle as baseball's next superstar idol just because he's got on-screen charisma to go with his talent, even though he's actually a mess and an unflattering example of a human being outside of the game, his only saving grace being that he cares for his teammates and fans. Meanwhile, everyone develops an irrational, borderline obsessive hatred towards Roger Maris and are dead set on making a public villain out of him just because he lacks on-screen charisma, even though there isn't anything substantial to hate or dislike about him at all, since he's just a humble, family oriented man who's got his priorities straight.
61* / int_c335b9ec	featureApplicability	1.0
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61* / int_c868a42a	type	Freudian Excuse
61* / int_c868a42a	comment	Freudian Excuse: The reason Mickey parties so hard is because all the men in his family (including his father, grandfather, and uncles) died before the age of 45. He figures the same thing will happen to him so he might as well live it up while he can.note What Mickey and his family didn't know was that the reason they all died young was due to health complications that resulted from them working in lead and zinc mines. Once Mickey lived past their age and learned why, he lamented that he would have taken better care of himself had he known he was going to live longer than them.
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61* / int_caa28b82	type	Cloudcuckoolander
61* / int_caa28b82	comment	Cloudcuckoolander: Yogi Berra ("90 percent of this game is half mental") and color commentator Phil Rizzuto.
61* / int_caa28b82	featureApplicability	1.0
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61* / int_cdad4b25	type	Toxic Friend Influence
61* / int_cdad4b25	comment	Toxic Friend Influence: Downplayed. Whitey doesn't approve of Mickey's drunken antics at all, but his insistence of just bribing people to keep quiet instead of confronting Mickey about how he's acting enables the behavior.
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61* / int_d39e327f	type	What the Hell, Hero?
61* / int_d39e327f	comment	What the Hell, Hero?: Roger calls out Mickey when the latter starts falling back into drinking and womanizing, noting that as great as he is, he could be even better if he just took care of himself.
61* / int_d39e327f	featureApplicability	1.0
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61* / int_d84b22a5	type	Immoral Journalist
61* / int_d84b22a5	comment	Immoral Journalist: Most of the press covering Roger Maris' journey in the league consist of slimy tabloid/yellow types who regularly engage in unethical sensationalism over factual coverage. Artie Green in particular is a pretentious asshat who salivates at any chance to tarnish Roger's public reputation — always by deliberately misconstruing Roger's words during interviews, twisting them, and churning out bottom feeder articles that paint the humble, unassuming man in a terrible light.
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61* / int_dca70c44	type	Reasonable Authority Figure
61* / int_dca70c44	comment	Reasonable Authority Figure: Manager Ralph Houk, who defends Maris to the press and his bosses, and helps Maris out of his mental funk when the pressure borders on too much.
61* / int_dca70c44	featureApplicability	1.0
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61* / int_e16217f8	type	Historical Villain Upgrade
61* / int_e16217f8	comment	Historical Villain Upgrade: Babe Ruth's widow Claire, who was not as anti-Maris as the film suggests. She even visited Maris when he hit his 60th to congratulate him, to which Maris told her, "Don't feel badly, no one will replace the Babe."
61* / int_e16217f8	featureApplicability	1.0
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61* / int_e3847ee8	type	Cigarette of Anxiety
61* / int_e3847ee8	comment	Cigarette of Anxiety: Roger begins chain-smoking as the pressure on him rises.
61* / int_e3847ee8	featureApplicability	1.0
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61* / int_e3d06d0c	type	Bash Brothers
61* / int_e3d06d0c	comment	Bash Brothers: Mantle and Maris, dubbed the "M&M Boys", anchoring the heart of the Yankee lineup. They also lived together during the season, as a way to keep Mickey in a low-key environment and away from the temptations of the city.
61* / int_e3d06d0c	featureApplicability	1.0
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61* / int_e462893a	type	Artistic License â€“ Sports
61* / int_e462893a	comment	Artistic License â€“ Sports: The film leaves out that part of Frick's motivation for having separate records was that the National League, not having expanded to more than eight teams yet, still only played a 154 games at the time and he felt it would not have been fair for those players to not have the benefit of an additional eight games their American League counterparts did. No asterisk was ever officially tied to Roger's record, though it was treated as a separate record for 30 years. The scene with the angry fan hurling a chair at Roger never happened. Bob Cerv joined the team mid-season as opposed to beginning the year on the team and as Roger's roommate.
61* / int_e462893a	featureApplicability	1.0
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61* / int_e663d3ef	type	Only a Flesh Wound
61* / int_e663d3ef	comment	Only a Flesh Wound: Mickey repeatedly plays through injuries that should require rest. He explains to Roger that the reason he does it is that he knows there's a lot of working class families who can only afford to attend one game a year in the stands and he doesn't want to disappoint them by not playing.
61* / int_e663d3ef	featureApplicability	1.0
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61* / int_eeb4a5eb	type	Anti-Climax
61* / int_eeb4a5eb	comment	Anti-Climax: When Maris has a chance to pass Ruth on the last day of the season, the baseball world is so apathetic that Yankee Stadium is barely half-full and Commissioner Frick isn't present. Sadly, Truth in Television.
61* / int_eeb4a5eb	featureApplicability	1.0
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61* / int_f10d3363	type	Distracted by the Sexy
61* / int_f10d3363	comment	Distracted by the Sexy: While Mantle and Maris chat in the on-deck circle before Mantle goes to bat, Mantle notes to Roger before he leaves that there's a woman behind the dugout with "the biggest pair of tits I've ever seen." Even Roger can't help but look.
61* / int_f10d3363	featureApplicability	1.0
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61* / int_fbd5fda1	type	Friendly Rivalry
61* / int_fbd5fda1	comment	Friendly Rivalry: Roger & Mickey are this, but the press tries to claim a real rivalry between them, despite the fact that they get along well enough to room together.
61* / int_fbd5fda1	featureApplicability	1.0
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61* / int_ffad4e9f	type	Shown Their Work
61* / int_ffad4e9f	comment	Shown Their Work: And how! Barry Pepper and Tom Jane were shown film and broadcast footage of Maris and Mantle to make sure that everything from their warm up routines to swing style to individual mannerisms were accurate. Every aspect of the set design was meant to be both period-accurate and individually accurate even down to the arrangement of items in individual players' lockers. Rusty Smith, the set designer, even went so far as to find the period-accurate shade of mint-green paint that decorated the seats and dressings of 1961 Yankee Stadium off of a scrap of paint from a seat that Billy Crystal owned.
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61*

hasFeature

The '60s / int_8df09f79

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