Moneyball (2011)
Movie rating: 7/10
For those unfamiliar with Major League Baseball results from 2002 to 2004, this review contains spoilers.
The deeper you get into sports analysis, the more nerdy it becomes. That might seem counterintuitive, given the popular dichotomy between “jocks” and “nerds”. But there are more similarities than differences between obsessive sports fans and those with an equally fanatical devotion to science fiction/fantasy, comic books, math, etc. Encyclopedic knowledge of relevant facts, figures, and statistics; broadcasting your fandom to the world with merchandise—these could describe a Trekkie, a math professor, and/or a hardcore fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Moneyball brings this inherent nerdiness of sports analysis to the surface. Based on the true story of Billy Beane (Brad Pitt), general manager of the Oakland Athletics in the 2002 season, it dramatizes Beane’s recruitment of Peter Brand (Jonah Hill) to build a winning pro baseball team on a limited budget through the use of sabermetrics to scout and recruit players. This method relies on the collection and analysis of baseball statistics measuring in-game activity. It’s the ultimate alliance between jock and nerd, portrayed respectively here by Pitt and Hill.
More than most sports movies, Moneyball never lets us forget that professional sports is a business like any other. To make his team successful, Beane needs to win at all costs. The Oakland A’s, however, are playing at a disadvantage compared to teams like the New York Yankees. Speaking to his scouts, Beane identifies the key problem:
The problem we're trying to solve is that there are rich teams and there are poor teams. Then there's fifty feet of crap, and then there's us. It's an unfair game. And now we've been gutted. We're like organ donors for the rich. Boston's taken our kidneys, Yankees have taken our heart. And you guys just sit around talking the same old "good body" nonsense like we're selling jeans. Like we're looking for Fabio. We've got to think differently. We are the last dog at the bowl. You see what happens to the runt of the litter? He dies.
This is arguably a microcosm of capitalism itself: you have the rich and the poor, and it’s an unfair game. Theoretically, everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed. But in practice, those with more money and resources have a tremendous advantage, which they use to destroy or buy out the competition.
If we follow this metaphor, Moneyball still tries to make a case for the American Dream: that even against the greatest disadvantages, anyone can succeed if they have a good enough idea. Oakland’s use of sabermetrics takes some time to pay off. But when it does, the league’s former perennial losers transform into their opposite and achieve a record-breaking winning streak.
On the other hand, as revealed in a title card at the end of the film, history showed that it was the Boston Red Sox who seemed to gain better results from the use of sabermetrics. To Beane’s consternation, despite their winning streak, the A’s fail to make it to the World Series. A title card at the end of the film notes that the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004 using the methods pioneered by Oakland. In 2002, the Oakland Athletics had a total payroll of $40 million. By comparison, the Boston Red Sox had a total payroll of $108 million, second only to the Yankees (at nearly $126 million). Using the same methods, the richer team gets better results—even without Beane, who at the end of the film turns down a record-breaking $12.5 million salary offer to be the Red Sox general manager.
In terms of moviemaking quality, Moneyball is fine entertainment, with good performances by Pitt, Hill, the late Philip Seymour Hoffman as A’s manager Art Howe, and a pre-Guardians of the Galaxy Chris Pratt as catcher-turned-first-baseman Scott Hatteberg. Aaron Sorkin wrote the script. A reliable purveyor of snappy dialogue, Sorkin manages to avoid the smug condescension you often find in his lead characters. I drifted occasionally when the movie got too bogged in detail, but it was nice to watch a sports movie that takes a different approach to its subject. Moneyball is almost more about business than sports, and all the stronger for it.