The Swingin' A's

Hollywood veteran Bing Russell creates the only independent baseball team in the country—alarming the baseball establishment and sparking the meteoric rise of the 1970s Portland Mavericks.

With one swing of a bat, Bobby Thomson became a legend. His dramatic home run on October 3, 1951, led the New York Giants to win the National League pennant over the rival Brooklyn Dodgers. This documentary looks at the teams, personalities and events that combined to create one of the most heated pennant races ever witnessed...one that ended with an unforgettable homer.

Jim Bouton's 1970 book "Ball Four" was groundbreaking, shocking, and controversial. It sold in the millions. 40 years later, Bouton and former teammates spin hilarious stories from behind baseball's cloistered clubhouses, giving a rare glimpse inside Major League baseball in the 1960s. The book's cultural impact is examined by filmmaker and former pro baseball player Ron Shelton ("Bull Durham"), author Jean Hastings Ardell, and David Kipen, former director of literature for the NEA.

The life and times of Yankee Yogi Berra, whose unique personality and unforgettable Yogi-isms sometimes got in the way of his being recognized as one of baseball’s very greatest catchers.

Every year in June, nearly 2,000 athletes out of high school and college are chosen from an amateur baseball draft to play in the minor leagues. This inspiring documentary follows the lives of two young players on their arduous journey to launch Major League Baseball careers. As one faces his final year to tryout, another player wrestles with the pressure of keeping his million-dollar first-round draft contract intact. This thrilling and emotional journey illuminates the power determination can have on whether dreams are achieved or lost.

Chronicling the Mariners' memorable run to their first-ever AL West title in 1995, when a team led by Ken Griffey Jr. and Randy Johnson helped keep baseball in the Pacific Northwest and punctuated the season with a stirring ALDS win over the Yankees.

The story of Boston fans, from their "birth" as the 200 "Roxbury Rooters" in 1897 to their transformation into millions known today as RED SOX NATION. Through rare images and film the saga is told by Boston baseball legends like Johnny Pesky and Peter Gammons, historians, Red Sox players and officials, everyday fans and the Red Sox Nation members descended from the original "Rooters".

Born in 1918 in San Diego, Williams was a latchkey child from a broken home, raised by a mother more dedicated to the Salvation Army than to her two sons, and by a father who spent more time away from home than in it. Williams found salvation by doing the one thing he loved most: hitting baseballs. In his rookie season with the Red Sox, where he would spend his entire career as a player, Williams batted .327, socked 31 homers and led the league with 145 RBI. Over the next 21 years, despite losing five seasons of his prime to active service as a U.S. Marine Corps pilot, Williams hit 521 home runs, twice captured the Triple Crown, and became the oldest man ever to win a batting title. He finished his career with a .344 lifetime batting average, was the last man to hit over .400 in a full season, batting .406 in 1941, and was a first-ballot inductee into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Since Little League Baseball was founded in 1939, about 40 million kids have played the sport. The list includes future Hall of Famers like Carl Yastrzemski, Tom Seaver and Nolan Ryan, and hundreds of other future Major Leaguers. But of all the kids who ever played Little League, the best of the best was a boy you’ve probably never heard of: Art “Pinky” Deras. In the summer of 1959, he led the team from Hamtramck, Mich., to the Little League World Series title, and in the process, he put together a Little League season the likes of which we might never see again. His amazing story comes to life in “The Legend of Pinky Deras: The Greatest Little-Leaguer There Ever Was,” a new film from Blue Hammer Films. Pinky received a ton of national publicity back in 1959, but then he fell off the map. In the half-century since he lit the Little League world on fire, there have been no films about him, no magazine stories, not even a single newspaper article.

Chronicling Latin baseball players in the minor leagues as they experience the ups and downs of pursuing the dream of playing in the Major Leagues.

In December 2021, Hideki Kuriyama began devoting his days to one singular goal: hoisting the championship trophy at the 2023 World Baseball Classic. How did he mold his players into one of the best and strongest Samurai Japan teams in history? A close-up documentary that looks back on Samurai Japan's path to becoming world champions, along with valuable behind-the-scenes footage captured by the team's dedicated crew.