Netflix’s Red Sox Docuseries ‘The Clubhouse’ Sets Release Date, Teaser
The Boston Red Sox, one of the most storied franchises in baseball, is getting the documentary treatment, and Variety has your first look at the immersive Netflix series.
“The Clubhouse: A Year With the Red Sox” is directed by Emmy-winning filmmaker Greg Whiteley (“Cheer,” “America’s Sweethearts,” “Last Chance U”) and marks the first time Netflix will follow an MLB team over the course of a full season, with unprecedented access into the players’ personal and professional lives.
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The eight episode docuseries, which debuts on April 8, is one of two Red Sox-focused projects at Netflix. “The Comeback,” now streaming, looks back at the legendary 2004 team and tells the story of one of the greatest comebacks in sports history, with the team’s first World Series victory after an 86-year drought. “The Clubhouse” sees Whiteley and his crew embedded with the team two decades later.
A new teaser sets the stakes: the clip begins as Red Sox first baseman Triston Casas walks through the clubhouse and onto the field.
“I’ve dedicated my life to this game,” Casas says in voiceover as he prepares to take his turn at-bat. “It’s tough when you go up there because you’re vulnerable. You can do everything right and still have a bad result.”
It’s a prescient warning because Casas grounds out — and he doesn’t go easy on himself, expressing his frustration while removing his batting gloves. As he hangs his head in the dugout, the voiceover continues: “It’s a bad feeling when you feel like you’re the reason why you’re losing. But you know, the life away from the field can’t be affected by the results on it.”
There, the clip shows shifts focus to another Red Sox player, pitcher Bryan Bello, playing with his newborn before cutting to Bello on the mound.
“I like this clip because even a casual baseball fan has seen a groundout to first hundreds of times,” Whiteley tells Variety in an email. “This routine play becomes doc-worthy when a player like Triston Casas grants us access to his inner monologue and we get a glimpse of the type of mental tightrope these players walk 162+ games a year.”
Helping the viewer gain intimate understanding of the various pressures athletes face is something the sports documentary veteran has perfected over the course of his previous work. “What’s true about Major League Baseball that is also true about junior college, football, basketball and competitive cheer is that the sport is merely an access point,” Whiteley explains. “It’s just the framework we use to try to capture the most personal, complex and human portraits.”
But every project presents its own unique set of challenges, and with filming beginning during the preseason and ending after the final out, Whiteley’s crew faced a massive — and expensive — task. At a preview of the highly-anticipated show during Fenway Fest, he joked that the biggest hurdle to production was that they “blew one-third” of the budget during spring training.
“Our shooting style is different because we try to be everywhere, all the time,” Whitley says about the scope of the show. “Being everywhere, all the time and staying on budget proved tricky. Not impossible, but tricky.
And “The Clubhouse” might not be the crew’s only run around the bases. Whiteley confirms that other MLB teams have reached out about documenting their seasons, though he can’t say who quite yet. If there were to be another installment, would the focus be on multiple teams or just one? “I’m in the process of figuring that out now,” Whiteley teases.
“The Clubhouse: A Year With the Red Sox” is produced by One Potato Productions, Boardwalk Pictures Inc. and Major League Baseball.
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