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eritage — religious and
ancestral — entered into
the development of the
made-for-TV baseball
movie 61*, which was filmed last sum-
mer at Detroit's Tiger Stadium.
Screenwriter Hank Steinberg, who
wrote the drama about Yankee sluggers
Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle, decided
he wanted to be a writer while studying
in Israel and traces his love for the sport
to his late grandfather, Herman Schucart,
a semiprofessional player in St. Louis.
"This movie is about two great char-
acters, a friendship and a rivalry," says
Steinberg, 30, who had fun working
with director Billy Crystal, a Yankee
fan as devoted as the screenwriter.
"It's funny and dramatic, and it's got
great action moments. I think parents
can breathe a sigh of relief with this
film because nothing about it is
exploitive, and I think that will be
refreshing to people."
The film, which will debut at 9 p.m.
April 28 on HBO, takes its title from
the year and the goal of the two leg-
endary players. In 1961, they tried to
surpass Babe Ruth's record of hitting
60 home runs in one season.
The asterisk in the title refers to the
symbol attached by former baseball
commissioner Ford Frick. By the time
Maris beat the single-season home run
record, the American League had
expanded to a 162-game schedule, up
from the 154 games played in Ruth's
day. Frick ruled there would have to
be a distinctive mark to show it had
taken Maris more games to break
Ruth's record, but the qualifier was
lifted in 199-1.
Barry Pepper of Saving Private
Ryan stars as Roger Maris, and
Thomas Jane of Deep Blue Sea takes
the Mickey Mantle role.
"This is my first film [to be pro-
duced], and I was just awestruck by
how much has to go right to make a
great movie," Steinberg says. "61* can
touch audiences of any age, generation
or gender."
Steinberg, who grew up in New
York State, graduated from the
University of Pennsylvania in 1991 as
an English major and went to Los
Angeles to try to make it as a screen-
writer. Although he found production
jobs on feature films, including The
Man Who Captured Eichmann, he also
supported himself by waiting tables
and doing office temping — always
writing in his free time.
After a friend helped him find an
agent five years ago, Steinberg has
been working steadily.
"I did a lot of research on Roger and
Mickey," Steinberg says. "I read every
book about them, and I interviewed
Yankee ball players. All the major events
in the film are accurate, and everything
about the sport is well documented.
Sometimes I had to consolidate and
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CELEBRATION
CONNECTION
DIRECTORY
4/27
2001
68
in our
Classified Sectiv!
Barry Pepper as Roger Maris and Thomas Jane
as Mickey Mantle in Billy Crystal's "61*."
take certain liberties with dialogue."
While there is nothing outright Jewish
in the film, there are some characters
whose Jewish identities are implied. That
comes across through Richard Masur
and Peter Jacobson, who play sportswrit-
ers Milt Kahn and Artie Green.
"They're not real people," Steinberg
explains. "They're amalgamized from
several real sports writers of the time.
There were so many. There were 25
sports writers covering the Yankees on a
daily basis back then."
When Steinberg was in Detroit for
the filming, he had little chance to see
the city. He and Crystal did steal some
time to get to Comerica Park, where
they were introduced to Tiger legend
Al Kaline.
"61 already has started to change my
career," Steinberg says. "I've become in
demand, and it's pretty wild walking
around New York and seeing my name
up on the billboards. It's also a blast
from the past as I [get calls] from people
I haven't heard from in five or 10 years."
Steinberg, who is single and enjoys
playing softball as a favorite leisure activ-
ity, is working on two new scripts for
cable TV. One is about the rivalry
between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron
Burr, and the other is a biography of
Robert Kennedy.
"My primary goal is to write some-
thing that touches people and makes
them feel something or look at some-
thing in a different way," the screen-
writer says. "Our two main characters in
61* are in their 20s, and they're not the
most touchy-feely guys or the most self-
aware, attuned guys.
"They do have tremendous emotional
depth, but they also have difficulty com-
municating it. To me, that's what's inter-
esting about them and [often] about
humanity." ❑
6/* will debut at 9 p.m.
Saturday, April 28, on HBO.
Other play dates are May 1 (8:30
p.m.), 6 (11:15 p.m.), 10 (8:30
p.m.), 14 (8 p.m.) and 18 (mid-
night). The debut is part of
"Baseball Heroes Weekend"
offered in conjunction with
Cinemax's debut of the docu-
mentary The Life and Times of
Hank Greenberg, developed by
former Detroiter Aviva Kempner
and to be broadcast at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, April 29. Before Maris
and Mantle, Greenberg came
closest to breaking Ruth's record
with 58 home runs in 1938.