They've Got Some Balls... "The Battered Bastards Of Baseball"

The Battered Bastards of Baseball (2014)

Documentary

Starring Kurt Russell, Todd Field

Directed by Chapman and Maclain Way

The Story:

In 1973, Bing Russell, Hollywood character actor and baseball aficionado paid $500 to own a minor league team in Portland Oregon.  It was not affiliated with any Major League team.  The baseball world laughed at Russell.  He had open try-outs that brought prospects from around America, many that were undrafted or cast out of other major league farm systems.  The Major League teams continued to laugh.  Then a funny thing happened over the next 5 years, and Major League Baseball was no longer laughing.

This is the true story of one of the greatest underdog stories in the history of sports.

Pile up all the sports David vs. Goliath movies that you've seen in your life...
Toss them into a blender...

And you have the amazing true story of the Portland Mavericks.

Bing Russell, who grew up idolizing the New York Yankees as a ball boy in their spring training games in Florida, moved to Hollywood and was a successful character actor.

You may have heard of his son, Kurt Russell.  Well Bing used Kurt to produce some films on the fundamentals of baseball.  They were so good, several Major League teams used the films to help their players.

Yes, Bing's love for the game never wavered, and when he got the chance to own the only independent franchise in baseball, he jumped at it.

The Mavericks were all about fun.  If there was a rule about baseball, Bing went out of his way to break it, and the Mavericks proved to be so successful, it was only a matter of time until the Major Leagues wanted a piece of the action.

I don't want to spoil it, because again, all of the cliches are on full display here.

Give it a whirl, especially if you love baseball, you won't be disappointed.

My only thought, is this really needs to be made into a feature film, and let Kurt play the part of his dad.

It's Hollywood, it could happen.


Available for streaming instantly on Netflix as of this writing.

Final Grade: A

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: I'd happily watch it again, and if Netflix makes it available to purchase, I would add this to the baseball section of my DVD library.