61*

61* (2001) is Billy Crystal's HBO sports drama you can watch online on iFILM, set in the summer of 1961 as two Yankees chase a record that had stood for decades.

Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle trade home runs almost swing for swing, closing in on the magic number sixty. The crowd refuses to treat them as equals, though: Mantle gets the cheers while the guarded, press-shy Maris gets booed. Barry Pepper plays Maris and Thomas Jane plays Mantle, and the film lives in the way outside noise grinds down a man just trying to do his job.

Crystal, a lifelong Yankees fan, directs this as a valentine to that era of baseball — which is where the title's asterisk comes from, the footnote that long shadowed Maris's mark because his season ran longer than Ruth's. It plays warm and unhurried, and it lands even if you've never watched a game. Stream 61* online on iFILM.