On Friday, a new documentary on the history of Alaska baseball, “Touching the Game: Alaska,” will be featured as part of the Midnight Sun Game weekend of activities.
After Friday’s game, which starts at 4 p.m., there will be a parade to Pioneer Park, where the high-definition documentary will be premiered. The Midnight Sun Game is June 21 at 10:30 p.m.
Four Massachusetts filmmakers spent two years following the teams in the Alaska League. They sent me an advance copy of the DVD, and it is about as in-depth a look at the world of Alaska baseball that we might ever see. Jim Carroll and Anthony Keel are the producers.
While some of it is “inside baseball” material, of interest mainly to the most devoted of Alaska League historians, there are great details on the roles played by Red Boucher, Bill Stroecker, Don Dennis, Ralph Seekins and others responsible for the creation and growth of the Alaska League.
The documentary, which doesn’t neglect the other Alaska teams or their supporters, will be shown at 7 p.m. at the Pioneer Park theater.
It includes archival footage of the Panners from their earliest days and interviews with former major league players like Tom Seaver, Dave Winfield and Bill Lee who played in Alaska.
One of the great scenes early in the DVD is of Boucher when he competed on “Name That Tune” in 1956, a brush with fame that led to advice from John F. Kennedy that Henry Aristide Boucher sample life in the Far North.
One of the great scenes near the end shows Boucher in a wheelchair outside the dugout of the Anchorage Glacier Pilots. He suffered a stroke four years ago that made it hard for him to speak, but he showed the same gung-ho attitude he applied to every waking moment. He is seen giving a pep talk to the Pilots.
“I used to tell my guys I was in the Navy for 20 years. I used to tell my guys you’re like a bunch of Marines landing on the beach, eat ’em up,” Boucher tells the players.
After his Navy career, Red ran a sporting goods store in Fairbanks and was the founder and first manager of the Alaska Goldpanners. He later served as mayor of Fairbanks, lieutenant governor, state legislator and as an advocate of using technology to improve communications in Alaska.
Boucher is now bedridden and under hospice care at his home in Anchorage.
He was a natural promoter and one of his legendary stunts, putting a black bear in the dugout as a team mascot, is covered in the film.
As Boucher became more involved in politics in the 1960s, Don Dennis became the leading organizer of the Panners, a role he has filled for more than 40 years. He is the exact opposite of Boucher in his approach to the public, always Mr. Low-key.
“If it hadn’t been for Don, no matter what anybody tells you, there wouldn’t be an Alaska League,” former Panner manager Jim Dietz says on the film.
“Everybody in Alaska has an opinion — they’re independent,” Dietz said.
There never has been much of an argument in Fairbanks about Dennis’ leading role with the Panners.
Brendan Ryan, now with the St. Louis Cardinals, told the filmmakers that the Goldpanners’ record of sending former players to the Major Leagues is impressive.
“I’m pretty proud of that fact and I’m glad to be part of that history now,” said the member of the 2002 Panner team.
For more on the history of Alaska baseball, drop by Pioneer Park on Friday at 7 p.m. for “Touching the Game: Alaska.”
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