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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.