Home Runs

Battered Bastards of Baseball

“ When Portland, Oregon, lost its longtime minor-league affiliate, Bing Russell-who briefly played ball professionally before enjoying a successful Hollywood acting career-bought the territory and formed a single-A team to operate outside the confines of major-league baseball. When they took the field in 1973, the Mavericks-the only independent team in America-started with two strikes against them. What did Deputy Clem from Bonanza know about baseball? Or Portland, for that matter? The only thing uniting his players, recruited at open tryouts, was that no other team wanted them. Skeptics agreed that it could never work. But Bing understood a ballplayer's dreams, and he understood an audience. His quirky, unkempt castoffs won games, and they won fans, shattering minor-league attendance records. Their spirit was contagious, and during their short reign, the Mavericks-a restaurant owner turned manager, left-handed catcher, and blackballed pitcher among them-brought independence back to baseball and embodied what it was all about: the love of the game. (C) Netflix Rotten Tomatoes Rating 5 STARS This is a real gem.  As an aside; Bing Russell's son is actor Kurt Russell who is married to Goldie Hawn, both of whose movies I like.  When all of Hollywood was dumping on Bush 43 after 9/11, he and Goldie had the guts to appear on O'Relly's show in debate.  Both came across as honestly concerned, and both were amenable to considering other points of view.  Later I discovered that Kurt is (or became?) a Libertarian who, he said,  was "told by people that there are people who wouldn't work with me because they were afraid of my politics."  All that aside—boy, girl, man or woman—you will really like this film. ”