We are in 2019. French baseball, usually discreet, wakes up one morning with an announcement that seems straight out of a dream. Bruce Bochy — yes, the Bruce Bochy, MLB legend, three-time World Series winner with the San Francisco Giants — is going to become the coach of the French team for the World Baseball Classic qualifications.
An earthquake in the Hexagon.
Past the incredulity, it’s effervescence: journalists, enthusiasts, clubs, everyone wants to be a part of it. Interviews follow one another, articles flourish, and networks ignite. One of them, Scott Stevenson, an American who has been living in France for a long time, immediately feels that something unique is happening. A video editor by profession, he lives baseball every day thanks to his son, a player in Montigny and Saint-Germain-en-Laye. He then decides to take out his camera: he must keep a record of this adventure.
« I was in the United States, he says. I found just the minimum means to be there, the morning of the first training session, in Arizona, on March 2, 2020. I started filming as everything was just beginning there. »
Around Bochy, the players are living a dream come true. Meeting a monument of world baseball, discussing strategy, sharing the field with a man who has known the heights, is an unforgettable experience. They all say it: they will give everything for this blue jersey with the rooster.
At the Federation, Didier Seminet, then president, remembers: everything started with a meeting… around a bottle of Bordeaux. Because Bochy, before being an icon of American baseball, was born in Bussac-Forêt, in Nouvelle-Aquitaine. The project then takes on its full meaning. At a time when he was about to enjoy a quiet retirement, (we will learn later that retirement did not sound, it was even crowned with a new MLB title with the Rangers). The idea of reconnecting with his roots seduces the man.
But the story takes a drastic turn. Covid joins the party. Confinements, restrictions, canceled competitions: the dream is abruptly interrupted. The disappointment is immense. Yet Scott doesn’t give up.
Then comes the tournament. Scott is back on the job:
« I had a month’s notice, he explains. I had to stop everything, find a team, equipment, and go on site to capture this moment. We followed Bochy on the roads, from his birthplace in Bussac-Forêt to Toulouse, then to Regensburg, Germany, for the competition. »
« I had a very small budget, he confides. It was a DIY system, but the will to see it through was stronger. With my English producer and a small team, we continued between Toulouse and Germany. Then Bochy was gone, but the story had to be told. »
The documentary finally sees the light of day. Bochy and the blues — 77 minutes of pure emotion. We find the amazed looks of the players, the crazy hopes of a qualification, and this contagious energy of an entire sport that starts to believe. No miracle on the field, but a collective dream that has awakened French baseball.
The first screening took place in Clermont-Ferrand last September, at the initiative of the Avernes club. Others will follow: the Federation wants to bring this film to life in clubs, schools, and associations, everywhere where the heart of tricolor baseball beats.
Because, in the end, more than a sports story, Bochy and the blues» is the story of a meeting, of a dream become possible, and of a passion that refuses to fade.
