Kurt Russell as Baseball Player in Documentary

Kurt Russell Revisits Years as Baseball Player in Documentary

Many think of Kurt Russell as the consummate male movie actor from the 80s and 90s. He is well known for playing tough, hard-nosed characters like Snake Plissken in “Escape from New York” and Jack Burton in “Big Trouble in Little China.” But before he was on the big screen, he was on a baseball diamond, and a new documentary tells his story. Russell’s father, Bing Russell, started his own minor league baseball team called the Portland Mavericks in 1973. He ran the team completely independently and signed many players who had been let go from other teams. The roster was packed with misfits, outcasts, and underdogs. No one expected much from the Mavericks. Despite all of this, the team broke new ground in professional baseball and had a lasting influence. Two of Bing’s grandsons, and Kurt Russell’s nephews, have just debuted a documentary about the exploits of the Portland Mavericks. The title is “The Battered Bastards of Baseball,” and it got quite positive reviews at the Sundance Film Festival. Kurt Russell appears in the film, as he was a player and the vice president of his father’s team. According to TG Daily, there is talk of making the story into a narrative film as well. Will Kurt Russell audition for the acting job of playing his father? Only time will tell.