There'll be no asterisks in this review. There'll be no carping about the casting of, say, The Scooter, no pointing to certain historical inaccuracies, no whining about the harsh portrayal of sportswriters.

61*, the Billy Crystal-directed HBO movie about the home run chase of 1961, isn't perfect. But neither were Mickey Mantle or Roger Maris. And in its own way, the movie is just as powerful as they were. If you want to know what these two Yankees were like, if you want to know how friendship and respect trump rivalry, if you want to know what the game was like back in '61, if you want to have your first guilt-free baseball movie cry since Field of Dreams, then you'll have to succumb to all the endless promotion for 61*, which airs Saturday night on HBO.

The master stroke -- a stroke every bit as sweet as Maris's -- was in the casting of the leads. There's a pinch to Barry Pepper's face that Maris didn't have, but everything else (crewcut, musculature, family-man vibe, nervous energy, even the swing) rings absolutely, positively true. Thomas Jane, though not as comfortable at the plate as Pepper, is the spitting, drinking and partying image of Mantle. (You can see why the Mick's widow hyperventilated when she saw Jane occupying center field during the filming at Tiger Stadium.) The blond hair on his arms will make the hair on your own arms stand up. And it's not just the looks: Jane absolutely nails Mantle's naughty-but-nice demeanor.

Not even Safe At Home, which actually starred Mantle and Maris, could bring the two heroes to life the way 61* does.

The heart of the movie, the interaction between Mantle and Maris and Bob Cerv in their apartment, is equally real. In order to protect the Mick from himself, Maris and Cerv invited him to move out of the St. Moritz Hotel on Central Park South to live with them in Queens early in the '61 season. There's a lovely -- a funny adjective for such a manly movie, but apt just the same -- moment where Cerv tries to explain to Maris why it is that their Yankee teammates are rooting for Mantle to break Babe Ruth's home run record.

The rest of the casting is hit-and-miss. Though you wouldn't think it, Anthony Michael Hall makes a terrific Whitey Ford. Paul Borghese looks the part of Yogi Berra, and Bruce McGill carries himself like the Major, Ralph Houk. And Tom Candiotti as Hoyt Wilhelm -- brilliant! Less successful are Christoper McDonald and Joe Grifasi as Mel Allen and Phil Rizzuto, but hey, we promised no asterisks. Filling in nicely for Yankee Stadium is Tiger Stadium -- it's even listed in the cast credits.

Best of all, the movie reminds us just how great Maris was. (Mantle doesn't need the help.) Sportswriters don't fare too well in this movie, and current sportswriters have already registered their offense. So, what the hell, here's some more for them to get upset about: What are you overly righteous guys thinking about, keeping Cooperstown safe from Roger Maris? Yeah, yeah, the two-time AL MVP had just three Hall-of-Fame-quality seasons. But the middle one of them, the 61 homers and 142 RBIs in '61, was incredible enough by itself to earn him the same kind of plaque Elmer Flick has. (The rush of history and technology is such that the home run chase of '61 feels like yesterday, but in fact, Maris's home run record was on the books longer than Ruth's, 37 years to 34.)

That's how true 61* feels. I'm rooting for Maris all over again.

Steve Wulf is executive editor of ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at steve.wulf@espnmag.com.