The Sioux City Explorers team, management and owners along with friends of manager Ed Nottle will welcome the film’s producer, Julie Campbell, and screenwriter, Trent Smither. Ed Nottle is the film’s technical consultant.

Master of ceremonies for this press event will be Clarence Carney, former State Senator and a well-known MC in Sioux City. Honored guests attending this event are: Craig Berenstein, Mayor of Sioux City; Dennis Gann, Executive Director of the Sioux City Convention Center / Tourism Bureau; Thomas Wheeler, Manager of the Iowa Film Office; John Roost, President and Co-Owner of the Sioux City Explorers; and Harry Stavrenos, baseball scout for the San Francisco Giants.

In 1993, Ed Nottle arrived in Sioux City to be the team’s first manager, hired by Bill Pereira, club owner of the new team - the Sioux City Explorers. This was the beginning of professional baseball’s Independent Northern League founded by long time professional baseball owner Miles Wolff (Durham Bulls). Wolff at that time was also the owner and publisher of Baseball America. Then in 1997 Nottle put a group of investors together and bought the Explorers. He became a co-owner, the president and the field manager of the team and only the second person in the history of professional baseball next to Connie Mack, professional manager of the Philly athletics in the 1930’s, to achieve this.

Julie Campbell, owner of Mark Campbell Productions, an independent film company in Boston, Massachusetts, is producing this film that tells the story of Ed Nottle’s baseball career as a pitcher, coach and manager spanning nearly five decades. The screenplay for The 26^th Man is complete and is in the hands of casting directors to attach name actors to the project. MCP will be filming the movie in Sioux City, Iowa; Evansville, Indiana; Pawtucket, Rhode Island and Brockton, Massachusetts.