In 1973 actor Bing Russell (Bonanza, Rio Bravo) brought the A minor league team, The Mavericks, to Portland, Oregon, after MLB had moved the AAA Beavers to Spokane. The Mavericks were an independent team in the Northwest Pacific League and held open tryouts, fielding a team of players rejected by the major leagues. The Battered Bastards of Baseball is a documentary of the several years the Mavericks existed and created a huge fan base in Portland, Oregon, after which they were ousted by Major League Baseball and replaced by an AAA team. Owner Bing Russell sued when he was offered $26,000 dollars for the territory and was awarded $206,000 by an arbitrator.
The documentary is a necessarily one-sided view of the Mavericks by two of Bing's grandsons, Chapman Way and Maclain Way, and includes extensive interviews with many of the players, including Bing's son actor Kurt Russell, who played for the team its first year, and also with manager Frank Peters. There is a great deal of archive footage, including some of Jim Bouton, who was ostracized by MLB after his honest look at his years with the Yankees in Ball Four and started his comeback with The Mavericks, coining the term battered bastards. When it came time for the league playoffs the major league teams, who sponsored all the other teams in the league, sent down some of their players to make sure the upstart Mavericks did not win a championship.
I don't miss baseball so far this Spring as much as I thought I would but this film helps fill what void there is, as I read more, watch more movies and streaming opera and ballet and listen to classic dramas and comedies on the radio rather than listening to baseball games.
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