Andy Strasberg: HBO Movie 61*

 

As a kid growing up in New York during the 1950s, I was obsessed with the game of baseball. My all-time favorite player became Roger Maris, just after he was acquired in 1960 by my favorite team, the New York Yankees, from the Kansas City Athletics.

As a 14-year-old kid, I became friends with Maris and caught his first National League home run at Forbes Field when I was 18. The story has appeared in a 1989 issue of Sports Illustrated, The Wall Street Journal, the book Baseball Lives by Mike Bryan, Readers Digest, in Chicken Soup for the Baseball Fan’s Soul, etc. The friendship continued with his family after he died in 1985 and Roger’s grandson is named after me and he is my godson.  

Once I started working in the front office of the San Diego Padres in 1975, my Maris story circulated throughout the professional baseball Industry.

Over the years, the bond I had with Maris and his family has been documented in national publications, books, on radio, and on TV. 

In 2000, four years after leaving the Padres organization, I returned to my office and listened to my voicemail messages.

One of the calls was from a person who identified himself as Ross Greenburg of HBO. The only message he left was to call him back. While I quickly recognized that the number had a New York City area code, I didn’t know at the time that Ross was the president of HBO Sports. 

When Ross answered the phone, he asked me if I had any idea why he had called me. Being a wise guy, I said, “Sure, Ross, I figure you’re with HBO and you’d like me to try HBO for 30 days for free to see if I like it and would want to subscribe.”

Fortunately for me, he laughed and then explained the reason for the call.

“Andy, we just hired Billy Crystal to direct a movie about Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle and that incredible 1961 Yankees season. We have spoken to representatives from the commissioner’s office, the Yankees front office, and the Baseball Hall of Fame. Each group has recommended that you should be involved because of your knowledge of Maris and that 1961 team. HBO would like to hire you as a technical consultant for the movie.”

I was floored and said that if the Maris family gave me their approval for my involvement, then I’d do it.

Lucky for me, Roger’s widow, Pat, gave me her OK and I was now in the moviemaking business.

“The greatest summer of my life was 1961. The Yankees’ Mantle and Maris provided the excitement and drama as they both attempted to break the single season home run record. The second greatest summer of my life was the summer of 2000 when I was able to relive that 1961 summer.”

—Billy Crystal
Director of 61*

I agree.

During the summer of 2000 I was given the opportunity to travel back in time and visit places and live experiences that had eluded me the first time 1961 happened. I was prepared. I knew what to look for, where to go, and whom I wanted to meet. I would get to be 13 years old again.

For me the process of making a movie was fascinating, interesting, and entertaining. The experiences I had on the HBO set of 61* were memorable. I met talented people and formed new friendships. It became apparent to me that the success this movie would enjoy was the result of a subject for which everyone has an insatiable appetite. It contained a heavy flavoring of realism and was spiced with details. It has a sprinkle of dreams and just a pinch of make-believe. America was hungry for this movie and HBO knew that. And there was only one chef, er, I mean director, who could carefully prepare it and serve it up just right …

The Director

Someone on the set told me that Billy Crystal had the movie recorded in his head. He knew what every scene looked like and how it should be shot. In order for Billy to bring that vision to life and make it into a reality, he hired a team that was unbeatable. The result produced a powerful, emotional, and dramatic film about two baseball legends.

I asked members of the crew if the 61* set was typical of other movie sets. The answer was always “no.” The HBO 61* movie set’s personality was a reflection of Billy Crystal. It was largely formed by the admiration of those people who hold Billy in such high esteem and wanted to be there for him.

Yes, Billy Crystal is the same sensitive, lovable, humorous, personable person off the screen as he is on the screen. And frankly I was amazed that he was taking into consideration that he had meetings before and after he stepped onto the set and worked 15 hours a day. Now add the fact that many days the temperature reached close to 100 degrees, and the humidity must have been in the 90s, plus there were three sets of kids under 4 years of age running around the set crying with planes flying overhead interrupting scenes. Billy patiently handled it all and was simply incredible.

Pop quiz time. It’s a true-or-false test.

1. Is Billy Crystal a perfectionist?
2. Does Billy Crystal know baseball?
3. Was Billy Crystal obsessed with detail for the movie 61*?
4. Did everyone on the set believe that Billy was the perfect director for this movie?

Answers: 1. True. 2. True. 3. True. 4. Absolutely true!

During a break when a scene was being set up several members of the staff started talking about tennis. It was casual make-conversation talk. Billy heard the remarks and quickly pointed out that the only subject on the set to be discussed was baseball. He said it in a joking manner and got a laugh. I took it seriously and thought the same thing. In fact I would have taken it one step further. … My rule would have been that the only subject discussed off the set would be baseball.

The movie set’s personality was a reflection of Billy Crystal, his love for Mantle, Maris, and baseball. How many directors during breaks would pick up a glove and have a catch with the players (actors), play pepper or talk baseball? I quickly realized that it was common knowledge that everyone who worked on this movie had the utmost respect and admiration for Billy. I observed Billy for a couple of months and agree that he is most deserving of those accolades.

The Script

The script was incredibly important, as I knew that this movie would be the legacy by which people would know my childhood hero Roger Maris. My biggest concern was that the Roger Maris I had followed as a kid could possibly be transformed and become unrecognizable as William Bendix’s portrayal of Babe Ruth or Anthony Perkins’s of Jimmy Piersall.

61*‘s screenwriter, Hank Steinberg, had managed to capture the essence of Roger Maris without making him into a “Hollywoodized” caricature of himself. Hank recognized that Roger was a family man who enjoyed playing baseball and was not interested in the bright lights and exposure that he received. Hank provided the lines for the principal actors to say that would bring out their personalities, attitudes, frustrations, and philosophies of life. I am amazed at Hank Steinberg’s talent.

Equally important, Ross Greenburg of HBO and Billy Crystal approved the script and then brought it to life.

The Actors

I’m convinced that if Roger Maris had met Barry Pepper he would have been impressed with his athleticism, dedication to his craft, and his love of baseball. Roger might have also thought that he was looking in a mirror. I am convinced that Barry’s acting abilities exceed his strong resemblance to Roger. And there were times that I thought Barry was Roger.

The very first thing Barry said to me was that he wanted to know everything about Roger. He wanted to know if Roger walked with his thumb in his pants pocket and his fingers hanging outside. Barry demonstrated daily his incredible dedication to his craft. In fact, one day Barry became ill due to the fact that he doesn’t smoke, but for the film smoked unfiltered cigarettes as Roger did in 1961. I was amazed to watch Barry enjoying his time between takes with the actresses portraying 8-year-old Susan Maris rather than go back to his trailer. Barry was connecting with these young actresses in a very special way that has nothing to do with acting but has everything to do with who Barry Pepper was as a person.

Maybe an even better example of Barry’s obsession with the role was the fact that after I told him about Roger’s fascination with a board game called Labyrinth, Barry started using it when he wasn’t shooting a scene or lifting weights.

Every time I turned around it seemed that Barry was pumping iron. Barry’s workout did not have a schedule or a special location. He did it everywhere throughout the day to build up his arms so that they would resemble Roger’s. Unbeknownst to the viewers, moments before he walked into the Raytown house for a scene, Barry did at least 20 curls. Talk about dedication.

Thomas Jane, who played Mickey Mantle, told former big leaguer Reggie Smith – the baseball coach for the movie – that he didn’t have any bad habits when it came to playing baseball. He said that because he didn’t play baseball! Thomas’s transformation into the Mick as a ballplayer was nothing short of amazing.

I was very much impressed with both actors’ ability to not only act, but also to personify the larger-than-life person they were portraying and at the same time swing a bat!

I enjoyed Chris Bauer’s portrayal of Bob Cerv. Chris was the comic relief in the movie and played it perfectly. Bauer is a major-league rising star! I thought Bruce McGill’s Ralph Houk was perfect. I especially liked his argument with the umps in right field after a fan had thrown a chair on the field at Roger. It looked so natural for Bruce to argue the way he did that I didn’t think he was acting. It was then that I realized that’s exactly what he wanted us to think. Anthony Michael Hall was a perfect Whitey Ford. He was Mick’s buddy and a street-smart kid. A tough assignment had to be playing Yogi Berra. To begin with, I think Yogi in real life was a caricature of himself. Paul Borghese embraced the Berra role in a way that you would have thought Paul grew up in St. Louis with Joe Garagiola.

The Crew

There were leagues of unsung heroes behind the cameras.

The crew shared a common trait. They were tireless workers, striving for perfection, and always willing to please.

There were camera operators, sound technicians, makeup artists, grips, gaffers, production assistants, and production designers. Job responsibilities on a movie set are endless but I’m convinced that their work is critical to the movie’s success.

Personally, I spent more time with a few select members of the crew in preproduction and immediately recognized their talents and dedication. C.J. MacGuire was in charge of props. One of many challenges C.J. ran into was finding the perfect baseball glove for Barry Pepper to use in the movie. Keep in mind that Roger’s glove was a Spalding model and that Spalding hadn’t made gloves for big leaguers in at least a couple of decades. But C.J. got it done, including the stamped Roger Maris name in the pocket of the glove.

Dan Moore was in charge of providing wardrobe for every human seen in the movie. I’m talking about every piece of clothing, shoes, and socks. The trailer that housed everything was practically the size of a hotel banquet room. Dan not only had to get the right look but the right fit for everyone. The ballplayers were Dan’s responsibility too. I’m talking about sani’s, stirrup socks, belts, fitted caps, and vintage baseball gloves, not to mention flannel baseball jerseys. I was amused at the solution Dan Moore came up with when he encountered a catcher who wore an XXL shirt for the Washington Senators. There was only one jersey that could solve the dilemma. So Dan took the WA off a WASHINGTON road jersey and transplanted it to the front of a BOSTON jersey that was big enough for the XXL catcher. Because the catcher’s chest protector covered everything but the first two and last two letters, the problem was fixed.

Everyone who worked on this movie was an artist. Regardless of whether it was the guys who recreated the monuments in center field, built the Yankees’ right-field fence, or, as Anne McCulley did, decorated each set. It was Anne’s artistry and necessary excruciating attention to detail that provided placement of background objects and getting the right look for the right feel. I’m referring to the objects in the ballplayers’ lockers to all the items in Claire Ruth’s living room. There were times that when I first walked on a set that I felt that I was in a museum.

By no means am I slighting others who were equally dedicated to the effort, but these were the folks who I had the most contact with.

 

The Reel and the Real: the filming of 61*. (Courtesy of Andy Strasberg)

 

Secrets

Some things don’t always appear to be what they appear to be. I found out the secret to shooting a scene with the crowd clapping/cheering when the actors have lines that need to be heard. The cheering part was obvious. Everyone was instructed to “act” like they were cheering without saying a word. The clapping part was little bit tricky. The common mistake I found out is when a person claps and their hands don’t touch. This sometimes looks phony because the camera angle could pick up the fact that it’s obvious. So the key to clapping without sound is having the heels of your hands touch but not your palm or fingers. Try it. No sound!

Many of the scenes took place in the Ambassador Hotel. This is the same hotel that at one time was the home of the famous Coconut Grove nightspot and the tragic site of the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. It was explained to me at the time that the hotel was used for music videos and movies. Instead of building a set with four walls the production just moves into the hotel. So it was possible that you could walk down the hall and see Mickey’s hospital room, Mickey’s hotel suite, Claire Ruth’s living room, and Toots Shor’s restaurant.

Anthony Michael Hall is a natural righty and in order to make his Whitey Ford pitching scenes look authentic Dan Moore provided a uniform that was a mirror image of what it really was. In other words the Yankee “NY” was reversed as was the number “16.” The result was that when Hall threw right-handed and the film was flopped he appeared as a lefty. This movie trick was used in the film classic The Pride of The Yankees. Gary Cooper played the role of Lou Gehrig. Cooper was a righty and instead of teaching him to become a lefty, the filmmakers used the same technique.

Pop quiz

1. Who is the only Yankee in the movie?

Answer: At one point the script had dialogue for a radio announcer from the Angels to call Roger’s 50th homer. I saw this as an opportunity for my good friend, a former Yankees second baseman who was at the time a Padres broadcaster, to participate. I gave a recorded audition cassette to Billy, who must have liked what he heard. Jerry Coleman got the job!

The Sets

Upon entering the re-creation of the Yankees home clubhouse, I remarked to Billy that the only thing missing was the smell of sweat. “Don’t worry,” he replied, “we’ll have that, too, in a couple of hours.” This was a very special place for me because it was one of those places that I only dreamed about in 1961. The re-creation of the locker room was mind-boggling. Even the hanging lights and bubble gum were just right. I found myself hanging around Roger’s locker even when they were done shooting a scene.

The Los Angeles Coliseum was transformed into Baltimore’s 1961 Memorial Stadium. This is the same Coliseum that was the site of the 1984 Olympics and the home of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1958. Everything was there. The scoreboard. The trees behind the fence, the dugouts, and the bullpen. And the most beautiful manicured baseball diamond. There was one shot that you can see over the Orioles pitcher’s shoulder when Hurricane Esther was having an effect on the trees. Well, the real story of those shaking leaves took place when Billy realized that the wind machine he had brought in was not getting the desired effect. It was easily fixed when a bunch of guys (no, these are not the people Hollywood lists as grips in the credits) climbed into the trees and started shaking them on cue. It worked beautifully!

Tiger Stadium brought back many memories for me. It was the site of Roger’s first homer in the majors when he was with Cleveland. But my fondest memory now is that it was transformed into my beloved Yankee Stadium of 1961. When I walked onto the field that first day of filming, I could not stop my goose bumps for almost 45 minutes. My allergies must have been affected by something in the air because when I went to right field and looked around and remembered, my eyes started tearing. This is where I had spent a good portion of my youth. Maybe too much time, according to my parents. Now I realized it wasn’t Yankee Stadium but this was my time-travel voyage, and I enjoyed every second of it.

Special Effects

After the movie was completed it was time for the computer-generating artists to work their magic and complete the effect of 1961. The special effects used in this movie are so good that you don’t realize that they’re special effects. Some examples included the Yankee Stadium façade, the Bronx community in back of the Yankee Stadium bleachers, and making a crowd of 350 people look like thousands.

Notes

• Every Maris child under 10 years old who appeared in the movie was a set of twins.
• The baby playing Randy Maris was a girl.
• The scene of Roger visiting a sick boy in Baltimore didn’t make the final edit. Even though it happened it was thought to be too much of movie cliché and would undermine the integrity of the movie.
• The sleeves on Barry Pepper’s Yankee uniform were cut short just the way Roger wore them throughout his career.
• Barry never buttoned his top uniform button similar to the way Roger wore his jersey.

Before a scene was shot the player portraying right-handed Rocky Colavito wore his baseball glove on the wrong hand in the outfield. It was corrected moments before the camera started rolling. As it happens, the scene apparently ended up on the proverbial cutting-room floor.

• During the backyard-barbecue scene, there’s a bag of Roger Maris “Fla –Vor– itt Hickory Chips,” which was an actual product that Roger endorsed when he was with Kansas City.
• A 1961 Post Cereal box featuring Roger Maris on the front and baseball cards on the reverse can be seen briefly in Pat’s kitchen in the Raytown, Missouri, home.
• Former major-league knuckleball pitcher Tom Candiotti was Hoyt Wilhelm in the movie. In order to accentuate the natural crook in Wilhelm’s neck, Candiotti wore his Baltimore Orioles cap on a tilt.
• It took approximately four hours for a Jiffy Lube Station in LA to be transformed into a 1961 ESSO station for the Queens, New York, gas station scene.
• The actor Bobby Hosea, who portrayed Elston Howard, also played O.J. Simpson in a TV movie.
• Over 800 baseball players auditioned for roles as extras.
• The writers voted again for the 1960 American League MVP. For the movie the Baseball Writers Association of America had to approve the reproduction of the 1960 MVP award that Roger receives on Opening Day in 1961.
• Prior to a scene, Billy noticed a “fan extra” with a Fu Manchu mustache sitting over the dugout. He instructed someone to replace the mustached extra, as it didn’t look appropriate for 1961. When the extra was informed and explained the reason for his removal he requested a razor and shaved off the mustache while sitting behind the Yankee dugout. The result was that he didn’t lose his seat – just his mustache.
• The 1961 Tigers batboy had the role down pat. He was the real Tigers batboy from 1999.
• Every seat in Tiger Stadium had to be painted or covered in the 1961 Yankee Stadium teal blue.
• When Barry Pepper hit home run #61 for the movie, the ball traveled over 300 feet and the date was August 12, 2000.
• Barry posed in re-creations of Roger’s baseball cards from 1957, 1960, and 1961 that were used as props in a number of scenes.

The End

My mother and father passed away years ago. I wish they could have seen this movie and how I was involved. While I was growing up, my parents had many concerns about my obsession toward baseball and in particular my idol Roger Maris. My parents always used to tell me they wished I knew my schoolwork as well as I knew baseball because, they explained to me, baseball would not help me later on in life. (Slow down the 61* movie credits to see who was right)

Everyone involved in this process treated me with compassion and kindness. HBO’s Ross Greenburg and Billy Crystal understood what this movie meant to the memory of my childhood hero. We didn’t talk about it. We just looked at each other and they knew. These are very special people who understand. I was extremely fortunate to have had a chance to meet them and experience the sense of traveling back in time.

When Roger hit his 61st homer I noticed that after he shook hands with Yogi Berra and the Yankees batboy but before he reached the dugout a fan jumped from the stands near the dugout to congratulate him with a pat on the back and a handshake. I was 13 at the time and wanted to be that fan, during the filming of 61* I was 52 and still wanted to be that fan … thanks to Billy Crystal and Ross Greenburg, I finally got to be that fan.

ANDY STRASBERG, a native New Yorker, realized a lifelong dream of working in Major League Baseball, when he began a career that lasted 22 years with the San Diego Padres in 1975. Andy served as a technical consultant and made his acting debut for the HBO movie 61* directed by Billy Crystal. In 2008 Strasberg co-authored the book Baseball ’s Greatest Hit: The Story of Take Me Out to the Ball Game and was responsible for the USPS to issue a stamp commemorating the 100th anniversary of the song “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.”

 

Andy Strasberg on the set of 61* (Courtesy of Andy Strasberg)