• New Netflix series follows a season behind the scenes with the Boston Red Sox
  • Personal stories and raw emotion drive the narratives
  • A mediocre season brought to life by expert storytelling
The Boston Red Sox line up at Fenway Park before a Major League Baseball game
Credit: Netflix Credit: Netflix

Field of Dreams, The Natural, Bull Durham, 42, Moneyball, A League of Their Own, The Bad News Bears. The list could go on and on. Cinema’s fascination with baseball is almost as old as film itself. And while Netflix’s The Clubhouse may not have been made for the silver screen, the storytelling and raw human emotion on display throughout all eight episodes is pure Hollywood.

Following the Boston Red Sox’s 2024 season, Greg Whiteley’s docuseries fixates on far more than merely what happens on the diamonds of Fenway Park and ballparks across Major League Baseball’s American League. This is a series that delves into the human psyche; Self doubt, anxiety, depression, gratitude, elation, anger, mental pressure, friendship, self belief, ugliness and heroism.

The Clubhouse – So Much More Than Baseball

The Clubhouse is a series not set against the backdrop of the Boston Red Sox, but of Boston, Massachusetts. Of the nearly 5 million residents of the Greater Boston metropolitan area. It is set against the backdrop of history, of stepping out of the shadows and into the spotlight, then wilting under the glare. It is set against the backdrop of immigration, of the fans from African, Latino, Irish and Italian backgrounds and the players hailing from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Mexico and Curaçao.

Whiteley, an Emmy winning documentarian responsible for Last Chance U, Cheer and Wrestlers, has crafted a directorial approach to his subject matters that means regardless of the field they operate in, you invest in the storyline arcs of the people. Which is just as well in The Clubhouse, as the Red Sox drag their way to an 81-81 season, neither here nor there in terms of success or failure.

But how the nine time World Series champions perform on the field isn’t what you are investing almost eight hours of your time in. Whiteley frames the historical perspective of this nearly 125-year-old American dynasty as a series of grand Hollywood tales.

Cam Booser – Major League Player

Take the story of Cam Booser, for example. A former minor league pitcher with an injury list so severe you’d be forgiven for thinking he’d spent his high school years and his early twenties volunteering as a crash test dummy. There was the broken femur during his sophomore year. Then the vertebra that broke while lifting weights. Oh, and then there was the ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction. And then the 2015 surgery for a labrum tear. Then he was hit by a car.

By 2017, Booser had retired and decided to become a carpenter with his father. In The Clubhouse, he reveals how he struggled with alcohol and substance abuse during his time with Central Arizona, eventually serving a 50-game suspension for a positive marijuana test. At 25 years of age, Booser was retired and without a single major league appearance to his name.

After a return to baseball in 2021, Booser found himself on the Red Sox roster, by way of the Chicago Dogs, Arizona Diamondbacks and Lancaster Barnstormers. Designated to the Red Sox’s Triple-A affiliate the Worcester Red Sox, Booser finds himself summoned to a meeting with Manager Alex Cora and President of baseball operations Craig Breslow. At 31-years-old, Cam Booser is informed he’ll be needed against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Redemption Arcs and Fairytale Endings

Fast forward to the game itself and, with his family in the stands watching on, Booser takes to the field and, despite initially surrendering a lead-off triple, he goes onto record three straight outs to secure the win, including a strikeout of five-time All Star and four-time Silver Slugger Andrew McCutchen.

Booser’s story could be one of a jobbing actor finally landing a bit part role in a Tarantino or Scorsese movie after a decade of waiting tables, extra work and off, off Broadway plays. Maybe it’s the frustrated journalist, slogging his guts out for years as a beat writer at his local, barely read newspaper, only to one day receive a callback from Rolling Stone after they finally got round to reading the clippings he continuously sent months before.

The baseball aspect is actually irrelevant. This is a redemption arc. A fairytale played out countless times on the big screen. But happening in real life and presented with the perfect tone and resonance.

The Clubhouse – The Reality of the American Dream

Whiteley utilises baseball’s ability to reflect the American experience expertly in this series. Of getting what you want but then being uneasy in its possession. In 2004, the Red Sox famously sprung out of the shadows of the New York Yankees. Bringing a first World Series in 86 years back to Fenway Park. Twenty years later and the Red Sox have another three October Classics residing in their trophy cabinet. This is no longer an underdog story, and Whiteley’s direction seizes upon the trials and tribulations of a franchise and a fanbase that has reached the mountain top and has dominated in a manner not too dissimilar from those they loathe the most. The Yankees.

The upshot of this is a fanbase that now expects greatness, rather than yearns for it. And this pressure is reflected in the reactions we see Whiteley and his team capture from the players, both on and off the field. Most notably, outfield superstar Jarren Duran.

The Agony and The Ecstacy

Duran is presented as a budding ace. Someone who could feasibly be the next big thing, alongside Triston Casas and pitcher Brayan Bello. His high profile mistakes are highlighted, as are his crises of confidence. The pressure placed on Duran by both himself, the media and fans is thrust into the stark reality of the human condition when, in episode four, Duran reveals he had attempted suicide in 2022, saying, “I had my rifle and I had a bullet, and I pulled the trigger and the gun clicked, but nothing happened.”

Thankfully, by the 2024 season, Duran is in a healthier place, eventually being selected for last season’s All-Star game in which he was also named the MVP after his home run delivered victory for the American League. Yet a month later, he would be suspended for two games after being caught muttering a homophobic slur towards a heckler. Throughout the production, Whiteley and his team develop Duran’s struggles and self flagellation intricately, aided by the incredible access they received during filming.

There is plenty of very valid criticism thrown Duran’s way following the slur. Sportswriters and Fenway employees alike line up to give their honest thoughts on the matter. Yet this may be the point in the series in which more could have been done. Duran acknowledges, in episode seven, that he regrets letting down young fans with the language he chose to use. But other than that, nothing more is ventured into the topic. In a series which delves into so many personal issues and difficulties, it feels like a misstep to not have pushed further into the situation, especially given the seriousness of the term Duran used.

Eight Essential Episodes

It would have also been interesting to see more of Trevor Story. Although his season ending injury likely curtailed plans for his usage in the series. Rafael Devers is oddly absent for almost the entire show. It is an absence that stands out given his standing within the Red Sox organisation. Not to mention the almost unlimited access Whiteley enjoyed.

However, the showcasing of fragility in the glare of superstardom is laid bare, here. The Clubhouse does not shy away from telling the viewers that life at the top can be lonely (Casas retires ‘home’ to a hotel room after every training session or game at Fenway). This is a series that furthers the proof of how young, impressionable men, especially those with potentially millions of dollars at their disposal, need camaraderie and father figures to steer them in the right direction.

Whiteley draws you in almost immediately from the opening seconds of episode one. You are made to understand the people of Boston. The employees at Fenway. What kind of city and organisation this is. Whiteley shows you the American Dream in various forms. The hope and despair that can spring from both chasing and having it. Baseball or sports fan or not, these eight episodes are more than worthy of your time and attention.

The Clubhouse: A Year With The Red Sox is available to stream now on Netflix

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Joe Baiamonte
Joe spent four years heading up SPORTbible’s editorial team before taking over at UNILAD Sport. Joe has regularly provided WWE coverage for almost a decade, interviewing many of the biggest names in the business and covering several major events in the United States and Europe, including four WrestleManias.
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