Popular reviews

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  Review by Scott Tobias ★★★½ 1

  What a treat. I didn't know the story of the Portland Mavericks, the Class-A ballclub that was the one and only non-affiliated independent operation in minor league baseball. And I certainly didn't know it was started by Kurt Russell's dad and that it was a stepping stone to Jim Bouton's comeback as a knuckleballer or that it was a wacky and inspiring success. Legit, crazy-ass feel-good stuff.

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  Review by Dan Abel ★★★★

  In the early 1970s minor league baseball left the city of Portland, Oregon. Hollywood actor Bing Russell, father of Kurt Russell was a huge baseball fan and decided to take a break from acting and found a new team in Portland with his own money. Thus the Portland Mavericks were born, the only independent team in the league consisting of a cast of characters and professional players who's major league careers ended too soon. When they became successful in the face of Major League Baseball, the behemoth monopoly of a league set it sights on destroying the Mavericks and reclaiming the territory for themselves.

  Before today I had no idea that Kurt Russell's father was an actor or a baseball…

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  Review by Mike D'Angelo ★★★½

  64/100

  Like most sports, baseball bores me to tears, so I fully expected to turn this off after a 10-minute courtesy sample. But I'd had no idea that its key figure is Kurt Russell's dad, and soon found myself irresistibly sucked into its real-life Bad News Bears saga, which is chock-full of colorful characters and startling plot twists that any screenwriter would be proud to have invented. Friends of mine who are sports buffs had lukewarm reactions, with one of them calling it overly familiar and another complaining that it's just a random assortment of anecdotes (seemed straightforwardly chronological to me), so maybe it plays better to heathens like myself? All I can say is that I almost never voluntarily sit through talking-head docs, so the fact that I made it to the end of this one should give you a sense of what a fantastic story it tells, at least for those who don't already know it.

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  Review by Sonny_Jim ★★★½ 4

  I don't even really like baseball* but I've now watched this twice, so make of that what you will.

  Former actor Bing Russell (yep, Kurt's dad) gets the borderline crazy idea to launch an indie minor league team in Portland, with no affiliation or financial backing from any Major League franchise. Open tryouts yield a team of shaggy-haired, free-spirited goofballs trying to keep their dreams alive. (If you've watched any sports movies, you are familiar with this premise.) The newly christened Mavericks are rag-tag and plucky, but they actually win (a lot). The Seventies were a great era for iconoclasts in sports and entertainment, so it's not surprising the real-life Bad News Bears dynamic here played so well with the…

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  Review by r_emmet ★ 2

  Surprisingly, a documentary about Bing Russell's independent baseball team, featuring his son Kurt Russell, and directed by Kurt's children, is an uncritical whitewash.

  Everything about the doc is misleading. It presents the Portland Mavericks as a ragtag group of underdogs against an evil corporate baseball system. The team was made up of 25-30 year old ex-pros playing at the Single A level, against mostly 18-20 year olds straight out of high school and college. Every other team in the league were the underdogs against the Mavericks. No one from the MLB of that period is interviewed to provide context, because they would have undermined the hardscrabble narrative.

  And then take the jaunty epilogue regarding Mavericks coach Frank Peters, who is…

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  Review by Graham J ★★★★ 5

  "Yes! But, you can't just say it, man. You've gotta feel it in your blood and guts! If you wanna rock, you gotta break the rules"

  
  The Battered Bastards of Baseball is a warm documentary about Kurt Russell's Dad. Seriously.

  If you never knew about Bing Russell and what he did for baseball throughout the 70's, then here is an education.

  Being a Brit, Baseball isn't 'my' sport but since a young age i've had a strong affection for it. Through a love of Field of Dreams to A League of their Own and repeated incredible visits to the states in my younger years, I developed a love of American culture and the people. I could never get my head…

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  Review by 12drue 🎞️ ★★★★ 5

  Sportfilme 🏀🏈🎯🎱🏏🏐🏑🎾⛳⚾⚽ Community Weekend 05-07.08.2022
  unter der Leitung von Coach Lennart

  Als Bonanza abgesetzt wurde, gründet der Schauspieler Bing Russel, der in über 100 Folgen den Hilfssheriff gespielt hatte, mit den Mavericks das erste nicht kommerzielle Baseball-Team der USA. Dort spielt nicht nur sein Sohn Kurt mit, sondern es wird Heimat für viele Spieler, die in anderen Teams nicht (mehr) gewollt sind. Von der Konkurrenz zunächst belächelt, mausert sich das chaotische Team nach einigen Siegen schnell zum Publikumsliebling.
  Diese Dokumentation erzählt eine Underdog-Story, wie sie sich Hollywood nicht besser hätte ausdenken können.
  Es ist wirklich erstaunlich, was Bing Russel geschafft und hier in weiten Teilen von einem in Erinnerung schwelgenden Kurt Russell berichtet wird.
  Natürlich lässt sich hinterfragen, inwieweit die…

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  Review by 🐱Andrew Chrzanowski🐱 ★★★½

  ☆"They lead the league in stubble."☆

  NOPEtober 2021 -- Film #14 of 31

  Good stuff.

  Made a slight alteration to the NOPEtober list, as this film seemed like a perfect addition, and Dad is here for one more night.

  There's a great story in this Netflix documentary, probably one of their oldest films -- this list has it as only their 4th ever released -- entertaining but a little conventional. It's a good thing there are so many archival clips and such a wealth of wonderful footage of the 70s era, but as some have said it's possible this whole story would also work okay as a long New Yorker article or oral history on The Athletic or something. That'd be fine, but I like movies, and The Battered Bastards of Baseball is 80 minutes of heart and joy.

  Dad fell asleep.

  Friend who wrote a better review than me: Tyler Dieckmann.

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  Review by Matt LaFemina ★★★½

  Interesting story, but not the most riveting documentary. I loved learning about Bing Russell as he seemed like a real pioneer. I actually think this story could have been better told as a narrative film. After all we’ve had Moneyball made into a movie and these characters seem far more interesting.

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  Review by Geoffrey Broomer ★★★★

  With a longtime love of baseball, when western character actor Bing Russell (father of Kurt) took a step back from the acting life, he created an independent team in the 70s that enjoyed tremendous success for a few years before being snuffed out by the majors. The Battered Bastards of Baseball (2014) looks at Bing's passion project, The Portland Mavericks, who revitalized the game's popularity in the area following the departure of the Triple A, Portland Beavers. Many of the keynote personas, from academy award winning batboys, blacklisted pitchers, big league chew inventors, and the Russell family provide first hand accounts, aided by archival footage, presenting a loving portrait of the man and his team.

  Even if you don't understand, like or appreciate the sport of baseball, you will find something to enjoy here.

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  Review by justinC ★★★½

  Being the Baseball fan I am I was shocked I had never heard of this important, unique part of the history of the game.

  More entertaining that I could have even hoped for.

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  Review by Andy Summers 🤠 ★★★★½

  I lost track of the amount of times I filled up during this absolute treat of a documentary. Hard to believe that Kurt Russell's dad was cooler than he was, even with Bonanza on his cv, but what he did back in the early Seventies with the Portland Mavericks is the stuff legends are made of, and in Portland I believe he might be. There were so many moments in this doc when I had a huge smile on my face at the antics of this bunch of goofballs who were given the chance to play the game they loved without the corporate assholes of the MLB telling them they were too old, too fat, or simply not good enough.…