00:01Long before steroids and multi-million dollar contracts,
00:05there was a truly independent ball club.
00:08A bunch of guys who were hopeless dreamers looking for a second chance.
00:13In short, the best kind of people.
00:18When we first heard about Bing Russell,
00:20there was this buzz about, well, who's Bing Russell?
00:22My name's The Magnificent Seven,
00:24and he's the sheriff from Bonanza.
00:26My dad got killed 126 times, I think it was.
00:32Why would Bing Russell come to Portland?
00:35Bing was out to prove that independent baseball could work.
00:38I think we charged Bing $500 for the franchise.
00:41So we started from scratch.
00:43We're gonna have open trials.
00:45Show us for the fools that we are coming from Hollywood.
00:49We'd expect maybe 40 or 50 people to show up,
00:51and I think 300 showed up.
00:53Guys who drove, you know, clear across the country
00:55and sacrificed this or sold this
00:57just for the chance to come and try out for the team.
00:59I don't care, you know, about the money.
01:01I just wanna play ball.
01:03There was no press handlers.
01:05There was no groomed image.
01:07There was just these furry, hairy, funny, great bunch of guys.
01:11The things that happened on the field were absolutely insane.
01:15Organized baseball didn't like Bing,
01:18and they did everything they could to make sure Bing didn't win.
01:23You couldn't stand him.
01:25They couldn't stand him.
01:27Portland is the greatest baseball city in the world.
01:30We broke attendance records in the entire minor leagues that year.
01:34We really emphasized fun.
01:37The fans loved it.
01:38I've never seen a ball team and fans behave the way they did with the Mavericks.
01:45He created the most successful team in the history of minor league baseball.
01:49This is gonna be magic.
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