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Moneyball – The Review (and nitpicking!)

After the shocking (to me, at least) revelation that my wife wanted to see "Moneyball", I picked it up from Redbox and planned an evening viewing with the Mrs. The movie intrigued the hell out of me - having read the book, I knew that it read pretty much like a economics textbook (albeit an entertaining one, as author Michael Lewis has a way of doing that with very boring topics), but Brad Pitt got behind it, Aaron Sorkin (*swoon*) had a hand in writing it, and damn it - the critics actually liked the thing. Next you'll tell me there's actually a critically-acclaimed movie about pro wrestling.

So my wife didn't make it through the thing (she doesn't stay awake through too many movies in general, and "Moneyball" was over two hours), but I really enjoyed it. I thought it was really well done to stay decently close to the book while still make a marketable and accessible film. The characters were likable, and while I wasn't crazy to see Paul DePodesta turned into "composite character" Peter Brand, I understand how doing something like that made the film easier to make more entertaining. In reality, DePodesta isn't nearly as "geeky" or awkward as Brand is, but Jonah Hill's portrayal of Brand loosened up a movie that could have easily gotten too dry. In terms of whether or not a non-baseball fan could enjoy it, I think just as long as you don't hate baseball you can watch without much of an issue.

THAT SAID, my nitpicks (and things you might be wondering about):

• A's GM Billy Beane (Pitt) rolls into Cleveland to have a face-to-face with Cleveland GM Mark Shapiro (and his posse, which includes stats nerd Peter Brand (Hill)), which goes nowhere thanks to Brand whispering in Shapiro's ear. Beane finds Brand in his cubicle, talks to him in the parting lot about his ideas, then he hops on a plane back to Oakland - later calling Brand to tell him that he just bought him from the Cleveland Indians and Shapiro.

Paul DePodesta (who the Brand character is based off of) had already been in the Oakland system as a scout for a few years before rising to the position Brand had in the film. He had previously worked for the Indians, however. More silly was Beane traveling to Cleveland for trade negotiations. Beane, especially on an A's budget that would see him charge for sodas in the clubhouse (which also didn't happen), would never be allowed to fly halfway across the country just for trade discussion. Even if he did have the budget - why would he? Telephone seems to work just fine for trade talks (as shown later in the film). But Beane needed a way for him to end up in Cleveland and meet Brand, so hence the in-person trade talks.

• Scott Hatteberg, one of the main players the movie focuses on, seems to be this misfit who was picked up, placed on the end of the bench, and only called upon when Beane trades away every first base option surly manager Art Howe (Philip Seymour Hoffman) has.

First off, seeing Hoffman as Howe was really interesting. Hoffman, who is 44 as of the time I write this, portrayed a very convincing 55-year old Howe. It was interesting to watch. Anyway - in reality, Hatteberg started 129 games (out of a possible 162) during the 2002 season, including 22 of 26 of the A's games in the first month of the season. He just started them as the team's DH, not their first baseman. This made sense because Carlos Pena, whom Howe was starting at first base, was a better defensive first baseman. As the season progressed, Pena was sent down to the minors (due to performance - he had four hits in 37 at-bats in the month of May), and after a brief flirtation with Olmedo Saenz at first, Hatteberg became the starting first baseman in June and was the predominant starter there for the rest of the season. The little moment during "Game 20" where Hatteberg gets called and does the kind of "who me?" look when Howe calls for him to pinch hit? Hatteberg had started 17 of the previous 19 games. He was just getting a day off.

• Beane, frustrated with Jeremy Giambi's unprofessional attitude, deals him to the Phillies to the first person Phillies GM Ed Wade mentions.

Probably not too far off from the truth. Giambi was putting up decent numbers for the A's (at this point - he'd be closer to the "only all-star on the team" than Carlos Pena was, at least from an offensive standpoint) but was abruptly dealt to Philadelphia for John Mabry, who had a grand total of 23 plate appearances for the Phillies that season and wasn't likely to be on the roster much longer. Giambi, who was known for his trips to night clubs and who had been arrested for pot possession that prior offseason, likely wore out his welcome. Giambi would play well for the Phillies for the remainder of the season, then get dealt to Boston the following offseason, where he'd flop in one season with the Red Sox, then never made another major league roster. He admitted to using steroids in 2005.

• The A's start winning games, including a 20-game winning streak, capped in win #20 by a game that saw the A's take an 11-run lead, lose it, only to have Hatteberg hit the game-winning home run in the bottom of the 9th to win.

On August 12th, 2002, the A's lost to the Toronto Blue Jays 2-1, their second straight loss. They would not lose again until a 6-0 shutout against the Minnesota Twins on September 6th. In-between, the A's won 20 straight games, an American league record that still stands. As for the blown 11 run lead and Hatteberg's dramatic home run in the bottom of the 9th to win #20?  That happened too.

• Carlos Pena, the first baseman that the A's had to start the season, was shown not to be a Beane favorite and gets traded just to get him the hell out of the A's dugout so that Hatteberg would get to play first base every day.

In reality, as mentioned above, Pena was sent down in mid-May because he wasn't hitting after a fast start. Pena was actually an ideal "Moneyball"-type player (patient, high OBP), and Beane had just acquired him that prior offseason  (after Jason Giambi had signed with the Yankees) in a trade with the intent of him being their first baseman of the future. After Pena's poor May and subsequent demotion to the minors and later Hatteberg's success at first, Pena was expendable, and the A's traded him in a three-way deal with the Yankees and Tigers in July - some two months after he was sent down. This is actually something that the book goes into great detail about as Jeremy Bonderman, an example of a player whom Beane and his scouting team clashed on, was dealt from Oakland to Detroit in the deal as well, with the A's picking up some top prospects (who didn't work out) and pitcher Ted Lilly (who worked out later on after he left the A's). I would have liked to see how a three-team deal like this gets worked out, but I'm probably in a small minority there, so we have what we have.

• As we're winding down, Brand calls in Beane to take a look at some minor league footage to show him Jeremy Brown, a fat, unathletic, goofy-looking player who makes a horrid swing, runs towards first base, trips over first, then has to crawl back to first - only to be told he hit a home run.

Jeremy Brown is one of the main "characters" of the "Moneyball" book - a player whom the A's drafted in 2002 using their statistics-based approach. Scouts who had seen Brown couldn't stand him - he was a guy who could obviously hit but was built more for beer-league softball than major league baseball. Beane, however, loved his approach to hitting, and he was cited as an example of how the old way of scouting (looking for typical prototype athletes) was missing out on good players. Brown would go on to mixed results in the Oakland farm system and despite a cup of coffee in 2006 with the major league club and a solid season in AAA in 2007, retired in 2008. It's believed that the pressure of being "that Moneyball guy" led to him walking away from baseball.

As for the home run story? That's true, though the player portrayed in the movie was a lot larger (in height and weight) than Brown, who was listed at 5'10", 226lbs (although he was likely two inches shorter according to observers).

Any kind of film "based on a true story" will take strides to make reality more "movie-friendly", and you can nitpick this just the same as you could any other reality-based film. But "Moneyball" still manages to keep it pretty realistic while still making it tolerable to a non-baseball fan. Highly recommended.