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[Bing Russell] I got a bigger thrill out of baseball

than I ever did out of show business

because when you hit that ball and hit it right,

which I didn't do too many times, a thrill goes through your whole body.

But trotting around the bases, it's sort of the same feeling you get

when you come off stage after a scene that has gone particularly well.

But acting is a much more personal thing

and baseball is a much more involved thing.

'Cause you've got 18 guys out here,

18 minds and two round objects, a bat and a ball,

and everything... goes crazy.

And, of course, a lot of things went crazy in this wonderful ballpark right here.

It's very interesting how Bing became interested in baseball

because no one in his family had played baseball.

They don't even know why he liked it so much, but he did.

Now, the Yankees trained in St. Petersburg,

and he used to go and stand outside the wall for a ball,

and he got one one day.

Well, there were three other kids and they wanted the ball.

One grabbed it out of his hand.

He went after that kid. That kid threw it to another kid.

Finally, Bing said,

"I'm going after one of them. I'm gonna nail one of them."

And he did and he got the ball

and then he ran back to his dad at the seaplane base.

There was another guy there talking to his dad.

He said, "Hey, kid, you don't have to...

get in fights for a baseball.

I'll get you all the baseballs you want."

Turned out to be Lefty Gomez.

Bing's life was... changed from the moment he met Lefty.

I can't tell you what a star he was with the Yankees.

Bing Russell grew up in every kid's dream...

in the world of the Yankees... being encouraged and taught by those guys.

[Louise] He said Lou Gehrig, when he went by,

would always ruffle his hair...

call him kid.

And Lou Gehrig hit his last home run.

The batboy went out to get the bat and Lou Gehrig gave it to Bing.

That was a real treasure.

Bing had this experience

of being in the dugout, riding on the bus,

traveling with all those wonderful Yankees players.

It's almost hard to believe a kid could have had that experience.

[Kurt] My mom was pregnant

when my dad famously tells the story of leaving Rangeley...

with everybody sort of waving and saying, "Well, they'll be back in six weeks."

And, of course, he was a little... a little harder-headed than that.

He was going to California to make it in the picture business.

[Louise] Bing just started out,

found the studios and that's where it all started,

and he was lucky... he could ride a horse, and he was good and he made it.

[whistling tune]

[inaudible]

He worked with a lot of... wonderful people.

John Wayne, Ronald Reagan,

Loretta Young, Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen.

Oh, on and on and on.

Uh...

He was a supporting actor.

He's, what I... what I call...

And I mean this lovingly. He was a plumber actor.

He went to work. Boom, boom, boom.

He was deputy sheriff in Bonanza for 13 years.

My dad got killed 126 times, I think it was.

He did over 800 television shows.

[gun firing]

He was back in the day when you worked.

See, I did 104 Bonanzas.

Actually I did over 700, but it sounds so unrealistic.

Sometimes I did three shows a week.

1957, '58 and '59.

I had one week off in '57, two in '58 and three in '59.

As far as acting went, the stage was really his preference.

I think, probably, the one that would stand out in our family,

of course, would be when he did the play version of The Music Man.

I don't think Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man was more into it

than my dad was [laughing] into Professor Harold Hill.

So for all us kids, it was like, "Oh, my God, if I hear...

you know, if I... [laughing] if I hear Trouble...

There's Trouble in River City

one more time..." It was like, "God!"

And... and yet... and yet, I look back on it now and I think...

I admire that.

I admire that you can love to do something that much.

[Bing] When I was 12,

I said that I'd be the first--

I wanted to replace DiMaggio in centerfield

and be the first Hall of Fame player to win the Academy Award.

As you know, I didn't replace DiMagg in centerfield

and I'm not very close to the Academy Award, [chuckles]

but I'm still trying!

Bing was a student of baseball.

He loved it. It was always his first love.

He never, never got tired of anything to do with baseball.

My mother's backyard was not a pool and... a place to lounge.

Our backyard was a batting cage.

There was no furniture in the living room.

So that I could take ground balls in the living room.

He had a test that was, I don't know, 75-80 pages long.

Situations... philosophies...

pitching to a certain batter a certain way.

It was extremely dense baseball.

My dad decided to make these instructional films.

These were extremely detailed films.

So much so, that when he was finished making these films

two, three, four big league managers used these for his team.

This was no kids' stuff. This was stuff

a lot of Major League ballplayers didn't know.

[Bing narrating] Again.

On the ball to the left. He's ready.

Pivot! Cross over! Stay low. Face the ball.

Remember, the good pivot and cross over is the key to covering ground!

[Kurt] He was a deft and deep, deep student of the game of baseball.

So he had this tremendous knowledge.

Bing was in his...

I think, early 40s.

Having a nice time and...

going out back and lounging around in the sun.

And Kurt would see him...

and I don't think he liked thinking that his dad

wasn't doing something more than just lying around in the sun.

I started seeing my dad as someone who was...

losing interest in things.

He didn't seem very interested in the movie business

as much as he used to.

He was having fun watching me play,

but... I felt like my dad wasn't vibrant.

He wasn't... he wasn't doing a lot.

[male newscaster] After 70 years,

baseball in Portland came to an end Wednesday

when the directors of the Pacific Coast League

approved the transfer

of the Portland Beavers to Spokane, Washington.

The owners of the Beavers

said that Portland, as a baseball town, needs a rest.

So it looks like there will be no baseball this coming season

and we wouldn't consider the outlook a bright one.

I would agree that it was a surprise... when the Beavers left town.

It shocked the town.

They just assumed, "Well, hey, the Beavers have been here forever.

They're our team."

Portland had been abandoned by the Beavers

and... I think people had a lot of different feelings about that.

I think... You know, a lot of them were pissed off.

Well, the Beavers left to go to a much smaller town

because they were dying here.

Attendance was down and they were losing money

and there wasn't much change in sight.

[Carren Woods] I mean, it wasn't one of those things

where there was a buzz about, "Oh, you got to go to the ballpark."

I mean, it wasn't that feeling in town.

And I guarantee you could have interviewed people in Portland and said,

"Name three Portland... or one Portland Beaver."

No one would have been able to do it.

I mean, people didn't even know who the players were anymore.

It was open territory.

And there were no prospects of anybody coming here

until somebody showed up that wasn't-- A little bit of a surprise!

[Kurt] My dad got to talking with John Carbray about it

and they said, "What about putting an "A" club in there

and doing something with the Northwest League?"

And we looked at each other and we said,

"Let's see if we can go up to Portland and create...

and create something up there."

When we first heard about Bing Russell,

I think there was this buzz about, "Well, who's Bing Russell?"

[Field] Everybody said, "Wow, you know, Bing Russell's coming in to town.

He was in The Magnificent Seven and he was... he's the sheriff on Bonanza

and you've seen him on Maverick."

It was like Christ walking on water. We couldn't believe it.

"Oh, he's coming to Portland?"

There was nothing happening in Portland.

Why would Bing Russell come to Portland?

Oregon is pretty provincial.

We don't like outsiders.

So when this guy from Southern California who was an actor

was going to come to Portland, there was a lot of skepticism.

It just seemed like it was going to be, um...

some bizarre story that was never going to work.

He shows up and he says he's an actor.

And he has a baseball background? Well, we don't know anything about that.

Who is this guy?

Maybe it was a joke or a promotion or he had a side angle or... you know.

What was his reason for coming?

The problem with baseball on the minor league level

is being connected and affiliated to a big league team,

they can take the ball players and put them wherever they want at any time.

You never really know... who your third baseman's gonna be.

You don't get to know your first baseman,

your catchers, your pitchers, your outfielders.

If one of them's having a good year, they're gonna move up.

So for the town, it's disastrous.

But, my dad grew up in the time when there was independent baseball.

They were independent from the Big League teams.

They were on their own.

The way baseball used to be structured,

there were all kinds of independent teams.

The team was owned by someone of the city...

and then there were...

teams that were completely affiliated with the Big League team

where they have anywhere from their highest level, which is Triple A,

next Double A, next lower, A.

By the time the '70s came around, no independent teams...

only affiliated.

[male newscaster] Bing Russell, as most of you know,

is the sheriff on Bonanza,

and he's one heck of a baseball fan.

He's been in the Northwest for the last two or three years...

on location and watching his son play ball with Bend and Walla Walla.

So I've spent some time with Mr. Russell

organizing a baseball operation for the city of Portland.

It will be an independent operation.

The players will be signed... by the Portland Baseball Club,

and if they are successful,

they will be controlled by the Portland Baseball Club.

I started with the Northwest League in probably 1972,

and I think we charged Bing $500 for the franchise.

So if you had $500 bucks and a Bank of America card or a VISA,

you were pretty much in.

My first perception of Bing was that he talked a lot.

He was telling us, in the league,

what he intended to do... was independent baseball.

So that means Bing had to get his players scouted, signed and pay them himself.

All the other franchises in the league at that time

were affiliated with Major League teams where the players were scouted, signed,

salaries paid, insurance paid by the Major League club.

[male newscaster] Seattle will be a farm club of Cincinnati.

Bellingham will be a farm club of the LA Dodgers,

Lewiston will be a farm club of the world champion Oakland A's,

and Walla Walla will be working with San Diego Padres.

So when you start an independent team,

you got two strikes against you because of all the additional overhead.

I don't think that there was any interest whatsoever

in... in an independent Class A team when you'd just lost

this classy Triple A or open classification team.

It was like you're driving a Cadillac and all of a sudden somebody says,

"Here, you're going to drive this Beetle."

Prestige-wise, it was...

it was an insult to the city.

[Kurt] I literally drove in there one night.

You know, I got a key, opened the door and went to the phonebook,

opened the phonebook, called up,

"Hi, my name is Kurt Russell and I'm with the Portland Mavericks.

We're the new baseball team here in town. Have you heard about us?

Well, we're a new baseball team here in town!" [laughing]

No, they hadn't heard about us.

We'd just started doing this stuff, right?

We started walking the streets and going out

and getting some promotions done here and there.

So we started from scratch.

First time I met Bing, he walked in my bar

and I heard this voice say, "Howdy, gents."

And he said "gents" in such a way,

it was like there was a real new sheriff in town.

And he just lit the room up.

And from then on, it was like...

When Bing walked in, everybody... paid attention.

[Wheeler] Frank "The Flake" Peters.

And he lived up to the nickname.

He was a Californian who had come up to Oregon State,

to play baseball there, of course,

went on to play in the Baltimore Orioles... Triple A organization,

and as a third baseman playing behind Brooks Robinson,

you didn't have much shot going up beyond that.

[Peters] Baltimore called me and said that they wanted to sign me,

and I asked them, "Well, who is your third baseman?"

And they said, "Well, we got a guy there. His name is Brooks Robinson."

And I said, "Well, doesn't sound like a Big League name to me."

Sixteen years later, he was still making the All-Star team.

So I'm still waiting for my chance.

[male newscaster] You never did have a Major League goal.

At the end of your career, you didn't?

My goal was to be something like Babe Ruth or something like that, so...

I said, "Okay, it doesn't look like

I'm going to be what I originally anticipated being in this game.

So I'm going to enjoy it and play it on my own terms."

Which were, play in Portland--

[Wheeler] So Bing finally decided to

hire Frank Peters as the manager of the team...

'cause he was so well-known in this market and he was a sports hero.

[Peters] Money really wasn't a factor.

Bing had his guidelines on what he would pay.

I think it was $500 a month or something like that for three months.

So it was all about the love of the game, really.

And so Bing and I...

got on the same horse and off we went.

Him in the front and me in the back.

[male newscaster] This is Portland, Oregon.

Home of the Northwest League's Portland Mavericks,

one of the last of the independent clubs.

Owned by an actor, Bing Russell,

and managed by a restaurant owner named Frank Peters,

the club's general manager is unique, too.

Her name is Lanny Moss.

How does an independent club get players?

Well, they put an ad in The Sporting News announcing tryouts.

[Kurt] First of all, we had to, you know, put ballplayers together

and Bing said, "You never know what we're going to find.

We're going to have open tryouts."

You're going to get talent out of open tryouts?

That's a little unbelievable.

Anybody that had any talent was going to get drafted by a Major League team

to play in its farm system somewhere

and hopefully elevate to the Major Leagues.

It's considered laughable...

and they went straight for the laughs, which is just what Bing wanted.

"Let them have their field day. Let them chew us up.

Let them just make... show us for the idiots we are,

the fools that we are coming from Hollywood."

My first thoughts, I don't... I couldn't even tell you what they were.

They're probably unprintable.

It was like, "What is this all about?"

It was a joke.

And to think that it could even work was even more of a joke.

It was a bad joke.

[inaudible]

[Peters] You know, you'd expect maybe 40 or 50 people to show up,

and I think 300 showed up.

Sitting in the stands, kind of watching it, you're thinking,

"Who are these guys that they're getting?"

Guys who drove clear across the country

and, you know, sacrificed this or sold this or whatever else

just for the chance to come and try out for the team.

[Bertram] And they came... they hitchhiked here.

You know, they did whatever they could to show up

and try to hang on.

They had a great dream.

I think it's the American Dream, you know, to... just to have the chance to play.

And being a Major League baseball player is not necessarily a worthwhile goal,

but being a professional baseball player, I think, is a worthwhile goal.

[male reporter] How long did it take you to get here?

About four and a half days.

I don't care about the money. I just want to play ball.

Baseball is my first love.

I... I've always got that dream that I'll make it,

but I probably have to tell myself I won't.

Everybody there had been rejected.

I personally... My career had ended and I felt I'd been rejected.

All of the players had felt they'd been rejected,

and maybe even Bing in Hollywood had felt he'd been rejected.

[Bing] As far as those of you who don't make it, which is the bulk,

that's the way the pickle squirts, but a lot of you...

We got one boy from Tennessee, a couple from New York and whatnot.

You've had a hell of a trip.

The press should get a hold of some of you.

One guy lost his glove and his spikes.

Another guy lost his checks in Lincoln, Nebraska,

and somehow or other labored in here.

This is Frank Peters, our manager.

He's the boss and he'll run these tryouts.

[Peters] It became apparent that Bing was putting all these parts together.

So Bing was literally... casting a play,

and everybody had a part or a role to play,

and the neat thing about it was that you felt...

you knew what your role was and you knew how you fit in.

[Rob Nelson] I first heard about the Mavericks

having breakfast at the Carnaby Hotel in Three Anchor Bay

...at the very bottom of Cape Town.

My dad had sent me a packet of news clippings

and The Sporting News had a story of... independent baseball in Portland.

And I said, "I think I'm going to go back and do some substitute teaching,

make a few dollars and go to Oregon,

and see if I could play baseball out there with this independent team."

What are you looking for in these guys?

I'm looking for someone that can play for the Mavs

and not necessarily a Big Leaguer and...

What we are looking for is the ballplayer

that... that organizations for whatever reason that they...

whatever they chose, do not think can play in the big leagues.

These are the guys that... wish they could and haven't been able to.

Out of college, I went straight home. I didn't get drafted.

I can't believe they didn't want a left-handed catcher.

It makes no sense to me.

And my dad says there's tryouts down in Portland for this Portland Mavericks.

I go, "What's that mean, Dad?"

He goes, "You go try out for the team."

So I went down there and tried out and there was, like, 500 people there,

and I went back there and caught and I was throwing some people out

and Bing calls... you know, comes up to me.

He goes, "Do you know you're left-handed?"

I feel like I am the first and only left-handed catcher

to ever sign a professional contract,

so I think that my glove should be in the Hall of Fame.

Not me, my glove.

When I decided to try out for the Mavericks,

I was 33 years old, I was a high school English teacher,

and I had played in one Major League game and that was the end of my career.

And so I just thought that playing for the Mavericks

would be a better alternative to painting fucking houses.

When I showed up, I looked like Charlie Manson.

Or as my mother called 'em, the "Lost Years".

It was clearly the only team in America

that would have let me even try out.

As a kid, Bing was bigger than life.

He had this idea of... of...

putting together this instructional tape.

I was 10, 11 years old and was hanging around

the field and he saw me over by the fence looking through,

and he said, "Ah, get in here to do something."

[Bing] Eleven-year-old Jon Yoshiwara,

tomorrow's pitcher at the local little league park.

On the big club, he's known as the pigtail.

He shags, picks up and tries his level best

to learn all he can about his first love, baseball.

[Yoshiwara] Bing, I think, followed me from afar

and he liked the way I played.

I was never drafted.

In the back of my mind, Bing had always said, "If it doesn't work out,

come up to Portland and try out."

I was 11, and I showed up to the tryouts... just like everybody else.

And I didn't show up to try out. I showed up to try out as a batboy.

And I remember talking to Rob and saying...

"I got to be the batboy.

I mean... I got to be the batboy."

And I remember Rob just saying...

"Just hustle so much to where they can't not give it to you."

I was insane. I'd line up the bats. I'd scrub everything down.

I mean, I was just like... I was always in motion.

I never stopped moving.

And I remember, finally,

I heard this whistle and I looked up in the stands

and it was Bing and he said, "Hey, kid, come up here."

And I came and sat down and he said... he said, "I wish I had 10 more of you."

And that was it, then I was the batboy.

[Kurt] He was the most fair and talented

observer of a player

that not only I ever saw,

but many, many people who knew him... all said about Bing.

This guy can read a ballplayer as good as anybody.

He just had this ability.

So he was in a perfect position to sort of take this... club

and have the best chance to succeed with it.

Well, it's exciting, of course,

to look at the season just around the corner,

but so far it looks very good. We haven't lost one yet.

We've got 84 to play, and at this point,

we've still got a chance to win all of them.

I'm really excited.

It's just a great-looking bunch of young men.

I think the big difference between the Portland Mavericks,

as an independent team,

versus the affiliated teams that we played...

One was to have fun.

We really emphasized fun.

I mean, we could play fundamental baseball,

but you had to really step back and just savor the moment

because we had guys who were in their 30s

who were still trying to play Single A baseball.

The Eugene Emeralds, a Cincinnati Reds affiliate,

everybody's pants were the same length, the stirrups were this...

the shaving, the haircuts.

It was much more regimented.

The organizations wanted to kind of set the tone.

Most of the Mavericks had a little bit of a paunch.

They led the league in stubble.

And a lot of guys had... literally had toes coming through their spikes.

So they were stunned, "What kind of team is this?"

It's certainly not what they were a part of.

There was no press handlers.

There was no groomed image.

There were just these furry, hairy, funny, fucking great bunch of guys.

The perception of the Major League people was,

"We'll put up with those guys and play them,

but no more than we have to."

A little bit of arrogance there,

thinking, "These guys aren't gonna be as good as us,

but at least they'll provide an opponent for the evening."

[Yoshiwara] It was more of a joke than anything.

And the curiosity to see how long this would last.

Now it's... We're coming down to the first game

and it really is, "The rubber is going to hit the road tonight

and we are going to go out there and who knows,

maybe we'll get beat 20 to nothing and the nightmare is on."

You know, who knows? [stammers] We don't know for sure.

We think we've got some competitive ballplayers.

And the first inning and the second inning and we're leading the game.

And pretty soon, it's now in the-- We realize...

"We're ahead, yeah, but has the other team got any hits?"

And the last out is recorded

and the first game of the Portland Mavericks,

thrown by Gene Lanthorn, was a no-hitter.

And we looked at each other and we said,

"This is going to be magic. This is going to be magic."

[Bertram] They didn't have anybody that was going to hit home runs.

They didn't have anybody that was going to be the big power pitchers.

They built this thing around speed.

They stole bases and stole bases, took chances.

They were reckless and it usually paid off.

And they built this thing around this Reggie Thomas

who had a gift, not only of speed, but he had flair.

[Peters] He was our star...

and if you have a star, then you can do other things.

But you better have a star and he was our star.

But he knew it. [chuckles]

And it's nice if the star knows he's the star.

[Field] Reggie lived at the Mallory Hotel

which is, like, literally, one block from Civic Stadium.

And before every single game, a car came down the back ramp,

and as that car came down the ramp to go underneath,

our announcer would yell, [hoarsely] "Here comes Reggie!"

And people went nuts.

And people, rightly so, asked Bing,

"Why the fuck do you get a car for Reggie?

He lives a block away!"

And he said, "Because Reggie needs that."

We just never gave up and we were relentless.

I didn't have any signs, and if you stole bases, then steal a base,

and if you want to hit home runs, hit home runs.

So there wasn't anything restricting them from... giving it one last go.

They may be the best ball club at this level

than any ball club I've ever played on.

So if they continue with the way they're playing,

we should dominate the league.

We have a darn good ball club.

No weaknesses at all?

Unless it's in the management.

We knew we were, basically, all-- Better than most of these people.

We played against all these franchise teams.

We played against Ozzie Smith, Dave Henderson.

Dave Stewart was with the Dodgers. Mike Scioscia was a young catcher.

[Swannie] We kicked the shit out of them.

[Yoshiwara] We were beating the pants off of the organizations.

It was a continual headache because

those guys were out to prove a point.

One of the points they wanted to prove

was that they could beat organized baseball franchises.

They didn't want to play us.

You know, 'cause independent beating these... big bonus-babies.

[Larry] I think they were embarrassed.

"Now we have a bunch of ragamuffins beating the shit out of us."

Exactly. That's the way I like it. Hit and run. Run the bases.

Everything we can do to win.

Now last night, of course, the Mavericks just ripped the Mariners very badly.

The Mavericks are hungry and they're mad and we want to win.

That's what's going to be on my mind.

It wasn't good.

I got a lot of flak...

from Major League farm directors

because independent baseball was going to make them look bad

for players they didn't sign or did sign that they released,

and the fact that they would show up their own teams.

They found out that they are not infallible

as far as being able to judge talent.

It's kind of a miracle

that Bing was able to put together any kind of team at all.

I mean, the fact that that team was able to perform

playing against all these...

huge bonus-babies for Major League teams,

and really had no business beating them, beat them anyway,

is fucking extraordinary.

[male newscaster] The Portland Mavericks' success story with independent baseball

was recognized nationally Monday,

when Sporting News named Maverick owner Bing Russell

the Class A executive of the year for 1974.

The weekly paper, considered the baseball Bible,

said Russell's selection was unanimous.

The award will be presented to Russell by Yankee Hall of Famer Lefty Gomez.

The award is a very cherished award in the world of baseball.

To win that award as the only independent operator...

was just amazing.

They would have baseball meetings,

and this is where these awards would be presented.

And Bing would go representing the Mavericks

where everybody else was representing

a Major League team or their affiliates.

He was by himself.

It would be like winning an Oscar by doing an independent film.

You were with all the famous stars and you win the Oscar.

"Here I am with all these people that run the show

and I won.

-Well, take that." -Yep.

The summer of 1973 was the happiest summer of my life

in this great stadium.

Lefty Gomez was here.

He said, "I haven't seen anything like it since 1929."

It was an exciting, exciting year.

And this is just the greatest baseball city in the world...

if it's not the greatest city in the world.

[NBC newscaster] The following NBC Sports program

is brought to you in living color.

[program theme music playing]

Joe Garagiola was a sportscaster for NBC Sports.

You know, he played professional baseball.

He's an icon. Everybody knew who he was.

When Joe Garagiola came to town, he put us on the national map.

It was a national special. And before that,

everybody in the Northwest knew about us

but when he did this special, everybody in the country knew about us.

Bing, if I had to call Central Casting

and get the perfect character to own this ball club,

you would be the one.

Quickly, give me the yellow page reading of your background.

Well... it's been my game since I was nine.

Lefty Gomez picked me up as a youngster

and I was the peanut smuggler for the Yankees

back from 1936 through '41,

and five of those years, we were champions of the world.

And... then I later played ball myself.

Played a little at Dartmouth and played pro ball.

I played Clem for 13-and-a-half years on Bonanza and never solved a case.

Sports fans loved that show.

He came out here and gave credibility to it.

[Garagiola] They got a fan club for you, haven't they?

Yeah, I'm the one with the fan club.

I played in all the games and then I got released,

but I stuck around.

I didn't go home

and I told them I was gonna stay until I could get back on the club.

I guess the fans sort of identified with that.

But if you get released here--

-I know, that's the bottom of the barrel. -Yeah.

He had so much... footage

that they had to do two shows... which he had never done before...

and he was only here for... a day.

What do I do if I want to come in and try to join the Portland Mavericks?

You fill out a card.

-I fill out a card. Like this? -Like this.

Press coverage of the Mavericks was phenomenal.

There were articles in Sports Illustrated...

and there was a huge article in The New Yorker.

They don't even have room to cover the Major Leagues in full

and they give up space to cover a Single A team?

[Yoshiwara] The reason we were getting national exposure

was because we were doing things different.

I don't think we thought of ourselves as celebrities...

we were ballplayers.

I'm amazed that anyone came up and wanted my autograph.

[Bertram] There were so many things going on.

It was so much fun. It was so different.

And we just happened to be fortunate enough

to have to write about it every day.

That was good publicity for the league,

and Bing got more than his share, I'll tell you.

It was great for the league and great for the game.

[phone ringing]

Jim Bouton, as you probably know, is the former Major League baseball pitcher

who wrote the controversial best-selling book Ball Four.

And this spring, after seven years... after retiring from baseball,

he decided to make a comeback.

He is now the ace pitcher for the Portland Mavericks

of the Class A Northwest League.

Would you welcome Jim Bouton?

[applause]

[Nelson] Having grown up on Long Island in the middle '60s,

I remembered high school teammates wanted to be Jim Bouton.

He had this overhand motion where his hat fell off after each pitch

and part of his follow-through was

he would go down and pick up his hat on his way back up.

Jim Bouton was a big deal...

and a very good pitcher with the Yankees during...

kind of the end of their heyday

with Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra,

and then to have made the All-Star team, and then pitch in the World Series...

Jim could play. He... he was the man.

He wrote the first exposé

on what was going on behind the scenes in baseball

after he'd been a World Series hero for the Yankees...

and baseball just turned its back on him because he had broken all the taboos.

Yeah, well, you said quite a few things now

when you wrote your book Ball Four,

which created a little furor among ballplayers.

Ball Four scared the shit out of people... you know...

and the behavior that he was describing, the outlandish behavior that he describes

on some of those road trips in the back of the bus,

you know, guys kissing each other and stuff...

you know, that really freaked people out.

People taking greenies and all that...

I mean... that's nothing compared to what happened with the Mavericks. [laughs]

The establishment in baseball

were appalled that somebody kind of broke the veil.

They were not pleased.

[Wheeler] Jim Bouton was blackballed by all of baseball

except... the Mavericks.

This is probably the only place he could have made a comeback.

Jim came out and... he fit right in with the team.

Los Angeles Times said that somebody it was quoting,

the owner of your team, I guess, saying that,

"He's just a boy. He'll always be a boy."

What did he mean? That you're always gonna be childlike?

-Or what? -Well, I don't know.

I guess... I guess 'cause I want to play baseball.

For a guy to go from Yankee pinstripes,

you know, Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth, Whitey Ford... you know, Lefty Gomez,

all these famous New York Yankees...

to... the carnival that Bing created...

was just... it was just... it's such a great story.

[Bouton] I like Portland very much.

I like Bing Russell. I like the fans here.

So I'm just really looking forward to coming back.

[male reporter] Kind of a nutty ball club anyhow, isn't it?

[Bouton] It's got character to it.

It certainly isn't close to my home

and it certainly doesn't pay me much money.

I really... I like the competition,

and I like waking up in the morning and thinking that today could be the day

that I put it all together... and go to the big leagues.

[Johnny Carson] You said you're, what, 37 now?

-[Bouton] Thirty-eight. -Thirty-eight.

Now how about the other players? How do they relate do you?

Because, you don't... first of all, you don't look 38.

[Bouton] Actually, I fit in better with these kids

than I did 15 years ago when I came up with the Yankees.

When I first came up in 1962,

if you were an outspoken person or had opinions...

you were really the oddball in the clubhouse.

In the Major Leagues, it's a little different

than when you're pitching for the Portland Mavericks, right?

I assume it's not too financially rewarding.

No.

Listen, I'm here for the $371.75 because, to me, that's a month's salary.

Is that... Is that what you...

Yeah, $400 a month is what we make... the Portland Mavericks make that.

At the end of The Tonight Show, Jim... was talking and he said,

"Wait, wait, wait, Johnny. One minute."

How much time do we have?

Just about... about half a... half a minute.

"I just got to... I just got to say one thing.

I just want to thank all... all the guys

that are backing me up in the Portland Mavericks."

Okay, 'cause my teammates told me that if I read their names on television

that my defense might be better behind me when I pitch.

And he pulled out a list and he read every single fucking name.

Do it quick. See how fast you can do this.

"Jim Swanson, Bob Foster, Cliff Holland, 'Cut' Collette, Joe Garza, Bill Martinez,

'Doc' Wilbert, Jon Yoshiwara, Ed Gilliam, Terry Lee, 'Silky' Cervantes,

Dan Parma, 'Corky' Corcoran and Buster Atteberg."

-Evelyn Wood can do this for you, too. -[audience cheering]

Tomorrow night, Orson Bean, Andy Kaufman, Eugene Fodor,

and Joan Embery for San Diego Zoo.

In hindsight, I understand it. In hindsight, I understand,

"Okay, Bing Russell... knew what he was doing.

Bing Russell was a master showman."

I mean, it was beyond baseball.

It was almost like

you had this mad chemist in this laboratory...

and it was a big experiment as to what was going to happen.

And some things would blow up in his face,

but the whole thing was

you never knew how the experiment was going to turn out.

He kept taking it to another level and another level and another level,

breaking new ground and actually changing baseball.

All these firsts.

You know, Jon Yoshiwara coming in as the first, you know, Asian manager.

There was a batgirl, Penny Clemo.

Someone like Lanny Moss is the first female General Manager.

[reporter] You have a young lady of 24

as your general manager... which is different.

Last year she ran it August for two weeks,

and I must say she ran it better than I did, she's just doing a tremendous job.

[reporter] What does your job entail?

Oh, it's a number of things...

everything from the ticket sellers

and running out and selling tickets when you least expect it,

to coming out and singing the national anthem.

I one time asked him, I said,

"Bing, how come you have... such a variety of people around you?"

And he says, "Frank, life and..." he says,

"The Mavericks are like a movie, and a movie has one key scene.

Maybe it's only three minutes."

I think he talked about the chimney sweep scene in Mary Poppins.

"Everything builds up to that and everything comes off of that."

And he says, "You never know

who's going to come up with that magical idea, with that magic moment."

He would keep guys on the roster who had no business being there.

He would keep a...

What he kept... I think he kept, like, a 30-man roster or something.

That's fucking nuts.

For a Class A baseball team with really no funding,

what's he doing keeping 30 guys on a roster?

What he did was he... he personalized the game

in a way to where...

if you couldn't find yourself, as a fan, in one of those players,

you didn't belong at that ballpark.

You know, there was somebody there for everyone.

Bing knew he was giving the town of Portland a show

and he was going to give them the best show he could.

[inaudible]

Bing wanted to create this idea of, um...

a target for the fans to get behind.

He created a character. And it wasn't Joe Garza.

J-O-E G-A-R-Z-A.

It was JoGarza. It's a JoGarza.

So it wasn't like, "We're going to sweep the other team."

It was like, "We were going to JoGarza the team."

And then every time we swept,

and if it was two games and we won both,

it was a sweep as far as Bing was concerned.

You know, he, uh...

He had Joe get up on...

on the backstop

or, in some cases, in Civic Stadium, he would put him out in centerfield...

up in the stands, our equivalent of the Green Monster,

in front of everybody.

And he'd do the sweep

and he'd light this fucking broom on fire and wave it over his head.

And it was a dangerous broom. I know that 'cause I made these brooms.

I mean, I was given the task of making these in my parents' garage

where I'd have to paint these things

and then they'd be soaked in lighter fluid and then dried out.

I mean, it was... it was like a Tiki torch out there.

And the fans were just beside themselves.

They thought it was so,

number one, inappropriate, but also kind of funny.

You could only do that if you were the Portland Mavericks.

But then when we were on the verge of sweeping,

a week or two or three later,

the fans started bringing their own brooms.

They wanted to participate in the thing.

Well, you know, sometimes, games... baseball games are dull.

I got up on top

and we chanted "sweep" and we did it.

And now Bing Russell, the owner,

really liked it and he wanted me to do it again.

You know, all they can do is fine me.

Bing, you know, he's been taking care of my fines.

And certainly, Bing, like they say...

didn't discourage a lot of the antics that the players did.

I think he egged them on a lot of times, honestly, to do things.

I remember we had one game in Eugene.

I think four players got thrown out of the game.

Colette got thrown out of the game... and I got thrown out of the game

because... I began to parrot what was being said a little too loud

and they actually removed me from the game.

And I went up to the stands and Bing was up in the stands,

and everyone who had been thrown out of the game

was sitting around Bing and he was buying everybody beers.

Bing was just beside himself.

He was so thrilled that I'd been thrown out of the game.

The thing with the Mavericks is there was always something going on.

I think the Portland Mavericks were the first ones to have a ball dog.

He became more popular than some of the players.

Whenever it looked like the pitcher needed a rest,

they'd throw the ball out on the field and the dog would go out

and the umpire would have to stop the game.

[Field] The things that happened on the field...

were absolutely insane.

Jim Bouton said it. He says, "You know, Frank..."

He says, "This is the first time that baseball has really made sense to me."

Peter Bavasi, son of Buzzie Bavasi, with the Dodgers.

He was there, I think, as a scout.

But anyway, we were in the dugout. I was sitting next to him.

And at the end of the game... it was the end of the sweep...

everybody took a victory lap... led by Bing...

and Peter Bavasi said, "What is... What is Bing doing?"

And I said, "Well, he's having fun."

And that was part of the secret of the Mavs.

They were fun.

And they did stuff that...

the stodgy folks in baseball would say you shouldn't do.

I've had a number of conversations with farm directors and stuff about...

I'd say, "Lighten up. I mean, this...

This is great for the league and it's helping your players develop

because they are playing in front of crowds

and not 30-40 people like in the old days."

But the fans loved it and I loved it.

I just couldn't tell Bing I loved it. [laughs]

[Bertram] Looking back on it, there wasn't really a Maverickmania.

There was more like a Maverickmaniacs.

And it was what we were watching that made it such a mania.

I've never seen a ball team...

and fans behave the way they did with the Mavericks.

And when the Beavers pulled out, we didn't have anybody

until Bing Russell came along... and brought this Class A team here.

Yeah, but it's... it's a ragamuffin group.

-Oh, no, no, no! -[crowd shouting] No!

Wait a minute! I love them! I love them!

Look at the attendance records for the Mavericks.

We broke attendance records in the entire Minor Leagues that year.

We may have had the highest attendance record

of any Minor League team in history.

They set a record for Short-A attendance. I think it was 127,000 people.

People came out to see what this was all about.

"Was this really baseball? Was it just an act?"

It was baseball with a lot of flair and a lot of fun to it.

It was just an amazing feat at the time.

The Mavs are Portland's baseball team.

We've drawn over 4,000 people a game.

Our average for the 31 play dates is 4,046 officially paid here.

It's... it's incredible how this city supports baseball.

[Field] If you were a fan, you wanted to show up.

I mean, you wanted to show up because you knew all those guys.

There was no distance.

It was... it was a totally different time.

It was our team.

Completely different from being a Met fan, a Chicago Cubs fan.

Portland was experiencing something that was theirs.

It was Portland's Maverick baseball team.

[inaudible]

Probably the best way for me to tie it up for you

is to compare it with, for instance, Music Man,

where we came to know the people in River City, Iowa

through the adventures of Professor Harold Hill and a boys' band.

And here we've been allowed to

come to know the people of Portland through a boys' baseball team.

Major League baseball is a product. It's a corporate product.

It's farmed out the same way.

Major League teams have farm clubs for one reason only,

and that's just to develop players.

It's all about developing product to get to the major leagues.

They don't care if the farm club wins.

They don't really care about the team. They don't care about the city.

They have no investment in the city.

[reporter] When you try to select places for Triple A clubs, what do you look for?

Well, you look for the facility where you can develop your players

as quickly as possible and under ideal conditions.

We just think it's a great place to train our club and we're glad to be here.

[Field] Minor League baseball...

They've got guys above and below them

that are going to make it increasingly hard for them

to... to do bold things or... or to operate from their gut, necessarily.

And that's... that's what Bing did.

He didn't give a shit, you know?

He didn't have to answer to anybody.

And he was loyal to the people that he invited to the party.

It's that simple.

Organized baseball didn't like Bing...

and they did everything they could to make sure Bing didn't win.

Baseball is... is still, to this day, very much an old boys' network.

And he did not fit in with their culture at all.

They didn't want anybody from the outside having success

and they didn't want anybody rubbing their nose in,

"You guys couldn't make it in Portland and I can."

[reporter] Did you accomplish what you set out to do?

Exactly. My hope was that independent baseball could survive.

It did.

I felt that there were ballplayers released too early,

ballplayers not signed who could play at this level,

and we proved that they could.

[Kurt] He couldn't stand them.

They couldn't stand him.

He... he didn't want to do anything like they did it.

The only thing they did was build a pyramid game

that they are still playing.

Not a world my dad was very interested in.

He wasn't interested in the pyramid game. He was interested in baseball.

He was more creative, inventive and... I think, intelligent.

And by intelligence, I mean he did it for the right reasons.

And he'd go as far as he could.

He would go as far as he could.

[Bing] Being independent, we've learned some things.

You see, our boys make less

than the boys who are signed by Major League organizations make,

and I thought there might be a problem there.

But I tell you, we ride in the best buses and now we own our own,

and we stay in the best hotels and we have the fanciest uniforms,

and... we also play the best baseball.

In fact, there were quite a few boys in the organizations

who talked to me about playing for Portland.

He was going against the old canons of baseball.

[Yoshiwara] He was out to prove that independent baseball could work.

It was all about winning the division and ultimately winning the pennant.

It was the one thing that Bing was missing, and that was a championship.

Just the icing on the cake.

We don't make any bones about it down there.

We want one thing, the pennant.

It's the only thing we haven't done and... Portland hasn't had one since 1945.

And we just have to win a pennant.

And if we think that way, the ball club will think that way,

and we're going to get it. That's all there is to it.

We're going to win the pennant. We have to.

The pressure to win the pennant for the Mavericks was... was, um...

It was huge.

Our ballplayers are, I think,

as tough ballplayers as there are in the league

and we have an excellent opportunity if the ball bounces right.

That's what baseball is all about, and it's not over until two outs, and...

We've got a heck of a chance of winning the pennant.

Bing recognized that.

We can have all the sidelights you want, all the crazy stories and all that...

but our first job is to win.

[Bertram] His first night out there, he couldn't even warm up.

There were so many people trying to get autographs

and get him to sign his book.

And nobody knew what he had.

He could have been a disaster.

And... he...

he was brilliant.

I was putting my helmet on because I was going to go on deck.

I saw Bouton standing up and just in the game.

And all I could do was... I looked at him and I thought,

"There's Bulldog," you know. "There's the guy who was..."

He was, I think, in four different World Series.

And I said, "I just got to know. [chuckling]

You've been there, man. What's the comparison?"

And he said, "Oh, are you kidding?"

He said, "When the baseball is good and you are in it..."

He says, "It's just... it's exactly the same."

He said, "Let me ask you a question." I said, "What?"

He said, "Where else on the planet would you rather be right now?"

I said, "Nowhere. I want to be right here, right now."

He said, "That's it."

Bing came in and talked to us and he said,

"Here's what I want you to do. And I want a championship

and I don't give a shit how you do it."

There was a hunger there.

The Maverick players would run through walls.

They loved beating organized teams,

but the organized teams wanted to beat them as well.

We definitely had a target on our backs.

The games really mattered to us, the city really mattered to us.

For us, this was the end.

[male newscaster] Do you think you have a good chance

for the pennant this year, Frank?

Oh, unquestionably.

If we don't win the pennant, then I'll take the responsibility for it.

What Bing Russell did here,

and that is bring independent baseball back to baseball...

And it looks like it may work.

We had the highest winning percentage of all levels of professional baseball

in 1977.

From the big leagues to the lowest Minor Leagues,

nobody won two games out of three for a whole season.

[Woods] What would happen when we'd get...

Usually, 'cause we'd make the playoffs every year,

what would happen is teams would, suddenly, in the playoffs,

send players who had played at a higher classification down.

We saw players with a little bit more zip on their fastball

and a little more power... at the plate, near the end of the season.

The organizations will filter other ballplayers in

to make sure that we don't dominate the league,

but our goal is to dominate the league, of course.

The affiliated teams were sending guys down to the Northwest League

to try and beat the Mavericks.

If they felt like they had to do that, then we'll beat them, too.

They knew that they were in for a battle.

[indistinct talking]

[indistinct]

[commentator speaking indistinctly]

[crowd sighs in disappointment]

[crowd sighs in disappointment]

[crowd applauding]

[crowd cheering]

[crowd chanting indistinctly]

[crowd booing]

[shouting indistinctly]

[crowd applauding]

Had they really played "fair and square,"

I think the Mavs would have won probably a couple of pennants.

[inaudible]

It was a time where...

they wanted you to kind of follow the code.

But staying with the code had failed in Portland.

If the team was just another farm club, it wouldn't have been the same.

You know, what made the team work was 'cause it was independent.

What made the team work was 'cause you had these quirky guys.

But at the bottom of it, it was baseball.

It was baseball the way baseball was really supposed to be played.

For the love of the game.

People in baseball, that's not what they do it for.

They do it 'cause they want to make money

or they do it 'cause they want to be in control, you know.

Or who knows what they do it for?

But they don't do it, unfortunately, most of them, for the love of the game.

[Yoshiwara] I was looking forward to the '78 season...

There were a lot of rumors that...

that Triple A was looking at Portland again.

The first thing I did was call Kurt and... and I said, "Is it true?"

I think Bing took it a lot more serious than...

a lot of the other people.

I mean, it just seemed impossible to happen.

Triple A ball hasn't worked here before. Why would they come in and do it now?

We didn't realize that...

a team could just come in and... and do that.

By the end of the parade...

and all that had taken place in between...

the Triple A PCL decided to come back... now

and take... take their... spot back.

And in those days, per the baseball bluebook,

and of course, the golden rule of

whatever is in the best interest of baseball...

they were going to come in and they could take it over for $5,000.

Isn't that a self-serving... line of logic?

Well, it's baloney.

I think that's a bunch of bullshit.

A baseball territory is a piece of geography.

It's a circle drawn from home plate...

and so within 90 miles of home plate, in a circle,

you own an exclusive right

to operate within the baseball establishment,

within organized baseball.

That's yours.

So if you draft a territory,

that's when a higher league comes in and says,

"We're going to take your territory. Goodbye."

What does "regulated" mean in connection with baseball?

Baseball is a monopoly.

They were authorized by the US Supreme Court decades ago.

Decades ago,

they said they are not subject to the anti-trust laws.

Baseball was viewed as an American institution

that shouldn't be under the rules as the rest of us.

On behalf of the new stockholders of the Portland Beavers,

I am very pleased to announce

that the Portland Beavers will field a team in the coming season,

a very good team, and a very competitive team

and a team that I am sure that

the city of Portland and the surrounding area

will be quite proud of.

It was sudden, it was real sudden.

It was a shock to my system.

We were through playing baseball.

The Mavericks threatened the status quo.

There's another way to do this "business of baseball."

We had set attendance records, we were on national TV.

One of those years...

the Mavericks outdrew a whole other Minor League.

Baseball could, and did say,

"We own that territory. We want it back."

Baseball worked on their own set of rules.

It was that cockiness that they could do whatever they wanted.

Baseball took a look at it and said,

"Hey, we need to put a team back in Portland,"

and, "Let's put a Triple A team back in."

And you can do that,

but then you have to pay the previous owner

the rights to the territory,

and that became the big issue

was they didn't want to pay Bing

very much money for the rights to the territory.

"And, well, we've gotten together, Bing, and we've talked about it

and we realize what you've done here is really pretty fantastic, and it's good.

So we're going to do something unprecedented.

We're going to give you five times the normal amount."

He said, "Yes, I understand that.

I got it. $26,000." He says, "Great."

He says, "Now put a zero in the middle between the two and the six."

And they said, "Well... [chuckles] that's not going to happen."

And so off to arbitration Bing Russell went.

When Bing asked for $206,000, the reaction in baseball...

I think The Sporting News even said this... that it was ridiculous.

And somewhere they had in print...

They said, "He has yet to offer a reasonable, more rational number."

I had told Bing, uh...

"You're just tilting at windmills.

This $25,000,

that's an established figure for your territory,

and to take this thing to court and arbitrate it,

you're just tilting at windmills. There's no way."

Once again, it was laughable. It was just a laugh... until it wasn't.

And I can tell you that we will fight for those things that I just spoke of...

profit, property, freedom.

We will not knuckle under to bureaucratic arrogance or official position.

I intend to fight.

Now whether we win or not depends on how good an attorney I have.

I'd like you to know that my attorney is a Portland attorney, Jack Faust.

I have every confidence in him. I think he's the finest.

But we're sure going to fight.

What he did was he put baseball on trial

and he put the men who are now in control of baseball on trial.

And he said, "You don't get it. I'm a baseball man.

I know the history of this game,

and I know what's in the best interest of this game and it isn't you."

[Judge on tape] Mr. Jack Faust, your closing arguments, please.

[Faust on tape] Thank you, Your Honor.

The baseball establishment hasn't gotten along with this man.

But I'll tell you who did get along with him,

who got along with him famously,

is the baseball fans in Portland.

There's no question about that.

The PCL league should be ashamed of themselves,

and I think they know it.

Earlier today, the PCL said they didn't know much

about the baseball situation here in Portland.

And I don't think that's genuine.

I don't think they are ignorant at all of the Maverick story.

They know that they are buying a man here

who spent five years of his life taking a dead baseball town

and making it into such a healthy market

that they've come back to draft it as their own.

What we're selling is the Maverick miracle.

[Woods] What Jack and Bing were able to do in the arbitration was to really show

the amazing transformation that happened in Portland.

The Mavericks are not like any other sports team.

This was an amazing thing that happened

during this magical time, from '73 to '77,

that I don't think will ever be duplicated again in any sports.

The chief arbitrator was William McAllister.

He was the chief justice of the Oregon Supreme Court.

Well, when the arbitration was over,

the panel came out and sat in front of us...

and they all had good poker faces.

And then he made his decision.

[gavel pounding]

[Judge on tape] We're back on record.

The board is now ready to announce its findings.

This board of arbitration appointed by--

[Faust] I think the PCL lawyers came in very confident.

And I think that in their position they had reason to be confident,

if you looked at the history of arbitrations in baseball.

[Judge on tape] ...the amount of just and reasonable compensation

to be paid to the Portland Mavericks

for the drafting of its territory of Portland, Oregon,

by the Pacific Coast League...

[Faust] Baseball operates under its own laws...

but Bing Russell refused to back down, period.

[Judge on tape] The arbitration panel hereby awards to the Portland Mavericks,

as just and reasonable compensation, the sum of $206,000.

And he deserved the outcome, which was...

"If you're going to come take...

if you're going to come take something that I've made worth it,

then at least you're going to pay for it."

And... and in so doing, gave others the opportunity to...

do what he had done,

create a baseball team that was independent...

giving guys the opportunity to prove that they could still play

and that they still belonged in the game

and perhaps still belonged moving up the ladder

as opposed to down the ladder.

And in the meantime...

give the people of that particular town, wherever that might be...

something to cheer about, something to...

something to call your own.

[male announcer] Well, he's a tough competitor

and you've got to admire the fact that

he went down to the minor leagues...

and at a late age said, "I'm going to make it back."

And he has.

-A swing and a miss! He struck him out! -[crowd cheering]

[Bouton] 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 womping 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.

Wherever you guys are, I love you, man,

you battered bastards of baseball.

[Peters] When you run into Mavericks now,

that's probably one of the real highlights of their lives.

Something that gave them another chance

to actually do something that they had spent all their life trying to do.

And they actually got to do it their way.

[inaudible]

It was a stroke of luck

when I... came up with the idea for shredded gum in a pouch

in the Maverick bullpen.

And we cooked the first batch of what became Big League Chew

in Todd Field's kitchen.

[Field] He shows up with a bunch of Red Man pouches...

and we redecorate them, and he's got some gum kit.

I mean, my parents thought he was crazy.

I know they thought he was nuts.

[Nelson] We couldn't believe our good luck.

The first year they sold $18 million worth of bubble gum.

And it kind of had a cult following.

Time Magazine wrote it up as

one the top new 10 products to enter the marketplace in the country.

Pretty mind-boggling. Yeah.

When I think about the Mavericks,

I don't really think much about baseball.

I think about those guys...

I think about those characters.

The fact that they... enjoyed themselves more than...

I'd ever seen any grown men enjoy themselves.

And I remember thinking...

"I hope I feel that way when I grow up."

And that... that was...

as profound a guiding light as I would ever get.

The nominees for best picture of the year which are...

Todd Field, In the Bedroom.

[Field] My coming of age was with the Mavericks.

The greatest thing that could have ever happened to me.

I mean...

When the Mavericks left Portland...

it was like the circus left town and was never coming back.

[Swannie] The Portland Mavericks to me...

[sighs]

was, uh...

I can't even finish that sentence.

I can't finish that.

There's never going to be another Portland Mavericks.

Never.

Cut.

Okay, are we done here?

It was a dream-making kind of place.

Bing was a guy who, um...

who loved baseball.

Even if you didn't like baseball at all, he could make you fall in love with it.

It was tremendous being his son, because...

I had a thousand brothers.

I had three sisters... but I had a thousand brothers.

And every one of them... they would say to me, literally,

"You have no idea what your dad meant to me.

You... you just don't know, Kurt."

I grew up thinking I was the luckiest guy in the world.

When Rob Nelson called me up and said that Bing was really ill...

and that Lou had said, you know,

"If you want to see him, you better come now."

I didn't hesitate, and I remember Rob and I...

jumped in a car and driving out there from Santa Monica

and we arrived and Bing was in... was in bed.

And got up and... and hugged both of us

and he said, [hoarsely] "My batboy... I've been watching you.

You've done me proud."

And I remember thinking... that was better than winning an Oscar.

That was like...

[Bing] I love these boys, you know,

and I like to think that the feeling is mutual.

This has been a fantastic team.

So I don't want them to play someplace else.

Portland is where we belong and Portland is what made it possible,

and so I think what I will do is go back and play with my grandchildren

and really go after show business again.

I thank all of you people

because... you've made the middle years or the latter years

or whatever it is in this guy's life, really exciting, really enjoyable.

[inaudible]

[male newscaster] Bing Russell says he only wanted to do two things in life,

play ball and act.

With the Maverick office closed now,

Russell's apartment walls tell the Maverick story.

Five years in Portland, but never a league championship.

The main Maverick thinks his ball club,

said to be the most successful independent Class A team in baseball history,

was good for Portland.

Zany and loved by its fans, it was a team

that should have been owned by a man who describes himself

as being honest and direct, with an occasional touch of bad taste.