SVS: “The Battered Bastards of Baseball”

Bing Russell was a largely-unsung character actor. Someone whose face you recognize immediately, but whose name lags far behind — often to the point of anonymity. He appeared in a host of Westerns, most famously as Deputy Clem Foster in 50+ episodes/13 years of “Bonanza,” but his greatest claim to fame is probably the fact that his son, Kurt Russell, achieved that which eluded Bing for his entire thespian career: a prominent place in the cinematic firmament.

Oh, and for five glorious and insane years, he owned an independent minor-league baseball team in Portland. A team called The Mavericks, whose unusual birth and all-too-brief existence are now featured in a documentary put together by Bing’s grandsons: The Battered Bastards of Baseball, acquired by and currently streaming on NETFLIX INSTANT.

The jaw-dropping true story of a real-life “Bad News Bears,” this inspiring documentary recounts the history of the Portland Mavericks, an independent professional baseball team that broke attendance records in 1973 with a roster that included a blacklisted former Yankee pitcher, a left-handed catcher, the sport’s first female general manager, and young movie star Kurt Russell, whose actor father Bing was the scrappy team’s owner.

As a die-hard fan of the game and a great lover of the weirdness that so often takes place within and around it, I’m predisposed to enjoy this sort of film. I think it’s a solid choice for less-than-fanatical fans, as well, though, because it doesn’t rely too much on an intimate (or even cursory) knowledge of the sport. It’s far more interested in its characters than in the game they’re playing. And these guys are most definitely characters: Burning brooms on the dugout steps; running the bases with wild, sign-less abandon; keeping dogs nearby to release onto the field if pitchers was flagging; the even more insane off-the-field antics that could easily have served as inspiration for Portland’s current “Keep Portland Weird” slogan (even though they didn’t.)

Heck, these guys’d probably make the ’86 Mets blush.

The film’s only obvious weakness, in my view, is a bit too much focus on the Inside Baseball (#SorryNotSorry) and the “Old Boys’ Club” that dominated the minor league landscape of the time. Or maybe it’s not accurate to say there’s too much focus on that aspect of the story, because the maverick-ness of the team, the challenges it faced, and the Establishment’s unhappiness with Bing’s style is pretty much the point of the documentary. So let me instead say that it’s not the amount of focus that gave me pause; it was the singleness of that perspective. At times, especially towards the end, it feels like piling on, because the talking heads are all on Bing’s side. The Big Business of Baseball is the film’s baddie, but it’s also faceless. And it’s never given an opportunity to share its perspective on this great and unusual story. (Perhaps MLB declined when offered the opportunity to participate, knowing full-well that they would come off as unsympathetic. Which would be perfectly understandable, because the historical facts seem to lean heavily on The Mavericks’ side. But at the same time, that effects the film’s “balance.”)

…not enough to make it anything less than a fantastic yarn, though. Baseball fans? You will love it. Non-baseball fans? You’ll probably enjoy it, as well. Lots here to love. (Also, WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE???)

Oh, and this one comes with a language warning. Because baseball players, after all.

An Aside: Someone at Netflix really wants an Oscar for Best Documentary. The Square was their first foray into the documentary-acquisition business, and it got a lot of attention (and an eventual nomination) last year before falling just short. Not enough star power when compared with the eventual winner, 20 Feet from Stardom? That might have been the case, though who can truly understand the vagaries of the Academy? If that was the problem, though, the subsequent acquisition of Battered Bastards makes a lot of sense. An underdog story — which the Academy, of course, loves — but one loaded with star power, as well: Bing is a larger-than-life guy with Hollywood roots, and Kurt definitely brings a good bit of fame to the table. (Plus, bonus Todd Field sighting! That’s right: Oscar-nominated director Todd Field, who is tentatively attached to a feature adaptation of this material. The same Todd Field who served as the Mavericks bat-boy for years, and was a first-hand witness to and protagonist in this unusual story.)

“The Mavericks, boys and girls, was a baseball team that I’m proud to say I played for. Our motivation was simple: revenge. We loved whomping fuzzy-cheeked college bonus babies owned by the Dodgers or Phillies. Will there ever be a Mav old-timers day, you ask? Nah. Too many players in the witness-protection program.” — Jim Bouton

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