Moneyball – Film Review

Moneyball

Starring: Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Philip Seymour Hoffman

Director: Bennet Miller

Rated: PG-13

The story of Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane’s attempt to rebuild his ballclub after losing key players to free agency.

Pitt stars as Beane a pro ballplayer bust, turned GM who after winning the American League Championship series in 2003, tries to rebuild the team utilizing computer metrics and stats to value a player over traditional time worn scouting methods. The brains behind this is Peter Brand (Jonah Hill) a Yale graduate who thinks that traditional methods are discounting a lot of great players for various reasons. Soon Brand is Beane’s assistant and together they assemble a team that might be better than anyone thought possible.

MoneyBall is a Baseball film that focuses more on what goes on away from the field than on it, and that is where it shines. The highlights are Beane’s interactions with his staff and the deals it takes to put together a winning team against the odds. The dialog is sharp with the script being co written by Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network, The West Wing). It’s a very engaging sports film that makes the mundane details regarding baseball player statistics interesting in a way I didn’t think possible.

Moneyball is based on a true story and just like anything that is Based they get a little fuzzy with the facts, it’s tough to not get irritated when you are being fed what amounts to lies. The character Peter Brand is not a real person it is widely believed that the character is based on Paul DePodesta.

Pitts daughter sings a song to him at a guitar store, rather than enjoying the song, what he should have been doing is utilize his daughter to find out what deals he needs to make to turn his club around, She is clearly an Oracle or Soothsayer as she is singing a song five years before its released, (The Show – by Lenka came out in 2008).

We are also led to believe that the Oakland A’s have such a low payroll that they can’t compete without getting innovative, when the truth is there were seven teams in 2003 with lower payrolls, including the 2003 World Champion Marlins with a payroll 3 million lower than the A’s.

We are told that thanks to Beane’s philosophy the Boston Red Sox were able to put together a team to finally break the curse of the bambino which in all honesty is insulting. The Red Sox did win the World Series in 2004 that is correct, but in fact they had a payroll of 127 million the second highest of any team. Leaning more towards the buy a championship Yankees, than the get creative A’s.

For as great as Beane’s system is they have only been to the playoffs once since 2003, not exactly a ringing endorsement for his island of misfit toys.

None of these facts take anything away from a good story with strong writing and a great cast. Moneyball is an entertaining movie with a great insight into the economics of baseball just not an overly accurate one.

Grade-87

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