Moneyball

It's been quite a while I just realized since I have written anything.  Part of that has to do with the fact that I never go to the movies now that I am a poor student, but December was a good month, and I actually got to see a couple.

The first was Moneyball.  This one is just about to come out on DVD so it has a little bit of relevance if you didn't catch it in theaters.  First of all, in full disclosure, I don't really follow sports.  I don't dislike sports, but among everything else in which I am interested, sports usually end up in the background.  Because of that, I only vaguely remember the Oakland A's when the events of this movie were actually happening.  The film follows the 2003 Oakland A's and general manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) as he struggles to compete in Major League Baseball with other teams who have lots of money to throw at players.  Having just lost several all star players to clubs with a big budget, he decides that he has to do something differently.  He employs Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), an economics major, to help construct a team based on numbers, specifically a player's on base percentage rather than stardom, and most importantly on a budget.  Jonah Hill refers to these players as the "island of misfit toys".  One of them can't throw due to an elbow condition, another has a funny walk, but none of that matters because they get on base which scores runs.

What I like though is that it was a film that you didn't have to like sports or follow sports [specifically baseball] to like it.  It's always an accomplishment when a film can take something in which you may not be interested and still make a good story out of it.  Moneyball did that.  In fact, it took numbers and statistics and made them interesting as well.  I feel a great deal of this was because of Aaron Sorkin's hand in the script.  The movie had the same feel as The Social Network which I also enjoyed. Coupled with Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill's acting, I was so into the movie that I couldn't wait for the closing text that told the outcome and future success of the Oakland A's and how the concept they adopted impacted the game of baseball.