Chico Escuela may bemoan the fact that "Baseball... been berra berra good... to me", but to Billy Beane (Brad Pitt), the general manager of the Oakland Athletics, baseball hasn't always been kind. Beane played for four major league teams in five years, and always as a reserve outfielder, with a career batting average of just .219 and only three home runs. He left major league baseball in 1990 after failing to make the major league roster that year, and went to work for the A's, first as an advance scout, and then as general manager.
It was while Beane was GM during the 90's that he was told by the new owners of the A's that payroll would be drastically slashed. In 2001, where the majority of the story takes place, the New York Yankees had a payroll of $115 million per year, while the A's had just $36 million to work with. As a result, three of the major players on that team who became free agents that year left for the greener pastures of other major league teams.
It was during a visit to the offices of the Cleveland Indians that Beane meets Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), a whiz kid who developed a specialized computer program that determines undervalued baseball players, and their affordability, which Beane then uses to rebuild his crippled baseball team. Beane has to convince the owners that baseball can be run by computers instead of scouting agents and field managers, and the A's can create a baseball team at a fraction of the cost of other major league teams.
Art Howe (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who is the manager of the team disagrees, and continuously fights with Beane over player placement on the team. Howe will not budge, and the players cannot play on the positions that are assigned to them by Beane and his computer program. Halfway though the season, the A's are the worst team in baseball...
Then it gets better. And to say anymore, especially to those of you unfamiliar with the Oakland A's, will just ruin the story for you. If you have to know what happens to the Athletics during the 2001-2002 baseball season, then google it. You'll be surprised.
Moneyball is one of those movies you'll hate to admit that you like. I don't follow baseball, don't know anything about players, or teams, or even what a baseball is made of. But I really liked this movie. It is funny (not in a "Major League" kinda way though), suspenseful (will Beane's computer program win a Series for the A's?), and you'll be rooting for this movie like you would for your home team as you sit behind home plate.
The movie runs about 135 minutes, and will be in theaters on September 23rd. I'm giving this one four balls and no strikes. Grab some peanuts and some Cracker Jacks and settle in for nine innings of a great movie.
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