Moneyball

(2011) SonyPictures.

With the World Series just around the corner, how appropriate is it for baseball fans to screen a film about an event that turned the sport on its ears. MONEYBALL is an excellent study of former baseball player, Billy Beane, who after having a rather lackluster career in the majors, was recruited by the Oakland A’s to be their General Manager. Beane’s biggest obstacle was the fact that the A’s couldn’t compete financially with the big-marketed teams like the Yankees, Mets and Red Sox. As a matter of fact, they had the lowest payroll of any team in baseball. While attempting to make some trade deals with the Cleveland Indians’ GM, Beane meets Peter Brand, a Yale economics major and computer wiz, who felt that teams don’t need a big bankroll in order to make it to the postseason. Naturally, this interests Beane, who snatches Brand from the Indians and makes him his assistant.

After losing free agents Johnny Damon, Jason Giambi and Jason Isringhausen, Brand’s idea of reinventing superstars through statistics becomes an obsession for Beane, who signs on players whose careers were virtually over. Former Red Sox catcher Scott Hatteberg, whose throwing arm had become a bone of contention, was signed on because he always managed to get on base and could be trained to be a first baseman. Others he brings into the organization are an aging David Justice and under-appreciated pitcher, Chad Bradford for a mere pittance.
Initially, things don’t improve, but through determination and excellent management skills, he perseveres and overcomes all obstacles. Of course, diehard baseball fanatics already know the outcome, but to the mere fan, MONEYBALL is terrific fun with Brad Pitt giving one of his best performances to date as the charismatic Billy Beane, who stops at nothing to prove his point. Others in the cast, such as Jonah Hill as Peter Brand, who is a fictitious character based on Beane’s real life assistant general manager, Paul De Podesta (apparently DePodesta objected that his character was portrayed as a computer nerd) make a good contrast to the intensity of Beane. Also on hand is Philip Seymour Hoffman, who plays the long-suffering A’s manager Art Howe, whose constant battles with Beane keep the proceedings interesting and shows some of the friction that is never mentioned beyond the clubhouse. While there are definitely better movies out there in left field about baseball (Pride of the Yankees, Field of Dreams), MONEYBALL certainly will not disappoint and Bennett Miller’s expert direction, which takes advantage of utilizing real footage from the 2002 baseball season as well as excellent characterizations, gives the film even more credibility. There is also a wonderful scene shot at Boston’s Fenway Park, with Red Sox owner, John Henry (Arliss Howard) offering the GM position to Billy Beane (something I personally didn’t know), who turned down the offer and continues to this day at Oakland as their GM. On a side note, it’s obvious that the Red Sox liked Beane’s theories of choosing stats over widely acknowledged talent, because their new GM, Theo Epstein and new manager in 2004, Terry Francona used the “Beane” method of managing baseball and the Red Sox won their first World Series since 1918!

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