- California Doubling: Tiger Stadium, with a little CGI trickery, filled in for the pre-renovation Yankee Stadium.
- Cast the Expert: Hoyt Wilhelm was played by former major league pitcher Tom Candiotti, who like Wilhelm, was a knuckleball specialist.
- Creator's Oddball: Billy Crystal directing a serious sports drama is quite a departure from the rest of his resume.
- Promoted Fanboy: Billy Crystal is a life-long Yankees diehard and watched this very story unfold growing up, so it made perfect sense he would direct it, and he went through great lengths to show his work (the crew nicknamed him Rain Man for his ability to recall details from specific games). As he was also a family friend of the Mantles, they allowed him to be honest about showing Mantle's drunken escapades on-screen, all of which happened. Also, the fan who follows Maris on the basepaths during the 61st home run was a life-long Maris fan who was at the game in real life.
- Talent Double:
- Averted; Barry Pepper and Thomas Jane trained hard in learning how to hit so that they themselves could hit bombs into the bleachers (which, according to Word of God, they could do on-camera with regularity by the time shooting started). Jane had known next to nil about baseball beforehand.
- Averted with Anthony Michael Hall, who played Whitey Ford. The only problem he had was that he was a righty and Ford was a lefty. Crystal solved that problem by having his jersey mirrored and reversed the shots he was in.
- Throw It In!: The outtakes of Maris and Mantle goofing up while trying to shoot the hot dog commercial was actual corpsing between Jane and Pepper during the shoot that Crystal decided to leave in.
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