When showbiz and baseball meet
The Show: The Battered Bastards of Baseball The Moment: Kurt (swoon) Russell
“Our first game, we knew we were winning,” says the actor Kurt Russell about playing for the Portland Mavericks, a scrappy, independent, Class A baseball team, back in the 1970s.
“But then we realized, ‘Wait a minute, have they even gotten a hit?’ ” He grins.
“Our first game was a 4-0 no-hitter. We looked at each other and said, ‘This is gonna be magic.’ ”
That’s a good word for this 2014 documentary, directed by Chapman Way and Maclain Way, about the Mavericks, whose run was brief (1973 to 1978) but legendary.
In 1973, baseball was already a corporate affair. Independent ball clubs, which once numbered in the hundreds, had dwindled to zero. But Kurt Russell’s dad, Bing Russell, a journeyman actor whose biggest credit was 13 years on Bonanza, so loved the game, he financed his own independent team. He held open auditions, hiring a rogue’s gallery of funny, hairy, paunchy guys, then used his knowledge of show business to whip them into a sensation.
Kurt doesn’t dominate the story; he appears just enough to remind us what a shaggy, sexy guy he’s always been (check out the still from ’73, him in gym shorts with piping, knocking back a beer). This doc shows us the roots of his all-American naturalism and makes me think that, though he’s not Jeff Bridges, he’s ripe for a Bridges-style renaissance. I hope some new guy with deep pockets steps up and finances a feature version of this ballpark Animal House, so Kurt can play his dad. The Battered Bastards of Baseball streams on Netflix. Johanna Schneller is a media connoisseur who zeroes in on popculture moments. She usually appears Monday through Thursday. She is taking a break until Sept. 19.