Moneyball

Moneyball is the inspiring story of the Oakland A's, a team that was all but bankrupt but managed to beat the odds through intelligence and perseverance. Brad Pitt plays Billy Beane, the team's general manager who has run out of ideas on how to make his strapped for cash team successful. This is until he meets Pete Brand, played by Jonah Hill, an economic major from Yale.

Brand devises a formula that analyses players in a way nobody else does, thus revealing statistics about players that no one else can see. Beane and Brand use this formula to build up their unlikely roster of misfits. In closing, the film notes that Beane passed up the opportunity to become the general manager of the Boston Red Sox, despite an offer of a $12.5 million salary, which would have made him the highest paid general manager in baseball history.

This is quite the unusual sports movie. “Moneyball” isn’t really about the sport of baseball, but focuses instead on the dirty politics of the big, nameless players. It was fascinating not only for the baseball fan, but for anyone who enjoys a well-told and well-constructed story. The focus of this film is on the games being played off the field. It shows the underhanded politics and the telephone deals, juggling of players, bartering and throwing in incentives to dump off players.