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Downloaded from
YTS.MX

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Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

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

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than I ever did out of show business

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because when you hit that ball
and hit it right,

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

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

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

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But acting is a much more personal thing

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and baseball is
a much more involved thing.

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'Cause you've got 18 guys out here,

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

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and everything... goes crazy.

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

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It's very interesting how Bing
became interested in baseball

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because no one in his family
had played baseball.

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

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Now, the Yankees
trained in St. Petersburg,

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

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and he got one one day.

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

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One grabbed it out of his hand.

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

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Finally, Bing said,

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

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And he did and he got the ball

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

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There was another guy there
talking to his dad.

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

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get in fights for a baseball.

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

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Turned out to be Lefty Gomez.

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

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

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

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

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

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would always ruffle his hair...

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call him kid.

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And Lou Gehrig hit his last home run.

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

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That was a real treasure.

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Bing had this experience

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of being in the dugout,
riding on the bus,

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traveling with
all those wonderful Yankees players.

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

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[Kurt] My mom was pregnant

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

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

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

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

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[Louise] Bing just started out,

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

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

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[whistling tune]

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[inaudible]

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

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John Wayne, Ronald Reagan,

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Loretta Young, Yul Brynner,
Steve McQueen.

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Oh, on and on and on.

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Uh...

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He was a supporting actor.

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

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

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He went to work.
Boom, boom, boom.

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He was deputy sheriff
in Bonanza for 13 years.

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

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He did over 800 television shows.

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[gun firing]

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He was back in the day when you worked.

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See, I did 104 Bonanzas.

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

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Sometimes I did three shows a week.

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1957, '58 and '59.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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There's Trouble in River City

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

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

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I admire that.

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

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[Bing] When I was 12,

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I said that I'd be the first--

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I wanted to replace
DiMaggio in centerfield

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

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

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

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but I'm still trying!

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Bing was a student of baseball.

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He loved it.
It was always his first love.

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

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

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Our backyard was a batting cage.

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There was no furniture in the living room.

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

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

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Situations... philosophies...

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pitching to a certain batter
a certain way.

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It was extremely dense baseball.

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My dad decided
to make these instructional films.

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These were extremely detailed films.

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

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

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This was no kids' stuff.
This was stuff

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a lot of Major League ballplayers
didn't know.

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[Bing narrating] Again.

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

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

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

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

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So he had this tremendous knowledge.

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Bing was in his...

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I think, early 40s.

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Having a nice time and...

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going out back
and lounging around in the sun.

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And Kurt would see him...

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

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

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

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losing interest in things.

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He didn't seem very interested
in the movie business

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as much as he used to.

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He was having fun watching me play,

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

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

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[male newscaster] After 70 years,

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baseball in Portland
came to an end Wednesday

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when the directors of
the Pacific Coast League

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approved the transfer

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of the Portland Beavers
to Spokane, Washington.

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The owners of the Beavers

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

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

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

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

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It shocked the town.

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

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They're our team."

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Portland had been abandoned
by the Beavers

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

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

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

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because they were dying here.

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Attendance was down
and they were losing money

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and there wasn't much change in sight.

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

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

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

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

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

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No one would have been able to do it.

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

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It was open territory.

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And there were no prospects
of anybody coming here

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

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

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

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and doing something
with the Northwest League?"

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And we looked at each other and we said,

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

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and create something up there."

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When we first heard about Bing Russell,

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

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

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

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and you've seen him on Maverick."

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

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"Oh, he's coming to Portland?"

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There was nothing happening in Portland.

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Why would Bing Russell come to Portland?

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Oregon is pretty provincial.

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We don't like outsiders.

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So when this guy from Southern California
who was an actor

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

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

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some bizarre story
that was never going to work.

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

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

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Who is this guy?

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

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What was his reason for coming?

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The problem with baseball
on the minor league level

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is being connected and affiliated
to a big league team,

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

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

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You don't get to know
your first baseman,

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your catchers, your pitchers,
your outfielders.

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

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So for the town, it's disastrous.

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

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They were independent
from the Big League teams.

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They were on their own.

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The way baseball used to be structured,

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there were all kinds
of independent teams.

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00:11:26,685 --> 00:11:29,688
The team was owned by
someone of the city...

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00:11:31,273 --> 00:11:32,942
and then there were...

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00:11:33,025 --> 00:11:35,444
teams that were completely affiliated
with the Big League team

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00:11:35,527 --> 00:11:38,990
where they have anywhere from
their highest level, which is Triple A,

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00:11:39,073 --> 00:11:42,201
next Double A, next lower, A.

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00:11:42,284 --> 00:11:45,788
By the time the '70s came around,
no independent teams...

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only affiliated.

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

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is the sheriff on Bonanza,

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00:12:07,268 --> 00:12:08,853
and he's one heck of a baseball fan.

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00:12:08,936 --> 00:12:13,107
He's been in the Northwest
for the last two or three years...

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00:12:13,190 --> 00:12:17,236
on location and watching his son play ball
with Bend and Walla Walla.

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00:12:17,319 --> 00:12:18,988
So I've spent some time with Mr. Russell

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00:12:19,071 --> 00:12:22,574
organizing a baseball operation
for the city of Portland.

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00:12:22,658 --> 00:12:24,576
It will be an independent operation.

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00:12:24,660 --> 00:12:29,748
The players will be signed...
by the Portland Baseball Club,

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00:12:29,832 --> 00:12:31,042
and if they are successful,

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00:12:31,125 --> 00:12:33,544
they will be controlled by
the Portland Baseball Club.

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00:12:33,627 --> 00:12:37,965
I started with the Northwest League
in probably 1972,

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00:12:38,049 --> 00:12:40,843
and I think we charged Bing
$500 for the franchise.

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

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you were pretty much in.

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

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00:12:49,268 --> 00:12:50,978
He was telling us, in the league,

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00:12:51,062 --> 00:12:53,730
what he intended to do...
was independent baseball.

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00:12:54,982 --> 00:12:59,403
So that means Bing had to get his players
scouted, signed and pay them himself.

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00:12:59,486 --> 00:13:01,864
All the other franchises
in the league at that time

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00:13:01,948 --> 00:13:05,367
were affiliated with Major League teams
where the players were scouted, signed,

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00:13:05,451 --> 00:13:08,287
salaries paid, insurance paid
by the Major League club.

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

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00:13:10,957 --> 00:13:14,043
Bellingham will be
a farm club of the LA Dodgers,

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00:13:14,126 --> 00:13:18,214
Lewiston will be a farm club
of the world champion Oakland A's,

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00:13:18,297 --> 00:13:21,092
and Walla Walla will be
working with San Diego Padres.

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00:13:21,175 --> 00:13:22,801
So when you start an independent team,

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

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00:13:28,891 --> 00:13:32,854
I don't think that there was
any interest whatsoever

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00:13:32,937 --> 00:13:38,901
in... in an independent Class A team
when you'd just lost

238
00:13:38,985 --> 00:13:44,281
this classy Triple A
or open classification team.

239
00:13:44,365 --> 00:13:48,035
It was like you're driving a Cadillac
and all of a sudden somebody says,

240
00:13:48,119 --> 00:13:49,871
"Here, you're going to drive this Beetle."

241
00:13:49,954 --> 00:13:52,623
Prestige-wise, it was...

242
00:13:52,706 --> 00:13:54,541
it was an insult to the city.

243
00:13:57,669 --> 00:13:59,171
[Kurt] I literally drove in there
one night.

244
00:13:59,255 --> 00:14:01,757
You know, I got a key, opened the door
and went to the phonebook,

245
00:14:01,840 --> 00:14:02,841
opened the phonebook, called up,

246
00:14:02,925 --> 00:14:05,844
"Hi, my name is Kurt Russell
and I'm with the Portland Mavericks.

247
00:14:05,928 --> 00:14:08,139
We're the new baseball team here in town.
Have you heard about us?

248
00:14:08,222 --> 00:14:11,017
Well, we're a new baseball team
here in town!" [laughing]

249
00:14:11,100 --> 00:14:12,851
No, they hadn't heard about us.

250
00:14:12,935 --> 00:14:14,561
We'd just started doing this stuff, right?

251
00:14:14,645 --> 00:14:16,898
We started walking the streets
and going out

252
00:14:16,981 --> 00:14:20,067
and getting some promotions done
here and there.

253
00:14:20,151 --> 00:14:21,610
So we started from scratch.

254
00:14:21,693 --> 00:14:24,655
First time I met Bing, he walked in my bar

255
00:14:24,738 --> 00:14:27,449
and I heard this voice say,
"Howdy, gents."

256
00:14:27,533 --> 00:14:29,285
And he said "gents" in such a way,

257
00:14:29,368 --> 00:14:32,163
it was like there was
a real new sheriff in town.

258
00:14:32,246 --> 00:14:33,915
And he just lit the room up.

259
00:14:33,998 --> 00:14:36,083
And from then on, it was like...

260
00:14:36,167 --> 00:14:39,795
When Bing walked in,
everybody... paid attention.

261
00:14:39,879 --> 00:14:43,340
[Wheeler] Frank "The Flake" Peters.

262
00:14:43,424 --> 00:14:45,592
And he lived up to the nickname.

263
00:14:45,676 --> 00:14:48,804
He was a Californian
who had come up to Oregon State,

264
00:14:48,888 --> 00:14:50,639
to play baseball there, of course,

265
00:14:50,722 --> 00:14:57,063
went on to play in the Baltimore
Orioles... Triple A organization,

266
00:14:57,146 --> 00:15:00,607
and as a third baseman
playing behind Brooks Robinson,

267
00:15:00,691 --> 00:15:03,903
you didn't have much shot
going up beyond that.

268
00:15:03,986 --> 00:15:06,363
[Peters] Baltimore called me
and said that they wanted to sign me,

269
00:15:06,447 --> 00:15:09,033
and I asked them,
"Well, who is your third baseman?"

270
00:15:09,116 --> 00:15:11,868
And they said, "Well, we got a guy there.
His name is Brooks Robinson."

271
00:15:11,953 --> 00:15:15,706
And I said, "Well, doesn't sound like
a Big League name to me."

272
00:15:15,789 --> 00:15:19,460
Sixteen years later,
he was still making the All-Star team.

273
00:15:19,543 --> 00:15:21,837
So I'm still waiting for my chance.

274
00:15:21,921 --> 00:15:23,797
[male newscaster]
You never did have a Major League goal.

275
00:15:23,880 --> 00:15:26,175
At the end of your career, you didn't?

276
00:15:26,258 --> 00:15:29,470
My goal was to be something like Babe Ruth
or something like that, so...

277
00:15:29,553 --> 00:15:31,347
I said, "Okay, it doesn't look like

278
00:15:31,430 --> 00:15:35,392
I'm going to be what I originally
anticipated being in this game.

279
00:15:35,476 --> 00:15:38,395
So I'm going to enjoy it
and play it on my own terms."

280
00:15:38,479 --> 00:15:39,896
Which were, play in Portland--

281
00:15:39,981 --> 00:15:41,690
[Wheeler] So Bing finally decided to

282
00:15:41,773 --> 00:15:44,276
hire Frank Peters
as the manager of the team...

283
00:15:44,360 --> 00:15:48,864
'cause he was so well-known in this market
and he was a sports hero.

284
00:15:49,949 --> 00:15:51,492
[Peters] Money really wasn't a factor.

285
00:15:51,575 --> 00:15:54,120
Bing had his guidelines
on what he would pay.

286
00:15:54,203 --> 00:15:58,582
I think it was $500 a month
or something like that for three months.

287
00:15:58,665 --> 00:16:01,293
So it was all about
the love of the game, really.

288
00:16:01,377 --> 00:16:03,587
And so Bing and I...

289
00:16:05,131 --> 00:16:07,841
got on the same horse and off we went.

290
00:16:07,924 --> 00:16:09,343
Him in the front and me in the back.

291
00:16:10,594 --> 00:16:12,054
[male newscaster]
This is Portland, Oregon.

292
00:16:12,138 --> 00:16:14,556
Home of the Northwest League's
Portland Mavericks,

293
00:16:14,640 --> 00:16:17,559
one of the last of the independent clubs.

294
00:16:17,643 --> 00:16:19,520
Owned by an actor, Bing Russell,

295
00:16:19,603 --> 00:16:22,731
and managed by a restaurant owner
named Frank Peters,

296
00:16:22,814 --> 00:16:25,359
the club's general manager is unique, too.

297
00:16:25,442 --> 00:16:28,112
Her name is Lanny Moss.

298
00:16:28,195 --> 00:16:30,906
How does an independent club get players?

299
00:16:30,990 --> 00:16:34,035
Well, they put an ad in The Sporting News
announcing tryouts.

300
00:16:34,118 --> 00:16:35,827
[Kurt] First of all, we had to,
you know, put ballplayers together

301
00:16:35,911 --> 00:16:38,330
and Bing said, "You never know
what we're going to find.

302
00:16:38,414 --> 00:16:39,915
We're going to have open tryouts."

303
00:16:39,999 --> 00:16:42,709
You're going to get talent
out of open tryouts?

304
00:16:42,793 --> 00:16:44,420
That's a little unbelievable.

305
00:16:44,503 --> 00:16:50,009
Anybody that had any talent was going to
get drafted by a Major League team

306
00:16:50,092 --> 00:16:52,428
to play in its farm system somewhere

307
00:16:52,511 --> 00:16:55,056
and hopefully
elevate to the Major Leagues.

308
00:16:55,139 --> 00:16:57,016
It's considered laughable...

309
00:16:57,099 --> 00:17:00,602
and they went straight for the laughs,
which is just what Bing wanted.

310
00:17:00,686 --> 00:17:04,273
"Let them have their field day.
Let them chew us up.

311
00:17:04,356 --> 00:17:07,443
Let them just make...
show us for the idiots we are,

312
00:17:07,526 --> 00:17:09,695
the fools that we are
coming from Hollywood."

313
00:17:09,778 --> 00:17:12,239
My first thoughts, I don't...
I couldn't even tell you what they were.

314
00:17:12,323 --> 00:17:13,782
They're probably unprintable.

315
00:17:13,865 --> 00:17:16,118
It was like, "What is this all about?"

316
00:17:16,202 --> 00:17:18,079
It was a joke.

317
00:17:18,162 --> 00:17:21,165
And to think that it could even work
was even more of a joke.

318
00:17:21,248 --> 00:17:23,625
It was a bad joke.

319
00:17:33,719 --> 00:17:35,011
[inaudible]

320
00:17:39,350 --> 00:17:42,018
[Peters] You know, you'd expect
maybe 40 or 50 people to show up,

321
00:17:42,103 --> 00:17:43,854
and I think 300 showed up.

322
00:17:46,773 --> 00:17:49,360
Sitting in the stands,
kind of watching it, you're thinking,

323
00:17:49,443 --> 00:17:51,070
"Who are these guys
that they're getting?"

324
00:17:51,153 --> 00:17:53,572
Guys who drove clear across the country

325
00:17:53,655 --> 00:17:56,032
and, you know, sacrificed this
or sold this or whatever else

326
00:17:56,117 --> 00:17:58,410
just for the chance
to come and try out for the team.

327
00:17:58,494 --> 00:18:00,621
[Bertram] And they came...
they hitchhiked here.

328
00:18:00,704 --> 00:18:03,039
You know, they did
whatever they could to show up

329
00:18:03,124 --> 00:18:05,292
and try to hang on.

330
00:18:05,376 --> 00:18:06,543
They had a great dream.

331
00:18:06,627 --> 00:18:11,006
I think it's the American Dream, you know,
to... just to have the chance to play.

332
00:18:11,090 --> 00:18:14,635
And being a Major League baseball player
is not necessarily a worthwhile goal,

333
00:18:14,718 --> 00:18:17,763
but being a professional baseball player,
I think, is a worthwhile goal.

334
00:18:17,846 --> 00:18:19,014
[male reporter]
How long did it take you to get here?

335
00:18:19,098 --> 00:18:21,642
About four and a half days.

336
00:18:21,725 --> 00:18:24,520
I don't care about the money.
I just want to play ball.

337
00:18:24,603 --> 00:18:26,105
Baseball is my first love.

338
00:18:26,188 --> 00:18:28,982
I... I've always got that dream
that I'll make it,

339
00:18:29,065 --> 00:18:31,443
but I probably have to
tell myself I won't.

340
00:18:32,111 --> 00:18:35,156
Everybody there had been rejected.

341
00:18:35,239 --> 00:18:39,160
I personally... My career had ended
and I felt I'd been rejected.

342
00:18:40,202 --> 00:18:42,746
All of the players
had felt they'd been rejected,

343
00:18:42,829 --> 00:18:46,833
and maybe even Bing in Hollywood
had felt he'd been rejected.

344
00:18:46,917 --> 00:18:51,130
[Bing] As far as those of you
who don't make it, which is the bulk,

345
00:18:51,213 --> 00:18:53,757
that's the way the pickle squirts,
but a lot of you...

346
00:18:53,840 --> 00:18:56,593
We got one boy from Tennessee,
a couple from New York and whatnot.

347
00:18:56,677 --> 00:18:57,761
You've had a hell of a trip.

348
00:18:57,844 --> 00:18:59,180
The press should
get a hold of some of you.

349
00:18:59,263 --> 00:19:00,931
One guy lost his glove and his spikes.

350
00:19:01,014 --> 00:19:04,893
Another guy lost his checks
in Lincoln, Nebraska,

351
00:19:04,976 --> 00:19:06,937
and somehow or other labored in here.

352
00:19:07,020 --> 00:19:08,689
This is Frank Peters, our manager.

353
00:19:08,772 --> 00:19:12,484
He's the boss
and he'll run these tryouts.

354
00:19:12,568 --> 00:19:15,612
[Peters] It became apparent that Bing
was putting all these parts together.

355
00:19:15,696 --> 00:19:19,366
So Bing was literally... casting a play,

356
00:19:19,450 --> 00:19:22,203
and everybody had a part
or a role to play,

357
00:19:22,286 --> 00:19:24,788
and the neat thing about it
was that you felt...

358
00:19:26,207 --> 00:19:29,042
you knew what your role was
and you knew how you fit in.

359
00:19:31,420 --> 00:19:33,589
[Rob Nelson]
I first heard about the Mavericks

360
00:19:33,672 --> 00:19:37,551
having breakfast at the Carnaby Hotel
in Three Anchor Bay

361
00:19:37,634 --> 00:19:39,178
...at the very bottom of Cape Town.

362
00:19:42,973 --> 00:19:45,351
My dad had sent me
a packet of news clippings

363
00:19:45,434 --> 00:19:50,439
and The Sporting News had a story
of... independent baseball in Portland.

364
00:19:50,522 --> 00:19:53,942
And I said, "I think I'm going to go back
and do some substitute teaching,

365
00:19:54,025 --> 00:19:57,196
make a few dollars and go to Oregon,

366
00:19:57,279 --> 00:20:02,284
and see if I could play baseball out there
with this independent team."

367
00:20:02,368 --> 00:20:03,994
What are you looking for in these guys?

368
00:20:04,077 --> 00:20:05,954
I'm looking for someone
that can play for the Mavs

369
00:20:06,037 --> 00:20:08,123
and not necessarily a Big Leaguer and...

370
00:20:08,207 --> 00:20:10,667
What we are looking for is the ballplayer

371
00:20:10,751 --> 00:20:14,421
that... that organizations
for whatever reason that they...

372
00:20:14,505 --> 00:20:16,882
whatever they chose, do not think
can play in the big leagues.

373
00:20:16,965 --> 00:20:21,094
These are the guys that... wish they could
and haven't been able to.

374
00:20:24,473 --> 00:20:27,809
Out of college, I went straight home.
I didn't get drafted.

375
00:20:27,893 --> 00:20:30,103
I can't believe they didn't want
a left-handed catcher.

376
00:20:30,186 --> 00:20:31,938
It makes no sense to me.

377
00:20:32,022 --> 00:20:34,900
And my dad says there's tryouts down
in Portland for this Portland Mavericks.

378
00:20:34,983 --> 00:20:36,151
I go, "What's that mean, Dad?"

379
00:20:36,235 --> 00:20:37,444
He goes, "You go try out for the team."

380
00:20:37,528 --> 00:20:40,697
So I went down there and tried out
and there was, like, 500 people there,

381
00:20:40,781 --> 00:20:43,534
and I went back there and caught
and I was throwing some people out

382
00:20:43,617 --> 00:20:45,201
and Bing calls...
you know, comes up to me.

383
00:20:45,286 --> 00:20:47,162
He goes, "Do you know
you're left-handed?"

384
00:20:49,540 --> 00:20:52,125
I feel like I am the first
and only left-handed catcher

385
00:20:52,208 --> 00:20:54,210
to ever sign a professional contract,

386
00:20:54,295 --> 00:20:56,755
so I think that my glove
should be in the Hall of Fame.

387
00:20:56,838 --> 00:20:58,882
Not me, my glove.

388
00:21:02,803 --> 00:21:05,096
When I decided to try out
for the Mavericks,

389
00:21:05,180 --> 00:21:08,892
I was 33 years old,
I was a high school English teacher,

390
00:21:08,975 --> 00:21:14,315
and I had played in one Major League
game and that was the end of my career.

391
00:21:14,398 --> 00:21:17,233
And so I just thought that playing
for the Mavericks

392
00:21:17,318 --> 00:21:20,529
would be a better alternative
to painting fucking houses.

393
00:21:23,949 --> 00:21:26,201
When I showed up,
I looked like Charlie Manson.

394
00:21:26,285 --> 00:21:28,995
Or as my mother called 'em,
the "Lost Years".

395
00:21:29,079 --> 00:21:33,417
It was clearly the only team in America

396
00:21:33,500 --> 00:21:35,919
that would have let me even try out.

397
00:21:37,838 --> 00:21:39,798
As a kid, Bing was bigger than life.

398
00:21:39,881 --> 00:21:42,801
He had this idea of... of...

399
00:21:42,884 --> 00:21:45,011
putting together this instructional tape.

400
00:21:45,095 --> 00:21:48,474
I was 10, 11 years old
and was hanging around

401
00:21:48,557 --> 00:21:51,518
the field and he saw me
over by the fence looking through,

402
00:21:51,602 --> 00:21:54,187
and he said,
"Ah, get in here to do something."

403
00:21:54,270 --> 00:21:56,315
[Bing] Eleven-year-old Jon Yoshiwara,

404
00:21:56,398 --> 00:21:59,067
tomorrow's pitcher
at the local little league park.

405
00:21:59,150 --> 00:22:01,445
On the big club,
he's known as the pigtail.

406
00:22:01,528 --> 00:22:04,698
He shags, picks up
and tries his level best

407
00:22:04,781 --> 00:22:09,077
to learn all he can about his first love,
baseball.

408
00:22:09,160 --> 00:22:11,580
[Yoshiwara]
Bing, I think, followed me from afar

409
00:22:11,663 --> 00:22:13,248
and he liked the way I played.

410
00:22:13,332 --> 00:22:15,208
I was never drafted.

411
00:22:15,291 --> 00:22:18,420
In the back of my mind, Bing had
always said, "If it doesn't work out,

412
00:22:18,504 --> 00:22:20,922
come up to Portland and try out."

413
00:22:22,674 --> 00:22:27,554
I was 11, and I showed up to
the tryouts... just like everybody else.

414
00:22:27,638 --> 00:22:30,516
And I didn't show up to try out.
I showed up to try out as a batboy.

415
00:22:30,599 --> 00:22:34,102
And I remember
talking to Rob and saying...

416
00:22:34,185 --> 00:22:35,562
"I got to be the batboy.

417
00:22:35,646 --> 00:22:38,106
I mean... I got to be the batboy."

418
00:22:38,189 --> 00:22:40,191
And I remember Rob just saying...

419
00:22:41,610 --> 00:22:45,739
"Just hustle so much to where
they can't not give it to you."

420
00:22:45,822 --> 00:22:49,367
I was insane. I'd line up the bats.
I'd scrub everything down.

421
00:22:49,451 --> 00:22:50,827
I mean, I was just like...
I was always in motion.

422
00:22:50,911 --> 00:22:52,245
I never stopped moving.

423
00:22:52,328 --> 00:22:53,664
And I remember, finally,

424
00:22:53,747 --> 00:22:56,124
I heard this whistle
and I looked up in the stands

425
00:22:56,207 --> 00:22:59,210
and it was Bing and he said,
"Hey, kid, come up here."

426
00:22:59,294 --> 00:23:04,090
And I came and sat down and he said...
he said, "I wish I had 10 more of you."

427
00:23:04,174 --> 00:23:06,760
And that was it,
then I was the batboy.

428
00:23:08,303 --> 00:23:13,141
[Kurt] He was the most fair and talented

429
00:23:13,224 --> 00:23:15,894
observer of a player

430
00:23:15,977 --> 00:23:17,395
that not only I ever saw,

431
00:23:17,479 --> 00:23:20,524
but many, many people who knew him...
all said about Bing.

432
00:23:20,607 --> 00:23:24,027
This guy can read a ballplayer
as good as anybody.

433
00:23:24,110 --> 00:23:25,987
He just had this ability.

434
00:23:26,071 --> 00:23:32,285
So he was in a perfect position
to sort of take this... club

435
00:23:32,368 --> 00:23:35,497
and have the best chance
to succeed with it.

436
00:23:35,581 --> 00:23:36,915
Well, it's exciting, of course,

437
00:23:36,998 --> 00:23:38,542
to look at the season
just around the corner,

438
00:23:38,625 --> 00:23:41,336
but so far it looks very good.
We haven't lost one yet.

439
00:23:41,419 --> 00:23:43,213
We've got 84 to play, and at this point,

440
00:23:43,296 --> 00:23:44,506
we've still got a chance
to win all of them.

441
00:23:44,590 --> 00:23:45,591
I'm really excited.

442
00:23:45,674 --> 00:23:48,552
It's just a great-looking bunch
of young men.

443
00:23:51,722 --> 00:23:53,640
I think the big difference between
the Portland Mavericks,

444
00:23:53,724 --> 00:23:55,684
as an independent team,

445
00:23:55,767 --> 00:23:58,479
versus the affiliated teams
that we played...

446
00:23:58,562 --> 00:24:00,481
One was to have fun.

447
00:24:00,564 --> 00:24:02,107
We really emphasized fun.

448
00:24:02,190 --> 00:24:04,610
I mean, we could play
fundamental baseball,

449
00:24:04,693 --> 00:24:09,573
but you had to really step back
and just savor the moment

450
00:24:09,656 --> 00:24:12,576
because we had guys who were in their 30s

451
00:24:12,659 --> 00:24:15,161
who were still trying to
play Single A baseball.

452
00:24:15,245 --> 00:24:19,958
The Eugene Emeralds,
a Cincinnati Reds affiliate,

453
00:24:20,041 --> 00:24:23,545
everybody's pants were the same length,
the stirrups were this...

454
00:24:23,629 --> 00:24:26,214
the shaving, the haircuts.

455
00:24:26,297 --> 00:24:28,174
It was much more regimented.

456
00:24:28,258 --> 00:24:30,802
The organizations wanted to
kind of set the tone.

457
00:24:30,886 --> 00:24:33,263
Most of the Mavericks
had a little bit of a paunch.

458
00:24:33,346 --> 00:24:35,599
They led the league in stubble.

459
00:24:36,933 --> 00:24:39,936
And a lot of guys had... literally had
toes coming through their spikes.

460
00:24:40,020 --> 00:24:43,064
So they were stunned,
"What kind of team is this?"

461
00:24:43,148 --> 00:24:45,609
It's certainly not
what they were a part of.

462
00:24:46,860 --> 00:24:49,905
There was no press handlers.

463
00:24:49,988 --> 00:24:51,948
There was no groomed image.

464
00:24:53,033 --> 00:24:57,788
There were just these furry, hairy, funny,
fucking great bunch of guys.

465
00:24:57,871 --> 00:24:59,665
The perception of
the Major League people was,

466
00:24:59,748 --> 00:25:01,416
"We'll put up with those guys
and play them,

467
00:25:01,499 --> 00:25:03,293
but no more than we have to."

468
00:25:03,376 --> 00:25:04,460
A little bit of arrogance there,

469
00:25:04,545 --> 00:25:07,255
thinking, "These guys
aren't gonna be as good as us,

470
00:25:07,338 --> 00:25:09,465
but at least they'll provide
an opponent for the evening."

471
00:25:09,550 --> 00:25:12,135
[Yoshiwara] It was more of a joke
than anything.

472
00:25:12,218 --> 00:25:15,388
And the curiosity to see
how long this would last.

473
00:25:23,980 --> 00:25:27,693
Now it's...
We're coming down to the first game

474
00:25:27,776 --> 00:25:29,653
and it really is, "The rubber
is going to hit the road tonight

475
00:25:29,736 --> 00:25:31,071
and we are going to go out there
and who knows,

476
00:25:31,154 --> 00:25:33,949
maybe we'll get beat 20 to nothing
and the nightmare is on."

477
00:25:34,032 --> 00:25:36,242
You know, who knows?
[stammers] We don't know for sure.

478
00:25:36,326 --> 00:25:39,079
We think we've got
some competitive ballplayers.

479
00:25:40,496 --> 00:25:43,416
And the first inning and the second inning
and we're leading the game.

480
00:25:43,499 --> 00:25:45,877
And pretty soon, it's now in the--
We realize...

481
00:25:48,254 --> 00:25:52,133
"We're ahead, yeah,
but has the other team got any hits?"

482
00:25:52,217 --> 00:25:53,635
And the last out is recorded

483
00:25:53,719 --> 00:25:54,928
and the first game
of the Portland Mavericks,

484
00:25:55,011 --> 00:25:56,847
thrown by Gene Lanthorn,
was a no-hitter.

485
00:25:57,973 --> 00:25:59,641
And we looked at each other and we said,

486
00:25:59,725 --> 00:26:03,353
"This is going to be magic.
This is going to be magic."

487
00:27:12,005 --> 00:27:13,882
[Bertram] They didn't have anybody
that was going to hit home runs.

488
00:27:13,965 --> 00:27:17,052
They didn't have anybody that was
going to be the big power pitchers.

489
00:27:17,135 --> 00:27:19,470
They built this thing around speed.

490
00:27:19,554 --> 00:27:22,182
They stole bases and stole bases,
took chances.

491
00:27:22,265 --> 00:27:24,392
They were reckless
and it usually paid off.

492
00:27:24,475 --> 00:27:27,062
And they built this thing
around this Reggie Thomas

493
00:27:27,145 --> 00:27:31,066
who had a gift, not only of speed,
but he had flair.

494
00:27:31,149 --> 00:27:32,859
[Peters] He was our star...

495
00:27:32,943 --> 00:27:35,987
and if you have a star,
then you can do other things.

496
00:27:36,071 --> 00:27:37,906
But you better have a star
and he was our star.

497
00:27:37,989 --> 00:27:39,574
But he knew it. [chuckles]

498
00:27:39,657 --> 00:27:42,660
And it's nice if the star
knows he's the star.

499
00:27:42,744 --> 00:27:44,830
[Field] Reggie lived at the Mallory Hotel

500
00:27:44,913 --> 00:27:50,376
which is, like, literally,
one block from Civic Stadium.

501
00:27:50,460 --> 00:27:54,505
And before every single game,
a car came down the back ramp,

502
00:27:54,589 --> 00:27:57,092
and as that car came down the ramp
to go underneath,

503
00:27:57,175 --> 00:28:02,180
our announcer would yell,
[hoarsely] "Here comes Reggie!"

504
00:28:02,263 --> 00:28:04,224
And people went nuts.

505
00:28:04,307 --> 00:28:06,935
And people, rightly so, asked Bing,

506
00:28:07,018 --> 00:28:09,229
"Why the fuck
do you get a car for Reggie?

507
00:28:09,312 --> 00:28:11,064
He lives a block away!"

508
00:28:11,147 --> 00:28:14,818
And he said,
"Because Reggie needs that."

509
00:28:44,931 --> 00:28:47,392
We just never gave up
and we were relentless.

510
00:28:47,475 --> 00:28:50,896
I didn't have any signs, and if you
stole bases, then steal a base,

511
00:28:50,979 --> 00:28:53,940
and if you want to hit home runs,
hit home runs.

512
00:28:54,024 --> 00:28:59,738
So there wasn't anything restricting them
from... giving it one last go.

513
00:29:24,637 --> 00:29:26,639
They may be the best ball club
at this level

514
00:29:26,722 --> 00:29:28,850
than any ball club I've ever played on.

515
00:29:28,934 --> 00:29:31,644
So if they continue with
the way they're playing,

516
00:29:31,727 --> 00:29:32,728
we should dominate the league.

517
00:29:32,813 --> 00:29:34,898
We have a darn good ball club.

518
00:29:34,981 --> 00:29:36,524
No weaknesses at all?

519
00:29:36,607 --> 00:29:38,401
Unless it's in the management.

520
00:29:39,485 --> 00:29:42,572
We knew we were, basically, all--
Better than most of these people.

521
00:29:43,281 --> 00:29:45,325
We played against
all these franchise teams.

522
00:29:45,408 --> 00:29:47,618
We played against
Ozzie Smith, Dave Henderson.

523
00:29:47,702 --> 00:29:52,833
Dave Stewart was with the Dodgers.
Mike Scioscia was a young catcher.

524
00:29:52,916 --> 00:29:54,375
[Swannie] We kicked the shit out of them.

525
00:29:54,459 --> 00:29:57,212
[Yoshiwara] We were beating the pants off
of the organizations.

526
00:29:57,295 --> 00:29:58,671
It was a continual headache because

527
00:29:58,754 --> 00:30:01,341
those guys were out to prove a point.

528
00:30:01,424 --> 00:30:02,843
One of the points they wanted to prove

529
00:30:02,926 --> 00:30:05,053
was that they could beat
organized baseball franchises.

530
00:30:05,136 --> 00:30:06,346
They didn't want to play us.

531
00:30:06,429 --> 00:30:09,682
You know, 'cause independent
beating these... big bonus-babies.

532
00:30:09,765 --> 00:30:11,059
[Larry] I think they were embarrassed.

533
00:30:11,142 --> 00:30:13,728
"Now we have a bunch of ragamuffins
beating the shit out of us."

534
00:30:13,812 --> 00:30:17,398
Exactly. That's the way I like it.
Hit and run. Run the bases.

535
00:30:17,482 --> 00:30:18,733
Everything we can do to win.

536
00:30:18,817 --> 00:30:22,570
Now last night, of course, the Mavericks
just ripped the Mariners very badly.

537
00:30:22,653 --> 00:30:25,656
The Mavericks are hungry and they're mad
and we want to win.

538
00:30:25,740 --> 00:30:27,533
That's what's going to be on my mind.

539
00:30:27,617 --> 00:30:28,618
It wasn't good.

540
00:30:28,701 --> 00:30:31,454
I got a lot of flak...

541
00:30:31,537 --> 00:30:33,164
from Major League farm directors

542
00:30:33,248 --> 00:30:35,666
because independent baseball
was going to make them look bad

543
00:30:35,750 --> 00:30:38,461
for players they didn't sign
or did sign that they released,

544
00:30:38,544 --> 00:30:42,007
and the fact that they would
show up their own teams.

545
00:30:42,090 --> 00:30:44,800
They found out
that they are not infallible

546
00:30:44,885 --> 00:30:46,636
as far as being able to judge talent.

547
00:31:06,865 --> 00:31:08,158
It's kind of a miracle

548
00:31:08,241 --> 00:31:11,744
that Bing was able to put together
any kind of team at all.

549
00:31:11,827 --> 00:31:16,041
I mean, the fact that
that team was able to perform

550
00:31:16,124 --> 00:31:18,001
playing against all these...

551
00:31:18,084 --> 00:31:20,420
huge bonus-babies
for Major League teams,

552
00:31:20,503 --> 00:31:24,007
and really had no business beating them,
beat them anyway,

553
00:31:24,090 --> 00:31:27,218
is fucking extraordinary.

554
00:31:27,302 --> 00:31:30,096
[male newscaster] The Portland Mavericks'
success story with independent baseball

555
00:31:30,180 --> 00:31:32,140
was recognized nationally Monday,

556
00:31:32,223 --> 00:31:35,310
when Sporting News named
Maverick owner Bing Russell

557
00:31:35,393 --> 00:31:38,980
the Class A executive of the year
for 1974.

558
00:31:39,064 --> 00:31:41,857
The weekly paper,
considered the baseball Bible,

559
00:31:41,942 --> 00:31:44,485
said Russell's selection was unanimous.

560
00:31:44,569 --> 00:31:48,739
The award will be presented to Russell
by Yankee Hall of Famer Lefty Gomez.

561
00:31:53,578 --> 00:31:57,790
The award is a very cherished award
in the world of baseball.

562
00:31:57,873 --> 00:32:01,877
To win that award
as the only independent operator...

563
00:32:03,629 --> 00:32:05,298
was just amazing.

564
00:32:05,381 --> 00:32:06,841
They would have baseball meetings,

565
00:32:06,925 --> 00:32:08,468
and this is where
these awards would be presented.

566
00:32:08,551 --> 00:32:10,428
And Bing would go
representing the Mavericks

567
00:32:10,511 --> 00:32:12,263
where everybody else was representing

568
00:32:12,347 --> 00:32:14,432
a Major League team
or their affiliates.

569
00:32:14,515 --> 00:32:16,809
He was by himself.

570
00:32:16,892 --> 00:32:20,230
It would be like winning an Oscar
by doing an independent film.

571
00:32:20,313 --> 00:32:24,025
You were with all the famous stars
and you win the Oscar.

572
00:32:25,526 --> 00:32:29,280
"Here I am with
all these people that run the show

573
00:32:29,364 --> 00:32:30,365
and I won.

574
00:32:31,532 --> 00:32:33,659
-Well, take that."
-Yep.

575
00:32:33,743 --> 00:32:36,287
The summer of 1973
was the happiest summer of my life

576
00:32:36,371 --> 00:32:37,538
in this great stadium.

577
00:32:37,622 --> 00:32:38,706
Lefty Gomez was here.

578
00:32:38,789 --> 00:32:41,042
He said, "I haven't seen
anything like it since 1929."

579
00:32:41,126 --> 00:32:42,710
It was an exciting, exciting year.

580
00:32:42,793 --> 00:32:45,713
And this is just the greatest
baseball city in the world...

581
00:32:45,796 --> 00:32:48,341
if it's not
the greatest city in the world.

582
00:33:06,734 --> 00:33:09,112
[NBC newscaster] The following
NBC Sports program

583
00:33:09,195 --> 00:33:11,031
is brought to you in living color.

584
00:33:13,033 --> 00:33:14,367
[program theme music playing]

585
00:33:21,499 --> 00:33:25,295
Joe Garagiola
was a sportscaster for NBC Sports.

586
00:33:25,378 --> 00:33:27,130
You know, he played professional baseball.

587
00:33:27,213 --> 00:33:28,464
He's an icon.
Everybody knew who he was.

588
00:33:28,548 --> 00:33:32,427
When Joe Garagiola came to town,
he put us on the national map.

589
00:33:32,510 --> 00:33:34,220
It was a national special.
And before that,

590
00:33:34,304 --> 00:33:36,472
everybody in the Northwest
knew about us

591
00:33:36,556 --> 00:33:39,809
but when he did this special,
everybody in the country knew about us.

592
00:33:39,892 --> 00:33:42,103
Bing, if I had to call Central Casting

593
00:33:42,187 --> 00:33:45,023
and get the perfect character
to own this ball club,

594
00:33:45,106 --> 00:33:46,357
you would be the one.

595
00:33:46,441 --> 00:33:50,570
Quickly, give me the yellow page
reading of your background.

596
00:33:50,653 --> 00:33:53,073
Well... it's been my game
since I was nine.

597
00:33:53,156 --> 00:33:54,990
Lefty Gomez picked me up as a youngster

598
00:33:55,075 --> 00:33:57,118
and I was the peanut smuggler
for the Yankees

599
00:33:57,202 --> 00:33:59,995
back from 1936 through '41,

600
00:34:00,080 --> 00:34:02,790
and five of those years,
we were champions of the world.

601
00:34:02,873 --> 00:34:05,085
And... then I later played ball myself.

602
00:34:05,168 --> 00:34:07,295
Played a little at Dartmouth
and played pro ball.

603
00:34:07,378 --> 00:34:10,506
I played Clem for 13-and-a-half years
on Bonanza and never solved a case.

604
00:34:10,590 --> 00:34:13,008
Sports fans loved that show.

605
00:34:13,093 --> 00:34:16,846
He came out here
and gave credibility to it.

606
00:34:16,929 --> 00:34:18,639
[Garagiola] They got a fan club for you,
haven't they?

607
00:34:18,723 --> 00:34:20,433
Yeah, I'm the one with the fan club.

608
00:34:20,516 --> 00:34:23,018
I played in all the games
and then I got released,

609
00:34:23,103 --> 00:34:24,187
but I stuck around.

610
00:34:24,270 --> 00:34:25,271
I didn't go home

611
00:34:25,355 --> 00:34:28,023
and I told them I was gonna stay
until I could get back on the club.

612
00:34:28,108 --> 00:34:30,776
I guess the fans
sort of identified with that.

613
00:34:30,860 --> 00:34:32,570
But if you get released here--

614
00:34:32,653 --> 00:34:35,448
-I know, that's the bottom of the barrel.
-Yeah.

615
00:34:35,531 --> 00:34:38,618
He had so much... footage

616
00:34:38,701 --> 00:34:42,122
that they had to do two shows...
which he had never done before...

617
00:34:42,205 --> 00:34:43,998
and he was only here for... a day.

618
00:34:44,082 --> 00:34:48,961
What do I do if I want to come in
and try to join the Portland Mavericks?

619
00:34:49,044 --> 00:34:50,296
You fill out a card.

620
00:34:50,380 --> 00:34:52,507
-I fill out a card. Like this?
-Like this.

621
00:34:52,590 --> 00:34:56,136
Press coverage of the Mavericks
was phenomenal.

622
00:34:56,219 --> 00:35:00,556
There were articles
in Sports Illustrated...

623
00:35:00,640 --> 00:35:04,310
and there was a huge article
in The New Yorker.

624
00:35:08,189 --> 00:35:11,192
They don't even have room
to cover the Major Leagues in full

625
00:35:11,276 --> 00:35:14,820
and they give up space
to cover a Single A team?

626
00:35:15,988 --> 00:35:18,283
[Yoshiwara] The reason we were getting
national exposure

627
00:35:18,366 --> 00:35:21,619
was because
we were doing things different.

628
00:35:21,702 --> 00:35:25,998
I don't think we thought of ourselves
as celebrities...

629
00:35:26,081 --> 00:35:28,083
we were ballplayers.

630
00:35:28,168 --> 00:35:32,213
I'm amazed that anyone came up
and wanted my autograph.

631
00:35:33,923 --> 00:35:35,841
[Bertram] There were so many things
going on.

632
00:35:35,925 --> 00:35:38,010
It was so much fun.
It was so different.

633
00:35:38,093 --> 00:35:39,720
And we just happened to be
fortunate enough

634
00:35:39,804 --> 00:35:41,472
to have to write about it every day.

635
00:35:41,556 --> 00:35:42,973
That was good publicity for the league,

636
00:35:43,057 --> 00:35:45,851
and Bing got more than his share,
I'll tell you.

637
00:35:45,935 --> 00:35:48,729
It was great for the league
and great for the game.

638
00:35:56,904 --> 00:35:59,824
[phone ringing]

639
00:35:59,907 --> 00:36:03,411
Jim Bouton, as you probably know, is
the former Major League baseball pitcher

640
00:36:03,494 --> 00:36:06,831
who wrote the controversial
best-selling book Ball Four.

641
00:36:06,914 --> 00:36:09,584
And this spring, after seven years...
after retiring from baseball,

642
00:36:09,667 --> 00:36:10,835
he decided to make a comeback.

643
00:36:10,918 --> 00:36:13,546
He is now the ace pitcher
for the Portland Mavericks

644
00:36:13,629 --> 00:36:15,298
of the Class A Northwest League.

645
00:36:15,381 --> 00:36:16,757
Would you welcome Jim Bouton?

646
00:36:16,841 --> 00:36:17,925
[applause]

647
00:36:18,926 --> 00:36:21,512
[Nelson] Having grown up on Long Island
in the middle '60s,

648
00:36:21,596 --> 00:36:25,433
I remembered high school teammates
wanted to be Jim Bouton.

649
00:36:25,516 --> 00:36:29,479
He had this overhand motion
where his hat fell off after each pitch

650
00:36:29,562 --> 00:36:30,813
and part of his follow-through was

651
00:36:30,896 --> 00:36:34,317
he would go down
and pick up his hat on his way back up.

652
00:36:34,400 --> 00:36:35,985
Jim Bouton was a big deal...

653
00:36:36,068 --> 00:36:39,614
and a very good pitcher
with the Yankees during...

654
00:36:39,697 --> 00:36:40,781
kind of the end of their heyday

655
00:36:40,865 --> 00:36:43,784
with Roger Maris
and Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra,

656
00:36:43,868 --> 00:36:48,373
and then to have made the All-Star team,
and then pitch in the World Series...

657
00:36:48,456 --> 00:36:51,000
Jim could play.
He... he was the man.

658
00:36:52,502 --> 00:36:54,212
He wrote the first exposé

659
00:36:54,295 --> 00:36:58,633
on what was going on
behind the scenes in baseball

660
00:36:58,716 --> 00:37:01,802
after he'd been a World Series hero
for the Yankees...

661
00:37:01,886 --> 00:37:06,599
and baseball just turned its back on him
because he had broken all the taboos.

662
00:37:06,682 --> 00:37:08,393
Yeah, well,
you said quite a few things now

663
00:37:08,476 --> 00:37:10,019
when you wrote your book Ball Four,

664
00:37:10,102 --> 00:37:13,231
which created a little furor
among ballplayers.

665
00:37:13,314 --> 00:37:16,692
Ball Four scared the shit
out of people... you know...

666
00:37:16,776 --> 00:37:21,822
and the behavior that he was describing,
the outlandish behavior that he describes

667
00:37:21,906 --> 00:37:23,866
on some of those road trips
in the back of the bus,

668
00:37:23,949 --> 00:37:25,868
you know,
guys kissing each other and stuff...

669
00:37:25,951 --> 00:37:27,119
you know,
that really freaked people out.

670
00:37:27,202 --> 00:37:30,498
People taking greenies and all that...

671
00:37:30,581 --> 00:37:35,253
I mean... that's nothing compared to
what happened with the Mavericks. [laughs]

672
00:37:35,336 --> 00:37:36,796
The establishment in baseball

673
00:37:36,879 --> 00:37:40,132
were appalled that
somebody kind of broke the veil.

674
00:37:41,301 --> 00:37:43,093
They were not pleased.

675
00:37:43,177 --> 00:37:46,096
[Wheeler] Jim Bouton was blackballed
by all of baseball

676
00:37:46,180 --> 00:37:49,350
except... the Mavericks.

677
00:37:49,434 --> 00:37:52,520
This is probably the only place
he could have made a comeback.

678
00:37:52,603 --> 00:37:56,190
Jim came out and...
he fit right in with the team.

679
00:38:17,295 --> 00:38:19,004
Los Angeles Times said that
somebody it was quoting,

680
00:38:19,088 --> 00:38:20,798
the owner of your team,
I guess, saying that,

681
00:38:20,881 --> 00:38:23,258
"He's just a boy.
He'll always be a boy."

682
00:38:23,343 --> 00:38:25,595
What did he mean?
That you're always gonna be childlike?

683
00:38:25,678 --> 00:38:26,679
-Or what?
-Well, I don't know.

684
00:38:26,762 --> 00:38:29,098
I guess...
I guess 'cause I want to play baseball.

685
00:38:29,181 --> 00:38:31,476
For a guy to go from Yankee pinstripes,

686
00:38:31,559 --> 00:38:36,689
you know, Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth,
Whitey Ford... you know, Lefty Gomez,

687
00:38:36,772 --> 00:38:39,817
all these famous New York Yankees...

688
00:38:39,900 --> 00:38:44,322
to... the carnival that Bing created...

689
00:38:45,490 --> 00:38:48,242
was just... it was just...
it's such a great story.

690
00:38:48,326 --> 00:38:50,077
[Bouton] I like Portland very much.

691
00:38:50,160 --> 00:38:52,372
I like Bing Russell.
I like the fans here.

692
00:38:52,455 --> 00:38:54,957
So I'm just really looking forward
to coming back.

693
00:38:55,040 --> 00:38:56,834
[male reporter] Kind of a nutty
ball club anyhow, isn't it?

694
00:38:56,917 --> 00:38:59,504
[Bouton] It's got character to it.

695
00:38:59,587 --> 00:39:00,963
It certainly isn't close to my home

696
00:39:01,046 --> 00:39:03,508
and it certainly doesn't
pay me much money.

697
00:39:03,591 --> 00:39:05,385
I really... I like the competition,

698
00:39:05,468 --> 00:39:09,389
and I like waking up in the morning
and thinking that today could be the day

699
00:39:09,472 --> 00:39:13,601
that I put it all together...
and go to the big leagues.

700
00:39:13,684 --> 00:39:14,894
[Johnny Carson]
You said you're, what, 37 now?

701
00:39:14,977 --> 00:39:15,978
-[Bouton] Thirty-eight.
-Thirty-eight.

702
00:39:16,061 --> 00:39:18,230
Now how about the other players?
How do they relate do you?

703
00:39:18,313 --> 00:39:20,483
Because, you don't...
first of all, you don't look 38.

704
00:39:20,566 --> 00:39:22,151
[Bouton] Actually,
I fit in better with these kids

705
00:39:22,234 --> 00:39:25,029
than I did 15 years ago
when I came up with the Yankees.

706
00:39:25,112 --> 00:39:27,657
When I first came up in 1962,

707
00:39:27,740 --> 00:39:31,326
if you were an outspoken person
or had opinions...

708
00:39:31,411 --> 00:39:33,538
you were really
the oddball in the clubhouse.

709
00:39:33,621 --> 00:39:35,039
In the Major Leagues,
it's a little different

710
00:39:35,122 --> 00:39:37,792
than when you're pitching
for the Portland Mavericks, right?

711
00:39:37,875 --> 00:39:39,627
I assume it's not
too financially rewarding.

712
00:39:39,710 --> 00:39:40,711
No.

713
00:39:40,795 --> 00:39:46,341
Listen, I'm here for the $371.75
because, to me, that's a month's salary.

714
00:39:46,426 --> 00:39:47,677
Is that... Is that what you...

715
00:39:47,760 --> 00:39:51,305
Yeah, $400 a month is what we make...
the Portland Mavericks make that.

716
00:39:52,306 --> 00:39:55,893
At the end of The Tonight Show,
Jim... was talking and he said,

717
00:39:55,976 --> 00:39:57,520
"Wait, wait, wait, Johnny.
One minute."

718
00:39:57,603 --> 00:39:58,896
How much time do we have?

719
00:39:58,979 --> 00:40:00,440
Just about... about half a...
half a minute.

720
00:40:00,523 --> 00:40:02,900
"I just got to...
I just got to say one thing.

721
00:40:02,983 --> 00:40:05,027
I just want to thank all... all the guys

722
00:40:05,110 --> 00:40:07,447
that are backing me up
in the Portland Mavericks."

723
00:40:07,530 --> 00:40:10,783
Okay, 'cause my teammates told me
that if I read their names on television

724
00:40:10,866 --> 00:40:13,243
that my defense might be better
behind me when I pitch.

725
00:40:13,327 --> 00:40:16,747
And he pulled out a list
and he read every single fucking name.

726
00:40:16,831 --> 00:40:18,583
Do it quick.
See how fast you can do this.

727
00:40:18,666 --> 00:40:21,961
"Jim Swanson, Bob Foster, Cliff Holland,
'Cut' Collette, Joe Garza, Bill Martinez,

728
00:40:22,044 --> 00:40:25,380
'Doc' Wilbert, Jon Yoshiwara, Ed Gilliam,
Terry Lee, 'Silky' Cervantes,

729
00:40:25,465 --> 00:40:26,882
Dan Parma, 'Corky' Corcoran
and Buster Atteberg."

730
00:40:26,966 --> 00:40:29,635
-Evelyn Wood can do this for you, too.
-[audience cheering]

731
00:40:29,719 --> 00:40:32,597
Tomorrow night, Orson Bean,
Andy Kaufman, Eugene Fodor,

732
00:40:32,680 --> 00:40:35,516
and Joan Embery for San Diego Zoo.

733
00:40:35,600 --> 00:40:38,686
In hindsight, I understand it.
In hindsight, I understand,

734
00:40:38,769 --> 00:40:42,607
"Okay, Bing Russell...
knew what he was doing.

735
00:40:42,690 --> 00:40:45,526
Bing Russell was a master showman."

736
00:40:45,610 --> 00:40:47,152
I mean, it was beyond baseball.

737
00:40:47,236 --> 00:40:48,738
It was almost like

738
00:40:48,821 --> 00:40:51,741
you had this mad chemist
in this laboratory...

739
00:40:51,824 --> 00:40:54,577
and it was a big experiment
as to what was going to happen.

740
00:40:54,660 --> 00:40:56,245
And some things would blow up in his face,

741
00:40:56,328 --> 00:40:57,412
but the whole thing was

742
00:40:57,497 --> 00:40:59,457
you never knew how
the experiment was going to turn out.

743
00:40:59,540 --> 00:41:02,627
He kept taking it to another level
and another level and another level,

744
00:41:02,710 --> 00:41:05,087
breaking new ground
and actually changing baseball.

745
00:41:05,170 --> 00:41:06,171
All these firsts.

746
00:41:06,255 --> 00:41:11,093
You know, Jon Yoshiwara coming in
as the first, you know, Asian manager.

747
00:41:11,176 --> 00:41:13,095
There was a batgirl, Penny Clemo.

748
00:41:13,178 --> 00:41:17,099
Someone like Lanny Moss
is the first female General Manager.

749
00:41:17,182 --> 00:41:19,519
[reporter] You have a young lady of 24

750
00:41:19,602 --> 00:41:21,521
as your general manager...
which is different.

751
00:41:21,604 --> 00:41:23,981
Last year she ran it August for two weeks,

752
00:41:24,064 --> 00:41:27,026
and I must say she ran it better than
I did, she's just doing a tremendous job.

753
00:41:27,109 --> 00:41:29,361
[reporter] What does your job entail?

754
00:41:29,444 --> 00:41:31,113
Oh, it's a number of things...

755
00:41:31,196 --> 00:41:32,907
everything from the ticket sellers

756
00:41:32,990 --> 00:41:35,785
and running out and selling tickets
when you least expect it,

757
00:41:35,868 --> 00:41:38,037
to coming out
and singing the national anthem.

758
00:41:38,120 --> 00:41:39,664
I one time asked him, I said,

759
00:41:39,747 --> 00:41:44,627
"Bing, how come you have...
such a variety of people around you?"

760
00:41:44,710 --> 00:41:48,548
And he says,
"Frank, life and..." he says,

761
00:41:48,631 --> 00:41:52,968
"The Mavericks are like a movie,
and a movie has one key scene.

762
00:41:53,052 --> 00:41:54,344
Maybe it's only three minutes."

763
00:41:54,428 --> 00:41:58,307
I think he talked about
the chimney sweep scene in Mary Poppins.

764
00:41:58,390 --> 00:42:01,310
"Everything builds up to that
and everything comes off of that."

765
00:42:01,393 --> 00:42:03,270
And he says, "You never know

766
00:42:03,353 --> 00:42:07,191
who's going to come up with that
magical idea, with that magic moment."

767
00:42:07,274 --> 00:42:11,320
He would keep guys on the roster
who had no business being there.

768
00:42:11,403 --> 00:42:12,446
He would keep a...

769
00:42:12,530 --> 00:42:15,240
What he kept... I think he kept,
like, a 30-man roster or something.

770
00:42:15,324 --> 00:42:16,366
That's fucking nuts.

771
00:42:16,450 --> 00:42:20,079
For a Class A baseball team
with really no funding,

772
00:42:20,162 --> 00:42:22,039
what's he doing
keeping 30 guys on a roster?

773
00:42:22,122 --> 00:42:26,836
What he did was he...
he personalized the game

774
00:42:26,919 --> 00:42:28,503
in a way to where...

775
00:42:29,421 --> 00:42:34,134
if you couldn't find yourself,
as a fan, in one of those players,

776
00:42:34,218 --> 00:42:36,303
you didn't belong at that ballpark.

777
00:42:36,386 --> 00:42:39,181
You know, there was
somebody there for everyone.

778
00:42:39,264 --> 00:42:42,101
Bing knew he was giving
the town of Portland a show

779
00:42:42,184 --> 00:42:44,019
and he was going to give them
the best show he could.

780
00:42:47,607 --> 00:42:49,108
[inaudible]

781
00:43:02,872 --> 00:43:05,750
Bing wanted to create this idea of, um...

782
00:43:06,959 --> 00:43:09,461
a target for the fans to get behind.

783
00:43:09,544 --> 00:43:13,173
He created a character.
And it wasn't Joe Garza.

784
00:43:13,257 --> 00:43:16,010
J-O-E G-A-R-Z-A.

785
00:43:16,093 --> 00:43:18,512
It was JoGarza.
It's a JoGarza.

786
00:43:18,596 --> 00:43:20,389
So it wasn't like,
"We're going to sweep the other team."

787
00:43:20,472 --> 00:43:22,182
It was like,
"We were going to JoGarza the team."

788
00:43:22,266 --> 00:43:23,643
And then every time we swept,

789
00:43:23,726 --> 00:43:25,560
and if it was two games
and we won both,

790
00:43:25,645 --> 00:43:28,522
it was a sweep
as far as Bing was concerned.

791
00:43:28,606 --> 00:43:30,232
You know, he, uh...

792
00:43:30,315 --> 00:43:34,194
He had Joe get up on...

793
00:43:34,278 --> 00:43:35,529
on the backstop

794
00:43:35,613 --> 00:43:39,324
or, in some cases, in Civic Stadium,
he would put him out in centerfield...

795
00:43:40,785 --> 00:43:43,328
up in the stands,
our equivalent of the Green Monster,

796
00:43:43,412 --> 00:43:44,413
in front of everybody.

797
00:43:44,496 --> 00:43:45,873
And he'd do the sweep

798
00:43:45,956 --> 00:43:49,543
and he'd light this fucking broom on fire
and wave it over his head.

799
00:43:49,627 --> 00:43:52,254
And it was a dangerous broom.
I know that 'cause I made these brooms.

800
00:43:52,337 --> 00:43:56,591
I mean, I was given the task
of making these in my parents' garage

801
00:43:56,676 --> 00:43:57,843
where I'd have to paint these things

802
00:43:57,927 --> 00:44:01,764
and then they'd be soaked in lighter fluid
and then dried out.

803
00:44:01,847 --> 00:44:04,599
I mean, it was...
it was like a Tiki torch out there.

804
00:44:04,684 --> 00:44:08,228
And the fans were just beside themselves.

805
00:44:08,312 --> 00:44:09,354
They thought it was so,

806
00:44:09,438 --> 00:44:13,400
number one, inappropriate,
but also kind of funny.

807
00:44:13,483 --> 00:44:15,820
You could only do that
if you were the Portland Mavericks.

808
00:44:15,903 --> 00:44:17,571
But then when we were
on the verge of sweeping,

809
00:44:17,655 --> 00:44:19,156
a week or two or three later,

810
00:44:19,239 --> 00:44:21,200
the fans started
bringing their own brooms.

811
00:44:21,283 --> 00:44:23,786
They wanted to participate in the thing.

812
00:44:23,869 --> 00:44:26,621
Well, you know, sometimes,
games... baseball games are dull.

813
00:44:26,706 --> 00:44:28,248
I got up on top

814
00:44:28,332 --> 00:44:30,668
and we chanted "sweep"
and we did it.

815
00:44:30,751 --> 00:44:33,671
And now Bing Russell, the owner,

816
00:44:33,754 --> 00:44:36,131
really liked it
and he wanted me to do it again.

817
00:44:36,215 --> 00:44:39,885
You know, all they can do is fine me.

818
00:44:39,969 --> 00:44:42,972
Bing, you know,
he's been taking care of my fines.

819
00:44:48,853 --> 00:44:51,939
And certainly, Bing, like they say...

820
00:44:52,022 --> 00:44:54,691
didn't discourage a lot of the antics
that the players did.

821
00:44:54,775 --> 00:44:57,737
I think he egged them on a lot of times,
honestly, to do things.

822
00:44:57,820 --> 00:45:00,572
I remember we had one game in Eugene.

823
00:45:00,655 --> 00:45:04,326
I think four players
got thrown out of the game.

824
00:45:04,409 --> 00:45:08,163
Colette got thrown out of the game...
and I got thrown out of the game

825
00:45:08,247 --> 00:45:13,210
because... I began to parrot
what was being said a little too loud

826
00:45:13,293 --> 00:45:15,254
and they actually
removed me from the game.

827
00:45:15,337 --> 00:45:17,339
And I went up to the stands
and Bing was up in the stands,

828
00:45:17,422 --> 00:45:18,966
and everyone who had been
thrown out of the game

829
00:45:19,049 --> 00:45:21,510
was sitting around Bing
and he was buying everybody beers.

830
00:45:21,593 --> 00:45:23,763
Bing was just beside himself.

831
00:45:23,846 --> 00:45:26,348
He was so thrilled that
I'd been thrown out of the game.

832
00:45:26,431 --> 00:45:29,184
The thing with the Mavericks is
there was always something going on.

833
00:45:29,268 --> 00:45:32,855
I think the Portland Mavericks
were the first ones to have a ball dog.

834
00:45:32,938 --> 00:45:35,315
He became more popular
than some of the players.

835
00:45:35,399 --> 00:45:37,777
Whenever it looked like
the pitcher needed a rest,

836
00:45:37,860 --> 00:45:40,988
they'd throw the ball out on the field
and the dog would go out

837
00:45:41,071 --> 00:45:42,197
and the umpire
would have to stop the game.

838
00:45:43,448 --> 00:45:45,450
[Field] The things that happened
on the field...

839
00:45:46,410 --> 00:45:48,537
were absolutely insane.

840
00:45:59,799 --> 00:46:01,967
Jim Bouton said it.
He says, "You know, Frank..."

841
00:46:02,051 --> 00:46:05,762
He says, "This is the first time that
baseball has really made sense to me."

842
00:46:13,395 --> 00:46:18,275
Peter Bavasi, son of Buzzie Bavasi,
with the Dodgers.

843
00:46:18,358 --> 00:46:21,528
He was there, I think, as a scout.

844
00:46:21,611 --> 00:46:24,239
But anyway, we were in the dugout.
I was sitting next to him.

845
00:46:24,323 --> 00:46:26,700
And at the end of the game...
it was the end of the sweep...

846
00:46:26,783 --> 00:46:31,496
everybody took a victory lap...
led by Bing...

847
00:46:31,580 --> 00:46:37,878
and Peter Bavasi said,
"What is... What is Bing doing?"

848
00:46:37,962 --> 00:46:39,713
And I said, "Well, he's having fun."

849
00:46:39,796 --> 00:46:42,883
And that was
part of the secret of the Mavs.

850
00:46:42,967 --> 00:46:43,968
They were fun.

851
00:46:44,051 --> 00:46:45,052
And they did stuff that...

852
00:46:45,135 --> 00:46:48,347
the stodgy folks in baseball
would say you shouldn't do.

853
00:46:48,430 --> 00:46:51,350
I've had a number of conversations
with farm directors and stuff about...

854
00:46:51,433 --> 00:46:52,893
I'd say, "Lighten up. I mean, this...

855
00:46:52,977 --> 00:46:55,562
This is great for the league
and it's helping your players develop

856
00:46:55,645 --> 00:46:56,856
because they are playing
in front of crowds

857
00:46:56,939 --> 00:46:59,108
and not 30-40 people
like in the old days."

858
00:46:59,191 --> 00:47:01,151
But the fans loved it and I loved it.

859
00:47:01,235 --> 00:47:03,362
I just couldn't
tell Bing I loved it. [laughs]

860
00:47:06,448 --> 00:47:09,368
[Bertram] Looking back on it,
there wasn't really a Maverickmania.

861
00:47:09,451 --> 00:47:12,121
There was more like a Maverickmaniacs.

862
00:47:12,204 --> 00:47:15,916
And it was what we were watching
that made it such a mania.

863
00:47:16,000 --> 00:47:20,754
I've never seen a ball team...

864
00:47:20,837 --> 00:47:24,633
and fans behave the way
they did with the Mavericks.

865
00:47:33,058 --> 00:47:35,519
And when the Beavers pulled out,
we didn't have anybody

866
00:47:35,602 --> 00:47:41,650
until Bing Russell came along...
and brought this Class A team here.

867
00:47:41,733 --> 00:47:44,611
Yeah, but it's... it's a ragamuffin group.

868
00:47:44,694 --> 00:47:47,864
-Oh, no, no, no!
-[crowd shouting] No!

869
00:47:50,034 --> 00:47:53,078
Wait a minute!
I love them! I love them!

870
00:47:53,162 --> 00:47:55,497
Look at the attendance records
for the Mavericks.

871
00:47:55,580 --> 00:47:58,918
We broke attendance records
in the entire Minor Leagues that year.

872
00:47:59,919 --> 00:48:02,212
We may have had
the highest attendance record

873
00:48:02,296 --> 00:48:04,506
of any Minor League team in history.

874
00:48:08,343 --> 00:48:12,347
They set a record for Short-A attendance.
I think it was 127,000 people.

875
00:48:15,850 --> 00:48:17,602
People came out to see
what this was all about.

876
00:48:17,686 --> 00:48:19,271
"Was this really baseball?
Was it just an act?"

877
00:48:21,023 --> 00:48:24,359
It was baseball with
a lot of flair and a lot of fun to it.

878
00:48:24,443 --> 00:48:26,861
It was just an amazing feat at the time.

879
00:48:26,946 --> 00:48:29,656
The Mavs are Portland's baseball team.

880
00:48:29,739 --> 00:48:31,658
We've drawn over 4,000 people a game.

881
00:48:31,741 --> 00:48:36,371
Our average for the 31 play dates
is 4,046 officially paid here.

882
00:48:36,455 --> 00:48:40,960
It's... it's incredible
how this city supports baseball.

883
00:48:52,846 --> 00:48:55,515
[Field] If you were a fan,
you wanted to show up.

884
00:48:55,599 --> 00:48:58,477
I mean, you wanted to show up
because you knew all those guys.

885
00:48:58,560 --> 00:49:01,563
There was no distance.

886
00:49:01,646 --> 00:49:04,108
It was... it was a totally different time.

887
00:49:05,234 --> 00:49:07,361
It was our team.

888
00:49:07,444 --> 00:49:12,116
Completely different from being
a Met fan, a Chicago Cubs fan.

889
00:49:13,200 --> 00:49:16,370
Portland was experiencing
something that was theirs.

890
00:49:17,871 --> 00:49:21,875
It was Portland's Maverick baseball team.

891
00:49:32,802 --> 00:49:34,054
[inaudible]

892
00:49:47,401 --> 00:49:49,944
Probably the best way
for me to tie it up for you

893
00:49:50,029 --> 00:49:52,489
is to compare it with, for instance,
Music Man,

894
00:49:52,572 --> 00:49:55,659
where we came to know
the people in River City, Iowa

895
00:49:55,742 --> 00:49:58,203
through the adventures of
Professor Harold Hill and a boys' band.

896
00:49:58,287 --> 00:50:01,415
And here we've been allowed to

897
00:50:01,498 --> 00:50:04,126
come to know the people of Portland
through a boys' baseball team.

898
00:50:19,641 --> 00:50:23,937
Major League baseball is a product.
It's a corporate product.

899
00:50:24,020 --> 00:50:25,355
It's farmed out the same way.

900
00:50:25,439 --> 00:50:28,900
Major League teams have farm clubs
for one reason only,

901
00:50:28,983 --> 00:50:30,569
and that's just to develop players.

902
00:50:30,652 --> 00:50:35,031
It's all about developing product
to get to the major leagues.

903
00:50:35,115 --> 00:50:36,825
They don't care if the farm club wins.

904
00:50:36,908 --> 00:50:39,994
They don't really care about the team.
They don't care about the city.

905
00:50:40,079 --> 00:50:41,455
They have no investment in the city.

906
00:50:41,538 --> 00:50:45,625
[reporter] When you try to select places
for Triple A clubs, what do you look for?

907
00:50:45,709 --> 00:50:48,295
Well, you look for the facility
where you can develop your players

908
00:50:48,378 --> 00:50:50,505
as quickly as possible
and under ideal conditions.

909
00:50:50,589 --> 00:50:53,717
We just think it's a great place to train
our club and we're glad to be here.

910
00:50:53,800 --> 00:50:55,260
[Field] Minor League baseball...

911
00:50:56,261 --> 00:50:58,097
They've got guys above and below them

912
00:50:58,180 --> 00:51:00,724
that are going to make it
increasingly hard for them

913
00:51:00,807 --> 00:51:05,061
to... to do bold things or... or
to operate from their gut, necessarily.

914
00:51:05,145 --> 00:51:07,731
And that's... that's what Bing did.

915
00:51:07,814 --> 00:51:09,983
He didn't give a shit, you know?

916
00:51:10,066 --> 00:51:12,527
He didn't have to answer to anybody.

917
00:51:12,611 --> 00:51:15,572
And he was loyal to the people
that he invited to the party.

918
00:51:15,655 --> 00:51:16,990
It's that simple.

919
00:51:35,550 --> 00:51:37,636
Organized baseball didn't like Bing...

920
00:51:37,719 --> 00:51:42,391
and they did everything they could
to make sure Bing didn't win.

921
00:51:42,474 --> 00:51:47,937
Baseball is... is still, to this day,
very much an old boys' network.

922
00:51:48,021 --> 00:51:50,774
And he did not fit in
with their culture at all.

923
00:51:50,857 --> 00:51:53,860
They didn't want anybody from the outside
having success

924
00:51:53,943 --> 00:51:55,445
and they didn't want anybody
rubbing their nose in,

925
00:51:55,529 --> 00:51:57,614
"You guys couldn't make it in Portland
and I can."

926
00:51:57,697 --> 00:51:59,491
[reporter]
Did you accomplish what you set out to do?

927
00:51:59,574 --> 00:52:02,952
Exactly. My hope was that
independent baseball could survive.

928
00:52:03,036 --> 00:52:04,037
It did.

929
00:52:04,120 --> 00:52:06,748
I felt that there were
ballplayers released too early,

930
00:52:06,831 --> 00:52:09,751
ballplayers not signed
who could play at this level,

931
00:52:09,834 --> 00:52:11,628
and we proved that they could.

932
00:52:11,711 --> 00:52:12,837
[Kurt] He couldn't stand them.

933
00:52:12,921 --> 00:52:14,756
They couldn't stand him.

934
00:52:16,049 --> 00:52:18,510
He... he didn't want to do
anything like they did it.

935
00:52:18,593 --> 00:52:20,720
The only thing they did
was build a pyramid game

936
00:52:20,804 --> 00:52:22,681
that they are still playing.

937
00:52:22,764 --> 00:52:24,641
Not a world my dad was very interested in.

938
00:52:24,724 --> 00:52:27,519
He wasn't interested in the pyramid game.
He was interested in baseball.

939
00:52:27,602 --> 00:52:33,692
He was more creative, inventive
and... I think, intelligent.

940
00:52:34,651 --> 00:52:37,737
And by intelligence, I mean
he did it for the right reasons.

941
00:52:37,821 --> 00:52:39,823
And he'd go as far as he could.

942
00:52:39,906 --> 00:52:41,658
He would go as far as he could.

943
00:52:41,741 --> 00:52:45,704
[Bing] Being independent,
we've learned some things.

944
00:52:45,787 --> 00:52:47,038
You see, our boys make less

945
00:52:47,121 --> 00:52:50,417
than the boys who are signed
by Major League organizations make,

946
00:52:50,500 --> 00:52:52,377
and I thought
there might be a problem there.

947
00:52:52,461 --> 00:52:56,005
But I tell you, we ride in the best buses
and now we own our own,

948
00:52:56,089 --> 00:53:00,760
and we stay in the best hotels
and we have the fanciest uniforms,

949
00:53:00,844 --> 00:53:03,096
and... we also play the best baseball.

950
00:53:03,179 --> 00:53:05,682
In fact, there were
quite a few boys in the organizations

951
00:53:05,765 --> 00:53:08,393
who talked to me about
playing for Portland.

952
00:53:08,477 --> 00:53:12,105
He was going against
the old canons of baseball.

953
00:53:12,188 --> 00:53:15,775
[Yoshiwara] He was out to prove that
independent baseball could work.

954
00:53:15,859 --> 00:53:18,987
It was all about winning the division
and ultimately winning the pennant.

955
00:53:19,070 --> 00:53:23,032
It was the one thing that Bing was
missing, and that was a championship.

956
00:53:23,116 --> 00:53:25,452
Just the icing on the cake.

957
00:53:25,535 --> 00:53:27,621
We don't make any bones
about it down there.

958
00:53:27,704 --> 00:53:29,080
We want one thing, the pennant.

959
00:53:29,163 --> 00:53:33,377
It's the only thing we haven't done and...
Portland hasn't had one since 1945.

960
00:53:33,460 --> 00:53:34,836
And we just have to win a pennant.

961
00:53:34,919 --> 00:53:37,297
And if we think that way,
the ball club will think that way,

962
00:53:37,381 --> 00:53:39,299
and we're going to get it.
That's all there is to it.

963
00:53:39,383 --> 00:53:41,676
We're going to win the pennant.
We have to.

964
00:53:41,760 --> 00:53:45,680
The pressure to win the pennant
for the Mavericks was... was, um...

965
00:53:47,891 --> 00:53:49,393
It was huge.

966
00:53:49,476 --> 00:53:52,271
Our ballplayers are, I think,

967
00:53:52,354 --> 00:53:54,398
as tough ballplayers
as there are in the league

968
00:53:54,481 --> 00:53:57,984
and we have an excellent opportunity
if the ball bounces right.

969
00:53:58,067 --> 00:54:01,446
That's what baseball is all about,
and it's not over until two outs, and...

970
00:54:01,530 --> 00:54:03,407
We've got a heck of a chance
of winning the pennant.

971
00:54:03,490 --> 00:54:04,699
Bing recognized that.

972
00:54:04,783 --> 00:54:09,954
We can have all the sidelights you want,
all the crazy stories and all that...

973
00:54:10,038 --> 00:54:12,123
but our first job is to win.

974
00:54:44,197 --> 00:54:46,825
[Bertram] His first night out there,
he couldn't even warm up.

975
00:54:46,908 --> 00:54:48,535
There were so many people
trying to get autographs

976
00:54:48,618 --> 00:54:49,661
and get him to sign his book.

977
00:54:49,744 --> 00:54:51,955
And nobody knew what he had.

978
00:54:52,038 --> 00:54:54,374
He could have been a disaster.

979
00:54:54,458 --> 00:54:56,751
And... he...

980
00:54:56,835 --> 00:54:57,961
he was brilliant.

981
00:55:12,726 --> 00:55:15,061
I was putting my helmet on
because I was going to go on deck.

982
00:55:15,144 --> 00:55:19,358
I saw Bouton standing up
and just in the game.

983
00:55:19,441 --> 00:55:21,067
And all I could do was...
I looked at him and I thought,

984
00:55:21,150 --> 00:55:23,111
"There's Bulldog," you know.
"There's the guy who was..."

985
00:55:23,194 --> 00:55:25,279
He was, I think,
in four different World Series.

986
00:55:25,364 --> 00:55:28,367
And I said, "I just got to know.
[chuckling]

987
00:55:28,450 --> 00:55:30,994
You've been there, man.
What's the comparison?"

988
00:55:31,077 --> 00:55:32,161
And he said, "Oh, are you kidding?"

989
00:55:32,245 --> 00:55:35,164
He said, "When the baseball is good
and you are in it..."

990
00:55:35,248 --> 00:55:37,751
He says, "It's just...
it's exactly the same."

991
00:55:37,834 --> 00:55:39,168
He said, "Let me ask you a question."
I said, "What?"

992
00:55:39,252 --> 00:55:42,672
He said, "Where else on the planet
would you rather be right now?"

993
00:55:42,756 --> 00:55:44,340
I said, "Nowhere.
I want to be right here, right now."

994
00:55:44,424 --> 00:55:46,300
He said, "That's it."

995
00:55:55,519 --> 00:55:56,853
Bing came in and talked to us
and he said,

996
00:55:56,936 --> 00:55:58,730
"Here's what I want you to do.
And I want a championship

997
00:55:58,813 --> 00:56:00,189
and I don't give a shit
how you do it."

998
00:56:00,273 --> 00:56:01,274
There was a hunger there.

999
00:56:01,357 --> 00:56:03,443
The Maverick players
would run through walls.

1000
00:56:03,527 --> 00:56:04,611
They loved beating organized teams,

1001
00:56:04,694 --> 00:56:06,530
but the organized teams
wanted to beat them as well.

1002
00:56:06,613 --> 00:56:08,448
We definitely had a target on our backs.

1003
00:56:08,532 --> 00:56:11,535
The games really mattered to us,
the city really mattered to us.

1004
00:56:11,618 --> 00:56:13,578
For us, this was the end.

1005
00:56:13,662 --> 00:56:14,829
[male newscaster] Do you think
you have a good chance

1006
00:56:14,913 --> 00:56:15,914
for the pennant this year, Frank?

1007
00:56:15,997 --> 00:56:17,040
Oh, unquestionably.

1008
00:56:17,123 --> 00:56:19,751
If we don't win the pennant,
then I'll take the responsibility for it.

1009
00:56:21,586 --> 00:56:23,254
What Bing Russell did here,

1010
00:56:23,337 --> 00:56:27,634
and that is bring independent baseball
back to baseball...

1011
00:56:27,717 --> 00:56:29,177
And it looks like it may work.

1012
00:56:32,681 --> 00:56:37,226
We had the highest winning percentage
of all levels of professional baseball

1013
00:56:37,310 --> 00:56:38,478
in 1977.

1014
00:56:38,562 --> 00:56:40,730
From the big leagues to
the lowest Minor Leagues,

1015
00:56:40,814 --> 00:56:43,775
nobody won two games out of three
for a whole season.

1016
00:57:00,291 --> 00:57:01,835
[Woods] What would happen
when we'd get...

1017
00:57:01,918 --> 00:57:03,419
Usually, 'cause we'd
make the playoffs every year,

1018
00:57:03,503 --> 00:57:06,590
what would happen is teams
would, suddenly, in the playoffs,

1019
00:57:06,673 --> 00:57:09,759
send players who had played
at a higher classification down.

1020
00:57:09,843 --> 00:57:13,262
We saw players with
a little bit more zip on their fastball

1021
00:57:13,346 --> 00:57:18,226
and a little more power... at the plate,
near the end of the season.

1022
00:57:18,309 --> 00:57:21,896
The organizations
will filter other ballplayers in

1023
00:57:21,980 --> 00:57:23,356
to make sure that
we don't dominate the league,

1024
00:57:23,440 --> 00:57:25,274
but our goal is to dominate the league,
of course.

1025
00:57:25,358 --> 00:57:29,237
The affiliated teams were sending guys
down to the Northwest League

1026
00:57:29,320 --> 00:57:30,404
to try and beat the Mavericks.

1027
00:57:30,489 --> 00:57:33,366
If they felt like they had to do that,
then we'll beat them, too.

1028
00:57:33,450 --> 00:57:36,160
They knew that they were in for a battle.

1029
00:57:52,426 --> 00:57:53,970
[indistinct talking]

1030
00:58:20,580 --> 00:58:21,956
[indistinct]

1031
00:58:28,505 --> 00:58:29,881
[commentator speaking indistinctly]

1032
00:58:32,341 --> 00:58:35,053
[crowd sighs in disappointment]

1033
00:58:49,108 --> 00:58:50,484
[crowd sighs in disappointment]

1034
00:59:09,378 --> 00:59:10,797
[crowd applauding]

1035
00:59:17,637 --> 00:59:18,972
[crowd cheering]

1036
00:59:21,808 --> 00:59:23,893
[crowd chanting indistinctly]

1037
00:59:25,519 --> 00:59:27,021
[crowd booing]

1038
00:59:45,414 --> 00:59:47,333
[shouting indistinctly]

1039
00:59:52,546 --> 00:59:54,257
[crowd applauding]

1040
01:00:54,651 --> 01:00:57,153
Had they really played "fair and square,"

1041
01:00:57,236 --> 01:00:59,405
I think the Mavs would have
won probably a couple of pennants.

1042
01:00:59,488 --> 01:01:00,782
[inaudible]

1043
01:01:15,797 --> 01:01:18,800
It was a time where...

1044
01:01:18,883 --> 01:01:20,509
they wanted you
to kind of follow the code.

1045
01:01:20,593 --> 01:01:23,304
But staying with the code
had failed in Portland.

1046
01:01:23,387 --> 01:01:26,640
If the team was just another farm club,
it wouldn't have been the same.

1047
01:01:26,725 --> 01:01:29,518
You know, what made the team work
was 'cause it was independent.

1048
01:01:29,602 --> 01:01:32,146
What made the team work was
'cause you had these quirky guys.

1049
01:01:32,230 --> 01:01:35,024
But at the bottom of it, it was baseball.

1050
01:01:37,026 --> 01:01:39,863
It was baseball the way baseball
was really supposed to be played.

1051
01:01:39,946 --> 01:01:41,364
For the love of the game.

1052
01:01:41,447 --> 01:01:44,909
People in baseball,
that's not what they do it for.

1053
01:01:44,993 --> 01:01:46,452
They do it 'cause
they want to make money

1054
01:01:46,535 --> 01:01:47,912
or they do it 'cause they want to
be in control, you know.

1055
01:01:47,996 --> 01:01:49,205
Or who knows what they do it for?

1056
01:01:49,288 --> 01:01:51,916
But they don't do it, unfortunately,
most of them, for the love of the game.

1057
01:01:58,006 --> 01:02:00,925
[Yoshiwara] I was looking forward
to the '78 season...

1058
01:02:01,009 --> 01:02:05,179
There were a lot of rumors that...

1059
01:02:05,263 --> 01:02:07,974
that Triple A was
looking at Portland again.

1060
01:02:08,057 --> 01:02:11,936
The first thing I did was call Kurt
and... and I said, "Is it true?"

1061
01:02:12,020 --> 01:02:16,232
I think Bing took it
a lot more serious than...

1062
01:02:16,315 --> 01:02:17,817
a lot of the other people.

1063
01:02:17,901 --> 01:02:20,236
I mean, it just seemed
impossible to happen.

1064
01:02:20,319 --> 01:02:24,532
Triple A ball hasn't worked here before.
Why would they come in and do it now?

1065
01:02:24,615 --> 01:02:26,700
We didn't realize that...

1066
01:02:28,036 --> 01:02:30,872
a team could just come in and...
and do that.

1067
01:02:37,253 --> 01:02:40,423
By the end of the parade...

1068
01:02:40,506 --> 01:02:43,342
and all that had taken place in between...

1069
01:02:43,426 --> 01:02:48,222
the Triple A PCL decided
to come back... now

1070
01:02:48,306 --> 01:02:52,185
and take... take their... spot back.

1071
01:02:53,519 --> 01:02:57,190
And in those days,
per the baseball bluebook,

1072
01:02:57,273 --> 01:02:59,275
and of course, the golden rule of

1073
01:02:59,358 --> 01:03:01,778
whatever is in
the best interest of baseball...

1074
01:03:03,237 --> 01:03:07,241
they were going to come in and
they could take it over for $5,000.

1075
01:03:07,325 --> 01:03:12,205
Isn't that a self-serving...
line of logic?

1076
01:03:12,288 --> 01:03:13,497
Well, it's baloney.

1077
01:03:13,581 --> 01:03:15,834
I think that's a bunch of bullshit.

1078
01:03:19,212 --> 01:03:23,341
A baseball territory
is a piece of geography.

1079
01:03:23,424 --> 01:03:26,928
It's a circle drawn from home plate...

1080
01:03:27,011 --> 01:03:30,056
and so within 90 miles of home plate,
in a circle,

1081
01:03:30,139 --> 01:03:32,225
you own an exclusive right

1082
01:03:32,308 --> 01:03:34,853
to operate within
the baseball establishment,

1083
01:03:34,936 --> 01:03:36,395
within organized baseball.

1084
01:03:36,479 --> 01:03:37,688
That's yours.

1085
01:03:37,771 --> 01:03:38,982
So if you draft a territory,

1086
01:03:39,065 --> 01:03:40,984
that's when a higher league
comes in and says,

1087
01:03:41,067 --> 01:03:45,363
"We're going to take your territory.
Goodbye."

1088
01:03:45,446 --> 01:03:47,907
What does "regulated" mean
in connection with baseball?

1089
01:03:47,991 --> 01:03:49,200
Baseball is a monopoly.

1090
01:03:50,659 --> 01:03:54,122
They were authorized
by the US Supreme Court decades ago.

1091
01:03:54,205 --> 01:03:55,206
Decades ago,

1092
01:03:55,289 --> 01:03:58,167
they said they are not subject
to the anti-trust laws.

1093
01:03:58,251 --> 01:04:01,629
Baseball was viewed
as an American institution

1094
01:04:01,712 --> 01:04:04,798
that shouldn't be
under the rules as the rest of us.

1095
01:04:04,883 --> 01:04:09,095
On behalf of the new stockholders
of the Portland Beavers,

1096
01:04:09,178 --> 01:04:12,015
I am very pleased to announce

1097
01:04:12,098 --> 01:04:15,977
that the Portland Beavers will field
a team in the coming season,

1098
01:04:16,060 --> 01:04:18,479
a very good team,
and a very competitive team

1099
01:04:18,562 --> 01:04:20,689
and a team that I am sure that

1100
01:04:20,773 --> 01:04:22,650
the city of Portland
and the surrounding area

1101
01:04:22,733 --> 01:04:24,652
will be quite proud of.

1102
01:04:28,531 --> 01:04:31,284
It was sudden,
it was real sudden.

1103
01:04:31,367 --> 01:04:32,952
It was a shock to my system.

1104
01:04:33,036 --> 01:04:34,662
We were through playing baseball.

1105
01:04:37,665 --> 01:04:39,959
The Mavericks threatened the status quo.

1106
01:04:40,043 --> 01:04:44,380
There's another way to do
this "business of baseball."

1107
01:04:44,463 --> 01:04:48,301
We had set attendance records,
we were on national TV.

1108
01:04:48,384 --> 01:04:50,761
One of those years...

1109
01:04:50,844 --> 01:04:54,557
the Mavericks outdrew
a whole other Minor League.

1110
01:04:54,640 --> 01:04:58,519
Baseball could, and did say,

1111
01:04:58,602 --> 01:05:00,897
"We own that territory.
We want it back."

1112
01:05:00,980 --> 01:05:03,482
Baseball worked
on their own set of rules.

1113
01:05:03,566 --> 01:05:06,485
It was that cockiness that
they could do whatever they wanted.

1114
01:05:06,569 --> 01:05:07,570
Baseball took a look at it and said,

1115
01:05:07,653 --> 01:05:10,114
"Hey, we need to put
a team back in Portland,"

1116
01:05:10,198 --> 01:05:12,200
and, "Let's put a Triple A team back in."

1117
01:05:12,283 --> 01:05:13,367
And you can do that,

1118
01:05:13,451 --> 01:05:15,244
but then you have to
pay the previous owner

1119
01:05:15,328 --> 01:05:16,913
the rights to the territory,

1120
01:05:16,996 --> 01:05:19,290
and that became the big issue

1121
01:05:19,373 --> 01:05:21,209
was they didn't want to pay Bing

1122
01:05:21,292 --> 01:05:22,961
very much money
for the rights to the territory.

1123
01:05:23,044 --> 01:05:25,713
"And, well, we've gotten together, Bing,
and we've talked about it

1124
01:05:25,796 --> 01:05:30,093
and we realize what you've done here
is really pretty fantastic, and it's good.

1125
01:05:30,176 --> 01:05:31,802
So we're going to do
something unprecedented.

1126
01:05:31,885 --> 01:05:35,014
We're going to give you
five times the normal amount."

1127
01:05:35,098 --> 01:05:36,599
He said,
"Yes, I understand that.

1128
01:05:36,682 --> 01:05:39,560
I got it. $26,000."
He says, "Great."

1129
01:05:39,643 --> 01:05:43,356
He says, "Now put a zero in the middle
between the two and the six."

1130
01:05:43,439 --> 01:05:47,193
And they said, "Well... [chuckles]
that's not going to happen."

1131
01:05:47,276 --> 01:05:50,613
And so off to arbitration
Bing Russell went.

1132
01:05:50,696 --> 01:05:54,825
When Bing asked for $206,000,
the reaction in baseball...

1133
01:05:54,908 --> 01:05:57,703
I think The Sporting News even
said this... that it was ridiculous.

1134
01:05:57,786 --> 01:05:58,871
And somewhere they had in print...

1135
01:05:58,955 --> 01:06:03,292
They said, "He has yet to offer
a reasonable, more rational number."

1136
01:06:10,258 --> 01:06:12,343
I had told Bing, uh...

1137
01:06:13,886 --> 01:06:16,014
"You're just tilting at windmills.

1138
01:06:16,097 --> 01:06:17,390
This $25,000,

1139
01:06:17,473 --> 01:06:21,060
that's an established figure
for your territory,

1140
01:06:21,144 --> 01:06:24,022
and to take this thing to court
and arbitrate it,

1141
01:06:24,105 --> 01:06:26,524
you're just tilting at windmills.
There's no way."

1142
01:06:26,607 --> 01:06:30,111
Once again, it was laughable.
It was just a laugh... until it wasn't.

1143
01:06:32,446 --> 01:06:37,160
And I can tell you that we will fight
for those things that I just spoke of...

1144
01:06:37,243 --> 01:06:39,745
profit, property, freedom.

1145
01:06:39,828 --> 01:06:44,042
We will not knuckle under to bureaucratic
arrogance or official position.

1146
01:06:44,125 --> 01:06:45,876
I intend to fight.

1147
01:06:45,959 --> 01:06:49,547
Now whether we win or not depends
on how good an attorney I have.

1148
01:06:49,630 --> 01:06:54,010
I'd like you to know that my attorney
is a Portland attorney, Jack Faust.

1149
01:06:54,093 --> 01:06:56,304
I have every confidence in him.
I think he's the finest.

1150
01:06:56,387 --> 01:06:58,097
But we're sure going to fight.

1151
01:06:58,181 --> 01:07:01,225
What he did was he put baseball on trial

1152
01:07:01,309 --> 01:07:04,645
and he put the men who are now
in control of baseball on trial.

1153
01:07:04,728 --> 01:07:09,483
And he said, "You don't get it.
I'm a baseball man.

1154
01:07:09,567 --> 01:07:11,777
I know the history of this game,

1155
01:07:11,860 --> 01:07:16,074
and I know what's in the best interest
of this game and it isn't you."

1156
01:07:16,157 --> 01:07:19,327
[Judge on tape] Mr. Jack Faust,
your closing arguments, please.

1157
01:07:19,410 --> 01:07:20,578
[Faust on tape] Thank you, Your Honor.

1158
01:07:20,661 --> 01:07:24,165
The baseball establishment
hasn't gotten along with this man.

1159
01:07:24,248 --> 01:07:26,209
But I'll tell you
who did get along with him,

1160
01:07:26,292 --> 01:07:28,294
who got along with him famously,

1161
01:07:28,377 --> 01:07:30,463
is the baseball fans in Portland.

1162
01:07:30,546 --> 01:07:32,131
There's no question about that.

1163
01:07:32,215 --> 01:07:34,800
The PCL league
should be ashamed of themselves,

1164
01:07:34,883 --> 01:07:36,094
and I think they know it.

1165
01:07:36,177 --> 01:07:39,638
Earlier today, the PCL said
they didn't know much

1166
01:07:39,722 --> 01:07:42,015
about the baseball situation
here in Portland.

1167
01:07:42,100 --> 01:07:43,934
And I don't think that's genuine.

1168
01:07:44,017 --> 01:07:47,438
I don't think they are ignorant at all
of the Maverick story.

1169
01:07:47,521 --> 01:07:50,399
They know that they are buying a man here

1170
01:07:50,483 --> 01:07:54,403
who spent five years of his life
taking a dead baseball town

1171
01:07:54,487 --> 01:07:56,864
and making it into such a healthy market

1172
01:07:56,947 --> 01:07:59,950
that they've come back
to draft it as their own.

1173
01:08:00,033 --> 01:08:03,537
What we're selling
is the Maverick miracle.

1174
01:08:03,621 --> 01:08:09,001
[Woods] What Jack and Bing were able to
do in the arbitration was to really show

1175
01:08:09,085 --> 01:08:12,255
the amazing transformation
that happened in Portland.

1176
01:08:12,338 --> 01:08:14,840
The Mavericks are not like
any other sports team.

1177
01:08:14,923 --> 01:08:18,261
This was an amazing thing that happened

1178
01:08:18,344 --> 01:08:21,347
during this magical time,
from '73 to '77,

1179
01:08:21,430 --> 01:08:24,433
that I don't think will ever be
duplicated again in any sports.

1180
01:08:24,517 --> 01:08:26,810
The chief arbitrator
was William McAllister.

1181
01:08:26,894 --> 01:08:29,980
He was the chief justice
of the Oregon Supreme Court.

1182
01:08:30,063 --> 01:08:31,315
Well, when the arbitration was over,

1183
01:08:31,399 --> 01:08:33,817
the panel came out
and sat in front of us...

1184
01:08:33,901 --> 01:08:36,737
and they all had good poker faces.

1185
01:08:36,820 --> 01:08:39,740
And then he made his decision.

1186
01:08:39,823 --> 01:08:41,450
[gavel pounding]

1187
01:08:41,534 --> 01:08:42,743
[Judge on tape] We're back on record.

1188
01:08:42,826 --> 01:08:45,746
The board is now ready
to announce its findings.

1189
01:08:45,829 --> 01:08:47,623
This board of arbitration
appointed by--

1190
01:08:47,706 --> 01:08:50,709
[Faust] I think the PCL lawyers
came in very confident.

1191
01:08:50,793 --> 01:08:54,213
And I think that in their position
they had reason to be confident,

1192
01:08:54,297 --> 01:08:57,300
if you looked at
the history of arbitrations in baseball.

1193
01:08:57,383 --> 01:08:59,760
[Judge on tape] ...the amount of just
and reasonable compensation

1194
01:08:59,843 --> 01:09:01,845
to be paid to the Portland Mavericks

1195
01:09:01,929 --> 01:09:04,432
for the drafting
of its territory of Portland, Oregon,

1196
01:09:04,515 --> 01:09:05,808
by the Pacific Coast League...

1197
01:09:05,891 --> 01:09:08,894
[Faust] Baseball operates
under its own laws...

1198
01:09:08,977 --> 01:09:12,231
but Bing Russell
refused to back down, period.

1199
01:09:12,315 --> 01:09:15,651
[Judge on tape] The arbitration panel
hereby awards to the Portland Mavericks,

1200
01:09:15,734 --> 01:09:21,031
as just and reasonable compensation,
the sum of $206,000.

1201
01:09:29,873 --> 01:09:33,419
And he deserved the outcome, which was...

1202
01:09:33,502 --> 01:09:34,712
"If you're going to come take...

1203
01:09:34,795 --> 01:09:37,881
if you're going to come take
something that I've made worth it,

1204
01:09:37,965 --> 01:09:40,634
then at least you're going to pay for it."

1205
01:09:40,718 --> 01:09:44,847
And... and in so doing,
gave others the opportunity to...

1206
01:09:45,848 --> 01:09:47,391
do what he had done,

1207
01:09:47,475 --> 01:09:51,019
create a baseball team
that was independent...

1208
01:09:51,103 --> 01:09:53,731
giving guys the opportunity
to prove that they could still play

1209
01:09:53,814 --> 01:09:55,274
and that they still belonged in the game

1210
01:09:55,358 --> 01:09:57,860
and perhaps still belonged
moving up the ladder

1211
01:09:57,943 --> 01:09:59,653
as opposed to down the ladder.

1212
01:09:59,737 --> 01:10:02,531
And in the meantime...

1213
01:10:02,615 --> 01:10:07,035
give the people of that particular town,
wherever that might be...

1214
01:10:08,078 --> 01:10:11,624
something to cheer about,
something to...

1215
01:10:11,707 --> 01:10:12,916
something to call your own.

1216
01:10:37,024 --> 01:10:38,692
[male announcer] Well,
he's a tough competitor

1217
01:10:38,776 --> 01:10:40,027
and you've got to admire the fact that

1218
01:10:40,110 --> 01:10:42,112
he went down to the minor leagues...

1219
01:10:42,195 --> 01:10:44,865
and at a late age said,
"I'm going to make it back."

1220
01:10:44,948 --> 01:10:45,991
And he has.

1221
01:10:46,074 --> 01:10:47,701
-A swing and a miss! He struck him out!
-[crowd cheering]

1222
01:10:47,785 --> 01:10:50,413
[Bouton] The Mavericks, boys and girls,
was a baseball team

1223
01:10:50,496 --> 01:10:52,915
that I'm proud to say I played for.

1224
01:10:52,998 --> 01:10:56,335
Our motivation was simple... revenge.

1225
01:10:56,419 --> 01:10:59,963
We loved womping fuzzy-cheeked,
college bonus-babies

1226
01:11:00,047 --> 01:11:02,215
owned by the Dodgers or Phillies.

1227
01:11:03,467 --> 01:11:07,179
Will there ever be
a Mav Old-Timers day, you ask?

1228
01:11:07,263 --> 01:11:08,722
Nah.

1229
01:11:08,806 --> 01:11:11,642
Too many players
in the witness protection program.

1230
01:11:11,725 --> 01:11:16,063
Wherever you guys are,
I love you, man,

1231
01:11:16,146 --> 01:11:18,566
you battered bastards of baseball.

1232
01:11:23,779 --> 01:11:25,281
[Peters] When you run into
Mavericks now,

1233
01:11:25,364 --> 01:11:28,617
that's probably
one of the real highlights of their lives.

1234
01:11:28,701 --> 01:11:31,078
Something that gave them another chance

1235
01:11:31,161 --> 01:11:35,248
to actually do something that they had
spent all their life trying to do.

1236
01:11:35,333 --> 01:11:38,126
And they actually got to do it their way.

1237
01:11:39,337 --> 01:11:40,546
[inaudible]

1238
01:12:20,002 --> 01:12:21,253
It was a stroke of luck

1239
01:12:21,337 --> 01:12:25,090
when I... came up with the idea
for shredded gum in a pouch

1240
01:12:25,173 --> 01:12:26,800
in the Maverick bullpen.

1241
01:12:26,884 --> 01:12:31,430
And we cooked the first batch
of what became Big League Chew

1242
01:12:31,514 --> 01:12:33,056
in Todd Field's kitchen.

1243
01:12:34,350 --> 01:12:36,435
[Field] He shows up
with a bunch of Red Man pouches...

1244
01:12:36,519 --> 01:12:39,938
and we redecorate them,
and he's got some gum kit.

1245
01:12:40,022 --> 01:12:41,690
I mean, my parents thought he was crazy.

1246
01:12:41,774 --> 01:12:43,359
I know they thought he was nuts.

1247
01:12:43,442 --> 01:12:44,735
[Nelson]
We couldn't believe our good luck.

1248
01:12:44,818 --> 01:12:47,863
The first year they sold
$18 million worth of bubble gum.

1249
01:12:47,946 --> 01:12:49,657
And it kind of had a cult following.

1250
01:12:49,740 --> 01:12:51,033
Time Magazine wrote it up as

1251
01:12:51,116 --> 01:12:54,995
one the top new 10 products to
enter the marketplace in the country.

1252
01:12:55,954 --> 01:12:59,249
Pretty mind-boggling.
Yeah.

1253
01:12:59,332 --> 01:13:00,333
When I think about the Mavericks,

1254
01:13:00,418 --> 01:13:02,545
I don't really think much about baseball.

1255
01:13:02,628 --> 01:13:04,337
I think about those guys...

1256
01:13:05,297 --> 01:13:06,840
I think about those characters.

1257
01:13:06,924 --> 01:13:11,344
The fact that they...
enjoyed themselves more than...

1258
01:13:11,429 --> 01:13:14,056
I'd ever seen
any grown men enjoy themselves.

1259
01:13:14,139 --> 01:13:16,892
And I remember thinking...

1260
01:13:16,975 --> 01:13:19,687
"I hope I feel that way when I grow up."

1261
01:13:21,522 --> 01:13:25,901
And that... that was...

1262
01:13:27,110 --> 01:13:30,573
as profound a guiding light
as I would ever get.

1263
01:13:31,615 --> 01:13:34,993
The nominees for
best picture of the year which are...

1264
01:13:35,077 --> 01:13:37,162
Todd Field, In the Bedroom.

1265
01:13:37,245 --> 01:13:39,748
[Field]
My coming of age was with the Mavericks.

1266
01:13:40,666 --> 01:13:42,460
The greatest thing that could have
ever happened to me.

1267
01:13:42,543 --> 01:13:43,544
I mean...

1268
01:13:45,170 --> 01:13:47,590
When the Mavericks left Portland...

1269
01:13:47,673 --> 01:13:51,176
it was like the circus left town
and was never coming back.

1270
01:13:57,975 --> 01:14:00,728
[Swannie] The Portland Mavericks to me...

1271
01:14:01,687 --> 01:14:02,730
[sighs]

1272
01:14:02,813 --> 01:14:04,189
was, uh...

1273
01:14:06,775 --> 01:14:08,986
I can't even finish that sentence.

1274
01:14:09,069 --> 01:14:10,988
I can't finish that.

1275
01:14:14,742 --> 01:14:16,994
There's never going to be
another Portland Mavericks.

1276
01:14:17,077 --> 01:14:18,662
Never.

1277
01:14:18,746 --> 01:14:19,747
Cut.

1278
01:14:19,830 --> 01:14:21,414
Okay, are we done here?

1279
01:14:21,499 --> 01:14:23,501
It was a dream-making kind of place.

1280
01:14:30,841 --> 01:14:33,135
Bing was a guy who, um...

1281
01:14:34,302 --> 01:14:35,971
who loved baseball.

1282
01:14:36,054 --> 01:14:40,100
Even if you didn't like baseball at all,
he could make you fall in love with it.

1283
01:14:40,183 --> 01:14:43,896
It was tremendous being his son,
because...

1284
01:14:45,397 --> 01:14:47,357
I had a thousand brothers.

1285
01:14:47,440 --> 01:14:51,236
I had three sisters...
but I had a thousand brothers.

1286
01:14:51,319 --> 01:14:55,616
And every one of them...
they would say to me, literally,

1287
01:14:55,699 --> 01:14:57,200
"You have no idea
what your dad meant to me.

1288
01:14:57,284 --> 01:14:59,452
You... you just don't know, Kurt."

1289
01:15:05,626 --> 01:15:08,003
I grew up thinking
I was the luckiest guy in the world.

1290
01:15:08,086 --> 01:15:12,257
When Rob Nelson called me up
and said that Bing was really ill...

1291
01:15:12,340 --> 01:15:14,384
and that Lou had said,
you know,

1292
01:15:14,467 --> 01:15:18,180
"If you want to see him,
you better come now."

1293
01:15:18,263 --> 01:15:22,309
I didn't hesitate,
and I remember Rob and I...

1294
01:15:23,686 --> 01:15:26,897
jumped in a car and
driving out there from Santa Monica

1295
01:15:26,980 --> 01:15:30,693
and we arrived
and Bing was in... was in bed.

1296
01:15:33,361 --> 01:15:37,991
And got up and...
and hugged both of us

1297
01:15:38,075 --> 01:15:42,204
and he said, [hoarsely] "My batboy...
I've been watching you.

1298
01:15:42,287 --> 01:15:43,997
You've done me proud."

1299
01:15:44,081 --> 01:15:48,085
And I remember thinking...
that was better than winning an Oscar.

1300
01:15:48,168 --> 01:15:49,294
That was like...

1301
01:15:50,671 --> 01:15:53,048
[Bing] I love these boys, you know,

1302
01:15:53,131 --> 01:15:55,342
and I like to think that
the feeling is mutual.

1303
01:15:55,425 --> 01:15:57,720
This has been a fantastic team.

1304
01:15:59,012 --> 01:16:01,431
So I don't want them
to play someplace else.

1305
01:16:01,514 --> 01:16:05,268
Portland is where we belong
and Portland is what made it possible,

1306
01:16:05,352 --> 01:16:09,940
and so I think what I will do is go back
and play with my grandchildren

1307
01:16:10,023 --> 01:16:13,318
and really go after show business again.

1308
01:16:13,401 --> 01:16:14,903
I thank all of you people

1309
01:16:14,987 --> 01:16:18,531
because... you've made
the middle years or the latter years

1310
01:16:18,616 --> 01:16:23,536
or whatever it is in this guy's life,
really exciting, really enjoyable.

1311
01:16:31,670 --> 01:16:33,046
[inaudible]

1312
01:16:47,477 --> 01:16:50,648
[male newscaster] Bing Russell says
he only wanted to do two things in life,

1313
01:16:50,731 --> 01:16:52,775
play ball and act.

1314
01:16:52,858 --> 01:16:54,151
With the Maverick office closed now,

1315
01:16:54,234 --> 01:16:56,612
Russell's apartment walls
tell the Maverick story.

1316
01:16:56,695 --> 01:17:00,157
Five years in Portland,
but never a league championship.

1317
01:17:00,240 --> 01:17:01,700
The main Maverick thinks his ball club,

1318
01:17:01,784 --> 01:17:05,245
said to be the most successful independent
Class A team in baseball history,

1319
01:17:05,328 --> 01:17:06,914
was good for Portland.

1320
01:17:06,997 --> 01:17:09,082
Zany and loved by its fans,
it was a team

1321
01:17:09,166 --> 01:17:11,919
that should have been owned by
a man who describes himself

1322
01:17:12,002 --> 01:17:15,756
as being honest and direct,
with an occasional touch of bad taste.