BRONX, NY – The Yankees are a franchise with a storied history. It’s the players that made them who they are. There is an upcoming documentary filmed by William O”Connell titled, “The Boss’ Batboy.” It goes beyond the ballers and centers on the batboy. That batboy is Ray Negron, who started his unlikely journey wearing Yankee pinstripes and being stationed down the right field line on the same day after vandalizing the side of “The Cathedral”, known as Yankee Stadium, and getting caught red-handed by new owner, George Steinbrenner.
Instead of having Ray arrested, the Boss “punished” him by having him dress in Yankee pinstripes, instead of prison stripes. He stationed him down the right field line instead of behind bars.
This all put Ray in place to become the luckiest kid on the face of the Bronx. The doc tells the story of how it all happened and centers on the life of Ray Negron, who goes deeper into his life and shows he’s more than a batboy.
O’Connell put together a string of cameo appearances that is a “who’s who” of the movie and sports world. They all talk about the Boss’ Batboy and the good he’s accomplished since that day in 1973 when peer pressure led to his delinquent act of defacing a wall which behind it employed his Yankee heroes. Chazz Palminteri, along with his wife Gianna are the producers of The Boss’ Batboy, and it was Steinbrenner who once said that he and Ray mirrored each other’s life referring to Chazz’s iconic movie, “A Bronx Tale.” A recent preview of the doc at the Yogi Berra Learning Center in Montclair, NJ was met with a positive response with Maria Cooper Janis, daughter of the legendary actor Gary Cooper, capturing the audience which included Yankees alumni, Roy White during the Q & A session with stories about her dad, who entered Yankees lore by portraying Lou Gehrig in “The Pride of the Yankees.”
Interviews with Thurman Munson’s widow, Diana and Yankee folk heroes Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden pack a powerful punch that will have one reaching for a tissue.
The doc lasts seventy minutes and could easily have turned into a short series to show a life that could have turned into a strikeout, but instead ends with a grand slam
