The Bingo Long Traveling All Stars and Motor Kings

Plot

Tired of being treated like a slave by team owner Sallison Potter (Ted Ross), charismatic star pitcher Bingo Long (Billy Dee Williams) steals a bunch of Negro League players away from their teams, including catcher/slugger Leon Carter (James Earl Jones) and Charlie Snow (Richard Pryor), a player forever scheming to break into the segregated Major League Baseball of the 1930s by masquerading as first a Cuban ("Carlos Nevada"), then a Native American ("Chief Takahoma"). They take to the road, barnstorming through small Midwestern towns, playing the local teams to make ends meet. One of the opposing players, 'Esquire' Joe Calloway (Stan Shaw), is so good that they recruit him.

Bingo's team becomes so outlandishly entertaining and successful, it begins to cut into the attendance of the established Negro League teams. Finally, Bingo's nemesis Potter is forced to propose a winner-take-all game: if Bingo's team can beat a bunch of all-stars, it can join the league, but if it loses, the players will return to their old teams. Potter has two of his goons kidnap Leon prior to the game as insurance, but he escapes and is key to his side's victory.

Ironically, there is a major league scout in the audience. After the game, he offers Esquire Joe the chance to break the color barrier; with Bingo's blessing, he accepts. Leon glumly foresees the decline of the Negro League as more players follow Esquire Joe's lead, but Bingo, ever the optimist, cheers him up by describing the wild promotional stunts he intends to stage to bring in the paying customers.

Cast

Negro League tie-ins

Some characters and situations are loosely based upon real-life people and incidents. Badham grew up in Birmingham, Alabama and was familiar with the Birmingham Black Barons, who shared Rickwood Field with the white Birmingham Barons.

Bingo Long is based on former-Black Baron Leroy "Satchel" Paige. Early in his career, Paige would call in his outfield while leading in the ninth inning against an amateur or semi-pro team and strike out the side. Bingo did a similar stunt in this movie. Leon Carter is a Josh Gibson-like power hitter, even playing the same position (catcher). "Esquire" Joe Calloway is an amalgam of another Black Baron, Willie Mays (in personality, talent, and fielding position) and Jackie Robinson (as being signed by a white team at the film's end).

The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings were loosely based on the Indianapolis Clowns and other barnstorming Negro baseball teams, who likewise engaged in Harlem Globetrotters-like clowning routines.

Production

Luther Williams Field in Macon, Georgia was used for filming as the Negro League ballpark. Luther Williams Field was home to the Macon Music, a minor league team in the independent South Coast League. Additional ballpark scenes were shot at Morgan Field in Macon, a Pony and Colt League Youth Baseball field, Grayson Stadium in Savannah, Georgia, home of the Savannah Sand Gnats of the Class A South Atlantic League, and Wallace Field in Crawford County, Georgia. Exterior scenes set in St. Louis residential neighborhoods were also filmed in Savannah. Scenes set in rural communities were filmed in Talbotton, Georgia and various small towns around Macon, including Monticello, Georgia. Some ballplayers were played by actual former athletes, including former members of the Indianapolis Clowns, who performed various stunts shown in the film.

Steven Spielberg originally wanted to have a hand in producing the movie until the success of his film Jaws got his full attention.

Accolades

The film was nominated for the American Film Institute's 2008 AFI's 10 Top 10 in the sports film category.