While some less sophisticated folks might proclaim that watching soccer is "boring," we’d argue your average baseball game is like watching paint dry. At least at the major league level. But get down the minors, and you see the lively spirit of the game in its purest form, and there were none more mighty that the beloved Portland Mavericks. They existed for a brief shining moment in the 1970s, the only independently owned Class A team in the Northwest League and they were a sensation. And now they have a movie to tell their tale.
The wonderfully titled "The Battered Bastards Of Baseball" recounts how Bing Russell (yep, father of Kurt Russell) threw his hat in the ring for a baseball franchise after the Portland Beavers left for Spokane. And once he got the rights, he put together a team the only way he knew how: by having a lot of fun. A 30-man roster ensured all kinds of people got a chance, and the atmosphere of the games were as wild as the players (and among the witness to the action was batboy and future film director Todd Field who participated in the doc). It’s a movie that, as you’ll see in our quote from the trailer, it’s "a real-life tale that is almost too good to be true."
After premiering at Sundance, the film will debut for everyone on Netflix starting on July 11th. Watch below.