Barry Pepper was a Golden Globe nominee for Best Performance by an Actor in a Miniseries or a Motion Picture Made for Television. Deviations from history In the beginning of the film, Bob Cerv was seen with the Yankees on Opening Day. In reality, Cerv was a member of the Los Angeles Angels until May and then was traded to the Yankees. Also on opening day, the broadcast announcer refers to the opposing Minnesota Twins pitcher as Camilo Pascual. In fact, the Twins' pitcher that day was Pedro Ramos, who would later distinguish himself as a reliever for the Yankees. As the Twins are warming up, two players, wearing numbers 2 (Zoilo Versalles) and 7 (Lenny Green) are seen. In the film, number 7 for the Twins throws right-handed and appears to be Caucasian. In fact, Green, who started in center field opening day for the Twins, is an African-American who batted and threw left-handed. In his 2013 memoir, Still Foolin' 'Em, Billy Crystal recounts how before it aired on HBO, the film was shown at the White House for a small audience that included President George W. Bush, who once owned baseball's Texas Rangers. A home run in the film, depicted as being hit off pitcher Frank Lary, was actually hit off left-hander Hank Aguirre, which the president pointed out to Crystal. Lary gave up Maris' 52nd and 57th homers of that 1961 season, but the one in question (his 53rd) did indeed come against Aguirre. The film depicts the Yankees 154th game of the season, facing the Baltimore Orioles. Oriole's pitcher Hoyt Wilhelm is brought in to relieve in the 9th inning with 2 outs to face Maris. Maris had homered earlier in the game for number 59, and if he homered again he would tie Babe Ruth's record of 60 home runs in 154 games. This would give Maris outright share with Ruth of the home run record, voiding commissioner Ford Frick's ruling earlier in July that if Maris did not break Ruth's record by game 154, the records would be separated due to Maris's season being 8 games longer than Ruth's. The film shows Yankee players in the dugout in disgust at the Orioles bringing their top reliever solely to face Maris, as Wilhelm's effective knuckleball would make it more difficult for Maris to homer off on a windy night. In reality, Wilhelm was brought in