Batter Up!

     As for documentaries at Sundance, THE BATTERED BASTARDS OF BASEBALL stepped up to the plate and made a grand slam!  What could be more perfect than an underdog story?  Nothing really.  Even the birth of America is one and henceforth, it has become a trademark that generations have identified with.  This tends to be particularly expressed through sports, and with the invention of baseball, there has been little else to rival the title of America's favorite pastime.
     Surrounding the creation and success of the 1972 independent baseball team, the Portland Mavericks, co-directors and brothers, Chapman and Maclain Way, brought to life the story of one of the most controversial teams in baseball history, proving that "stealing chances and being reckless" is the only way to play true baseball.  Actor and professional baseball player, Bing Russel (you may know him best from his long-running stint in westerns), moved from California all the way to Oregon after the league had recently pulled the professional grade Beavers from the area.  His goal?  To make a team that could stand independently from a regimented set of rules and regulations and produce talent that understood that playing baseball was all about having fun.  Bing's son, Kurt Russell (an obvious well-known name in Hollywood) also played on the team with his father before moving on to the big leagues.  Interviewed in the documentary as an obvious homage to his father, Kurt made it quite clear that his father wanted nothing more than to make his players and the city of Portland feel like a family.
     Even with Bing's death eleven years ago, the legacy of life and baseball that he created, thrives through this film.  This resonates even deeper since the directors are actually the grandsons of Bing Russell.  And yes, while it's undeniably true that the documentary is about baseball, it is more than that.  It is about the American dream--it's about supporting something that you believe in.  And who doesn't like a story about that?