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Portland Mavericks

Portland Mavericks
19731977
Portland, Oregon
Class-level
Previous Class A-Short Season
Minor league affiliations
Division South (1973),
West (1974),
North (1975, 1976),
Independent (1977)
Previous leagues
Northwest League
(1973–1977)
Major league affiliations
Previous Independent
(1973–1977)
Minor league titles
League titles none
Division titles 1973, 1975, 1976, 1977
Team data
Nickname Mavs
Colors      "Streetwalker Red"
     "Dig Black"
     "Snow White"
Ballpark Civic Stadium
(1973–1977)
Owner(s)/
Operator(s)
Bing Russell
Manager Hank Robinson
Frank "The Flake" Peters
Jack Spring
Steve "Cut" Collette
General Manager Lanny Moss,
Bob Levesque

The Portland Mavericks were an independent professional baseball team in the northwestern United States, based in Portland, Oregon. They began play in the short-season Class A Northwest League in 1973, after the Portland Beavers of the Pacific Coast League left after the 1972 season and became the Spokane Indians. The Mavericks operated as an independent club in Portland for five seasons, until the return of the PCL in 1978, and played home games on artificial turf at Civic Stadium in Portland.

The Mavericks were owned by ex-minor league player and television actor Bing Russell, and were initially the league's only independent club. As owner, Russell kept all corporate sponsorship outside the gates, and hired professional baseball's first female general manager, as well as the first Asian American general manager. Russell's motto in life was one three-lettered word: "fun".

Ex-major leaguers and never-weres who could not stop playing the game flocked to the team's June try-outs, which were always open to anyone who showed up. Most of the Mavericks players were older than their opponents and had been released by other organizations, not all for baseball reasons alone. For this reason, Russell kept a 30-man roster because he believed some players deserved to have one last season.

Among the various castoffs who made up the Mavericks' roster was former major league pitcher Jim Bouton, who made a comeback with the Mavericks in 1975 after having been out of baseball since retiring in 1970.

Bing Russell's son, actor Kurt Russell, played for the club for a month in its inaugural season in 1973. The first-year Mavericks' Hollywood connection was not limited to the Russells; manager Hank Robinson (1923–2012) was a character actor, and players Robbie Robinson, Jason Tatar, and Ken Medlock all had long careers as actors. Perhaps the team's most successful Hollywood story is that of Maverick batboy Todd Field, who went on to have a long career as an actor before becoming a three-time Academy Award-nominated writer and director.


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