I finally got around to watching The Battered Bastards of Baseball on Netflix Monday night. I would highly recommend it to any baseball fan, or fans of Bing Russell or Kurt Russell. It’s the story of the Portland Mavericks, an independent A-Ball team that replaced the AAA Beavers when they moved north to Washington state. At the time, they were the only independent team in minor league baseball.
One thing that the documentary didn’t explain, however, was why the team did so well in terms of winning games. The narrative of the film is that this group of castoffs, playing for the only independent minor league team in the country, could beat the prospects hand picked by major league clubs. The major leagues must have missed something in releasing this talent. I think the truth is a bit simpler. Many of the Mavericks better players were veteran minor leaguers. They were released but still in or near their primes. Their competition at A Ball was raw talent, players between 18 and 21 years of age. Imagine a AA team getting to play a season against A-Ball talent. That was pretty much the reason for why the team did so well. It wasn’t that MLB didn’t judge the talent correctly, the talent on the Mavericks was simply better due to age and experience.
Nonetheless, the Mavericks made baseball fun again in Portland, so much so that three years later the Beavers moved back. It’s a great piece of baseball history, so watch it when you get the chance.
from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/2hSqtR2
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