BOSTON — In the planning stages for nearly four years, filmed over a period of eight months last season and edited for much of last winter, a new documentary series that chronicles the Red Sox’ 2024 season is set to be released Tuesday on Netflix. The series, entitled The Clubhouse: A Year with the Red […]
BOSTON — In the planning stages for nearly four years, filmed over a period of eight months last season and edited for much of last winter, a new documentary series that chronicles the Red Sox’ 2024 season is set to be released Tuesday on Netflix.
The series, entitled The Clubhouse: A Year with the Red Sox, was directed by Greg Whiteley, a four-time Emmy winner who has directed a number of other sports-themed documentaries, all of them for Netflix.
The project’s roots date back to 2022, when Major League Baseball approached Netflix with an idea to produce a behind-the-scenes look at one team’s season.
“With Major League Baseball,” said Whiteley on MassLive’s Fenway Rundown podcast, “it began with them saying, ‘We don’t want editorial control and we want to start having some conversations (with prospective teams). We think we’ve got a handful of teams that will raise their hand, they’ll want to be part of this and (you’ll) pick one.’ And so we did.
“And it became obvious as we met with a handful of teams that Major League Baseball wanted us to meet with, that there was just one team that was really ready to do this more than any other, and that was the Boston Red Sox.”
That enthusiasm was led by president and CEO Sam Kennedy, who had been actively looking for ways to leverage the team’s brand in unique ways while also marketing the game to a wider audience. Players also approved the project, with former player representative Nick Pivetta among those excited.
“From an organizational standpoint,” recalled Whiteley, “they immediately understood what we were trying to do and were completely supportive of it. And I mean completely, from the ownership to the front office to the manager and then, eventually, the players.”
All-access sports documentaries such as these have become popular in recent years, and Whiteley said he thinks he understands why.
“I can only speak for me,” he said, “but what I find interesting about covering sports is that you’ve got intense people that are really hard to do something. And what sports affords us is a schedule. The whole key to our storytelling is, can I find someone that the audience would fall in love with and would begin to empathize with them.
“And how I would measure that love is, can I discern that the audience will begin to want what (the player) wants? And then, can I film whether or not they get it? … I’ve learned in this style of storytelling, it really doesn’t matter whether or not they actually get it. You just have to film them trying hard to get it and film whether or not they actually get it.”
As it turned out, the 2004 Red Sox season was thoroughly — and literally — average, with the team finishing in third place with an 81-81 mark.
But from the start of spring training until Game No. 162, Whiteley and his crew — which at times numbered in the dozens — captured a number of players, some of whom star in the series’ eight episodes, many of which are focused on their off-field lives.
“There are certain players that you keep going back to and they become what become main characters,” Whitely said. “None of that is decided ahead of time. Along that process, themes organically emerge.”
One episode details the struggles of Brayan Bello, whose Dominican-born wife and child could not obtain a visa to come visit him in the U.S., leaving Bello to battle homesickness and loneliness.
Another chronicles journeyman reliever Cam Booser, who made his major league debut at 32 last year. And in the most compelling episode of the series, outfielder Jarren Duran talks openly about his struggles with his mental health, including the revelation that he attempted suicide years ago.
“I will say that I spent enough time with Jarren that I began to suspect that there may be something like (the suicide attempt) in his background,” Whiteley recalled. “I also began to suspect that he was very comfortable talking about it.
“I got the impression it was something he feels as sort of an obligation (to discuss), as he’s explained it to me, to anybody that would be struggling with mental illness and the loneliness that comes with it. As a result, I think he’s looked at it almost as a calling.”
There are also more baseball-centric episodes, including one that documents what goes on during the trade deadline and another that focuses on former radio broadcaster Joe Castiglione’s final month behind the microphone.
The docuseries, provided in advance to media outlets like MassLive who cover the Red Sox, will be available Tuesday, April 8, on the streaming service.
