61* : The Story of Roger Maris, Mickey Mantle and One Magical Summer (Hardcover)

by Ron Smith (Author), Billy Crystal (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
Most books that tie in with TV or movie events come off as pretty vapid, but here is an exception. -- Kansas City Star, April 26, 2001

Product Description
"61 in '61." For years, the phrase held a special place in baseball lore. In three simple words, baseball fans could remember one of the most captivating summers in baseball history, a summer that the most celebrated record in baseball fell.

It was the summer in which two Yankees, everybody's hero, Mickey Mantle, and a farm kid from South Dakota, Roger Maris, staged a stunning assault on Ruth's record.

61* expresses how The Sporting News covered that exciting summer. From its spring training dispatches, through each and every home run, through the controversial so-called 'asterisk' ruling, to the final record-breaking home run, 61* chronicles in week-by-week format the home run race, up to and including the Yankees' World Series victory that year.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill/Contemporary (April 9, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0892046627
• ISBN-13: 978-0892046621
• Product Dimensions: 11.6 x 9.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #819,502 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars loved the movie and the book, April 5, 2008

By	Michael R. Chernick "statman31147" (Holland PA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Like me Billy Crystal is a big Yankee fan. We are about the same age, so we were young boys in 1961 (I was 14). Mantle was my idol and in 1956 I was rooting for him to break Babe Ruth's record. Crystal took his own first hand experience and added extensive research to produce a very accurate account of the 1961 home run race. Like most Yankee fans who had grown up idolizing Mantle I too preferred to have Mantle break the record rather than the new and less popular Roger Maris. But I enjoyed the whole thing and every home run Maris hit was another run to add to the score and help the Yankees have one of their greatest season for a team with a history of great seasons. It was only comparable to the 1927 Yankees and perhaps now also the 1998 Yankees. Certainly the Maris and Mantle one-two punch resembled the Ruth and Gehrig punch of the 1927 Yanks.

Mantle was very relaxed during the race probably because he lived through it once in 1956 and also because Maris shared the press and took most of the media pressure away from him. Roger was not experienced at handling the media. This was only his second full season in New York. He previously played for Cleveland and Kansas City. Roger had not been a big home run hitter before coming to the Big Apple but he had a great swing and was a dead pull hitter, So the short low fence only 344 ft in right field and 299 ft at the right field foul poll really helped him as did the fact that the teams could not pitch around him since Mantle hit behind him in the clean-up spot. It was definitely true that Maris' hair started falling out due to the nervousness and pressure he experienced that September. Mantle's hip injury also made it harder in the end since the pitchers were no longer afraid of an occasion base on balls since Mantle was out of the line-up.

The Ford Frick controversy about the asterisk made game 1954 interesting especially since Maris hit his 59th in the game and came up a couple of times to try for sixty. Wilhelm was brought in for no other reason than to make sure that Maris didn't hit one out in his last at bat. It was exciting to see Maris hit number 60 off Jack Fisher even though it was after the 154th game. It also set-up the drama for the 61st in the final game of the season that fittingly occurred in Yankee Stadium with Maris hitting his patented shot into the lower right field stands.

It was real unscripted drama that was great for a movie and a book. Crystak made it seem very authentic. In the movie he even was able to find an actor that looked almost exactly like Roger. The characters that played Mantle, Berra, Cerv and Houk did not closely resemble their characters.

I loved the movie and the book and you will too especially if you are a Yankee fan and even more so if you are a Yankee fan and baby boomer like me!

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent detailed account of "the Race"..., June 6, 2001

By	Thomas Moody (STEPHENVILLE, TEXAS United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Wonderful week-by-week breakdown of the race for Ruth's record...the writing is just detailed enough about the games, but, better, the words and pictures put you right in the Yankee locker room during the 1961 season. You get a true feeling for the pressure that Maris went through along with Mantle's aborted effort due to injury...there's also plenty of charts and graphs to show the breakdown by game, pitcher (left or right handed) and comparison to Ruth's pace. Finally, I thought it was a great touch to add the McGwire chase and breaking of the record and how the Maris family (his sons) was on hand. Probably not a better history of that memorable summer written anywhere and certainly none as pleasing to the eye...highly recommended.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A chronicle of that year in baseball and an honest description of the two major players in the drama, June 5, 2008

By	Charles Ashbacher "([e-mail])" (Marion, Iowa United States([e-mail])) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

In 1998, Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa both broke the major league record for home runs in a season, McGuire finishing with 70 and Sosa with 66. Their joint quest for the record is credited by some with saving baseball after years of labor difficulties, including a lengthy player's strike.
To the older fans, it brought back memories of the 1961 season, when the same thing was happening, only the names were the often revered Mickey Mantle and the man considered an upstart, Roger Maris. Maris ended the season with 61 home runs, one better than the previous record held by the incomparable Babe Ruth. Major controversy was introduced into the chase when baseball commissioner Ford Frick intervened. He decreed that since Ruth hit 60 in a season of 154 games and Maris hit his 61 in 162 games, the Maris record would appear in the record book with an asterisk beside it. Like Mantle, Maris was from a small town and he had a difficult time dealing with the pressures of pursuing a record while playing in New York.
This book is a week-by-week chronicle of that magical year for baseball, when two great players had a great season. It was also very gratifying to read that Maris and Mantle were actually close friends on and off the field. They even shared an apartment in New York City. Smith is also very clear about the difficulties that Maris had with the New York press and fans during his time as a Yankee. He points out that during the first years of his career as a Yankee; Mantle was often maligned, even though he played with constant pain.
1961 was a year when baseball was still the dominant national sport. I was young at the time and can still vividly remember my paternal grandmother giving me a baseball card of Roger Maris that was on the back of a box of Jello gelatin. I was awestruck because like so many boys, Mantle and Maris were my heroes in 1962. Reading this book will help you understand at least some of the excitement of that dynamic year in baseball.