The Redeeming Value and Message of a Movie: "61*"

I was watching baseball recently and my attention was brought back to the legendary summer of 1961. In that year, two Yankees, Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle put together one of the greatest seasons any pair of teammates put together. It also turned into the great home run race (this was until 1998).

It was 1998 and the memories that it brought back for those old enough that inspired Billy Crystal, a big Yankee fan to direct a movie entitled 61*. The movie was a historical fiction that brought the magic of that season back to life.

Also brought back to life in the movie was the fact that Maris was not well-received. At this point you may be wondering why I would write about a secular movie on a Catholic blog. The fact is that this movie actually contains a certain redemptive value. I think it is something that can make us conscious in our own morality. It also something we can bring to the society in general.

How so? As you watch the movie (which I recently did for the first time in a while), we see the plot unfold around one of the movie's two central characters, Roger Maris (the other being Mickey Mantle). As the movie unfolds, Maris becomes in a certain sense the hero of the movie. It is in him becoming the hero that the redeeming value comes forward.

At the time of the chase, Roger Maris was the unwanted hero. To Yankee fans who at points in the 1961 season booed him, and to the country, Roger Maris was not "the right man" to break the record. His big problem was that he was a quiet down home man. He was a faithful husband and a good father who preferred time with his family over time in public. He was often very private and very shy. In terms of the game, he was businesslike. He wanted to go out and just play. He was a good player who did not want to play for accolades or recognition. For this reason, people rooted against him. There attitude was this: how dare this "colorless" man break the great Babe Ruth's record?

This is exactly why having be the hero of the movie is so perfectly redeeming. In this hyper materialistic world, Maris is the antithesis. He was humble in that he did not go about bragging about his skills and showed humility in never looking for or asking for attention. Part of the reason that he was perceived as surly is because he often deflected the attention.

More to the point, Maris was a faithful and loving husband as well as a devoted father. He was man who tried his hardest to balance his vocation and his family life. He suggested to his wife having a house in New York so he could be closer to her and the kids, but the Maris family could not afford it.

There in lies the value. You see in this sense, he was not the charismatic hero, but he is a hero because he did not want to be. He was a good family man and that is something to aspire to. He was humble, which is a quality that all should exhibit, particularly Christians. He showed humility in the way he carried himself which we all must reflect.

So let us Christians and men in particular reflect upon these values. Let us aspire to them. Let us reclaim heroic virtue. Let us walk in humbleness and reflect humility. Let us be devoted God and to our fellows. Lastly an most importantly let us reflect Maris' greatest virtue, his courage which he displayed. Let us with the same courage against the trends of society walk on the path of holiness and righteousness.