Have you seen the new Netflix documentary on Portland’s baseball heyday? It’s FREE to anyone who has a streaming account on Netflix. Titled The Battered Bastards of Baseball, it’s about the brief but brilliant history of the Portland Mavericks independent baseball team. The owner of the team was a Hollywood cowboy star, Bing Russell, whose son, Kurt Russell, has appeared in numerous films himself. Kurt is also famous for being Goldie Hawn’s partner.
I confess I never saw a Portland Mavericks baseball game, since I was living in the Middle East and Europe at the time. But when I came back to Portland and was working at The Oregonian, I remember that the team’s manager, Frank Peters, made frequent late-night visits to the newsroom, usually with a couple of attractive women at his side.
But Peters’ face was not the only one I recognized in this very entertaining documentary. I recognized old friends in journalism, including Paul Linnman and Nick Bertram.
The film also made me miss Portland baseball. Come home, Portland Beavers!
But there’s hope — er, hops. The Hillsboro Hops, to be exact. Friends report that their games are great fun and for a great price, too. Tickets start at just $7. The Hops have some home games coming up next week: Sunday, July 27, at 4:05 p.m.; and Monday and Tuesday, July 28 and 29, at 7:05 p.m. All those games are against Boise. There are lots more home games scheduled for August, with September’s only home game being on Labor Day, September 1, at 7:05 p.m., against Eugene.
For more information, check out the Hops’ website. You can purchase tickets here.
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