The Battered Bastards of Baseball
January. 20,2014 RHollywood veteran Bing Russell creates the only independent baseball team in the country—alarming the baseball establishment and sparking the meteoric rise of the 1970s Portland Mavericks.
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When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.
One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.
All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
I know nothing about baseball. I dont know why players are running, how they earn points, you get the idea. But I enjoyied this film very much, it makes me feel realy good
The Battered Bastards of Baseball (2014)**** (out of 4)Excellent documentary from Netflix that takes a look at Bing Russell and his attempt to rebuild baseball in Portland, OR when their minor league team left. Russell created the Portland Mavericks, a team that wouldn't play by any rules but their own and over a five year period they would be a smashing success, which would lead to Major League Baseball trying to get back into the action.I, like most people, probably best remember Bing for his acting as well as him being Kurt's father. I honestly had no idea about this bit of history but there's no question that this was a rather remarkable documentary that was certainly incredibly entertaining but it also showed what someone could do if their heart was behind it. Independent baseball was pretty much wiped out by MLB and yet here's someone who spent his own money because he loved the game and tried to deliver something for real baseball fans.The great thing about this documentary is that we get interviews with Kurt as well as several members of the actual baseball team. With so many direct interviews you certainly got a terrific idea of what it was like to be on this team and go through the the fun of rebuilding this town into a team that they could be proud of. There are a number of terrific interviews with the players as well as some archival television material. If you're a fan of baseball then this is certainly a terrific documentary that you'll want to check out.
This show was very entertaining because for me it brought back great memories of my minor league career. I happened to play for the best minor league team in baseball from 1976-1977. The Corpus Christi Seagulls in South Texas were members of The Gulf States League in 1976 and Lone Star League in 1977. Our two year combined record was 103- 54! Our manager for those two summers was not so famous then than he was later was Leo Mazzone. Pitching coach for Atlanta Braves. I believe the Portland Mavericks in 1977 were 44-22. The Corpus Christi Seagulls were 53-27and averaged close to 5,000 a game. In 1976 we were 50 and 27 with close to the same attendance in a city much smaller than Portland. Where would you rather be Curt Russell? I think you should have said City by the Sparkling Sea Corpus Christi! Come on Netflix we have some great stories about that league too!
A surprisingly interesting Netflix documentary about the Portland Mavericks, and their owner Bing Russell. The film starts out chronicling Russell's childhood, where he grew up watching the Yankees in their summer training, and tried to parlay that into his own professional career. After being injured, he tried his hand at acting, and became most well known for his role on Bonanza. He's also Kurt Russell's father.In the early 70′s, Russell formed a minor league professional baseball team in Portland, called the Mavericks, and they caused quite a ruckus in baseball history. They were the only independently owned minor league team at the time. Todd Field (In The Bedroom) was a batboy for them.The film chronicles both the rise and fall of the Mavericks, and Bing Russell. Kudos to Netflix for wanting to tell this story. Bing Russell was a good man, and fought a good fight. I was completely unaware of this story before, and I'm glad I know more about it.