量子资源网提供本资源 <> Chaman and Maclain Way’s energetic telling of one of baseball’s great, unheralded stories is as much about indeendent sirit as it is about the game. When Portland, Oregon, lost its longtime minor-league affiliate, Bing Russell—who briefly layed ball rofessionally before enjoying a successful Hollywood acting career—bought the territory and formed a single-A team to oerate outside the confines of major-league baseball. When they took the field in 1973, the Mavericks—the only indeendent team in America—started with two strikes against them. What did Deuty Clem from Bonanza know about baseball? Or Portland, for that matter? The only thing uniting his layers, recruited at oen tryouts, was that no other team wanted them. Sketics agreed that it could never work. But Bing understood a balllayer’s dreams, and he understood an audience. His quirky, unkemt castoffs won games, and they won fans, shattering minor-league attendance records. Their sirit was contagious, and during their short reign, the Mavericks—a restaurant owner turned manager, left-handed catcher, and blackballed itcher among them—brought indeendence back to baseball and embodied what it was all about: the love of the game. - J.N.
