The Battered Bastards of Baseball

In the 1970s, actor Bing Russell (Kurt Russell's dad), formed an independent minor league baseball team, the Portland Mavericks. It was, at the time, the only minor-league team in the country not affiliated with a MLB franchise. The documentary is about that team, its history, some of the people involved (which includes Kurt Russell, who played for them for at least a season or two), and their ultimate fate when Major League Baseball got in a snit and decided to wipe them out.

Russell basically holds open tryouts for anyone who wants to try and make the team, and ends up with a bunch of guys wanting to take one last shot at pro ball. Wanting to prove some team was wrong to give up on them, or just figuring it's worth a try. So you end up with a cast of characters - at the end of the film, it's mentioned that one of their best players was declared missing in 1984 and no one has any idea where he is - and the team owner is more than willing to just let these guys be themselves as long as they play hard.

There are interviews with several players, coaches, Kurt Russell, the head of the Northwest League (the league the Mavericks were in), local sportswriters, and these are mixed with footage from interviews and actual games the Mavericks played. There's a ton of interesting facts and backstory in there (before he created the Mavericks, Bing made a series of baseball fundamentals films that more than one MLB franchise used with their players). The fondness everyone involved had for the team really shines through, as does the bitterness with how MLB tried to protect its image or hegemony with a constant stream of petty shit.

I don't know if it will interest someone who doesn't care about baseball, but it's only 80 minutes long, so it's probably worth a try if you have Netflix.