The Top 10 Baseball Movies Of All Time

5. 61*

Perhaps the greatest baseball biopic set before the modern era, the HBO film 61* tells the thrilling story of the race between Mickey Mantel and Roger Maris to forever secure a place in baseball lore.

The story in itself is phenomenal. The fact that Maris was far from personable, but was up against his most beloved teammate and chasing the record of arguably the most iconic player in the game’s history (Babe Ruth) meant that Maris was absolutely loathed even by many of his own team’s fans. Ruth’s wife wasn’t quiet about her issues with the record chase, and she wasn’t the only one. The record was forever tainted by the extended season and earned an asterisk to make sure no one could forget that Maris wasn’t as good as Ruth.

Basically Maris had a ton going on, both in the eye of the public and internally. Barry Pepper portrays this so well that it feels like we’re watching Maris’ actual struggles. Disclaimer: I wasn’t alive in 1961 to see this first-hand, but from people who were, they say the film captures the atmosphere and the attitudes of the case extremely well. That earns 61* an un-asterisked spot as one of the greatest baseball movies ever made.