We had a dead heat on this vote, and when the polls closed it was a tie. So before we go onto the last vote of round one, vote again for 61 * and Eight Men Out!
61 * (2001) - The tagline for this movie was "Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris. Why did America have room in its heart for only one hero?" It focuses on the season and the friendship between the two sluggers as they chase Babe Ruth's long-standing single-season home run record. Of course the midwestern boy is earnest, quiet and maybe a little moody, so naturally the sports writers and fans alike cheer Mantle and his devil-may-care attitude. Meanwhile, Bud Selig is in his 27th year as commissioner at the ripe young age of 72 as this all transpires, and declares that any record broken after game 154 would have an asterisk (as that's how many games Ruth had to hit his 60 home runs). The movie focuses some on the personal lives of the players--Mantle's partyboy lifestyle and love of booze, and Maris' gitRdun lifestyle.
Eight Men Out (1988) - Basically this is the story of the day America realized her perfect daughter was a whore. The legend of the Chicago Black Sox stands as one of the game's most iconic scandals, right up there with Pete Rose betting on baseball, the steroid era and the moon landing. Essentially a number of White Sox players take bribes to throw the 1919 World Series, making life difficult for the few contributing players who play honestly. You might know the story by now: eight players are suspended for life, Buck Weaver spends his life trying to clear his name, and Charlie Sheen sleeps with Dorn's wife before marrying Hottie of the Year 1997 Denise Richards, and then lets his brother move into his beach-front house where the nephew occasionally stops by to make fart jokes.