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1 Joseph Sica HIST 791 Professor Antonova 3/22/2021 Historical Fiction Review of Moneyball the Film Moneyball Starrin 1 Joseph Sica HIST 791 Professor Antonova 3/22/2021 Historical Fiction Review of Moneyball The film Moneyball starring Brad Pitt and directed by Bennett Miller, is based on the book written by Michael Lewis which describes the historical tale of the Oakland Athletics in 2002 and their magical baseball season. The film was critically acclaimed throughout Hollywood, earning multiple awards and nominees that included the Golden Globes and the Oscars. The story is centered around A’s General Manager Billy Beane, played by Pitt, who would form a new blueprint predicated on analytics for the future of Major League Baseball. Fresh off a playoff series loss to the New York Yankees a year prior, Beane was faced with the challenges of re-signing his star players such as Johnny Damon and Jason Giambi on a limited budget. As a small market team, the Oakland A’s were at a money disadvantage when competing with bigger market teams such as the Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. Thus, Beane took a new approach to signing players: pay under the radar baseball players who have been overlooked due to a lackluster batting average and undervalued due to the lack of importance the OBP (On Base Percentage) statistic had at the time. The movie depicts the narcissistic Beane struggling to sell his organization on this plan after signing and trading for what would be considered historically low-tier players. At first, it seems to fail as the A’s struggled in the beginning of the season. However, the A’s would go on to win an MLB record 20 consecutive games and clinch a playoff berth using Beane’s model; an achievement that was surprisingly never watched in person or on TV once by the man behind it due to his superstitions. 2 While the overall plot of the story has been deemed to be generally accurate, there were instances in the movie where Hollywood took precedent over the real facts. For instance, a small scene where newly acquired player David Justice punches a vending machine never really happened. Yet, what the movie I felt failed to do was give historical context to the pushback on analytics and why it was never used before. Yes, the assumed tradition of baseball has revolved around batting average and runs batted in, but why weren’t scouts focused on base percentage and home runs as a means of player production and value too? It also failed to give context to the whole idea of historical analytics, which the movie essentially denounced from ever being considered before. What the movie does however, is put the ideas of Billy Beane on the baseball map. It popularized the idea of analytics and using numbers to gauge the decision making of a multi-million dollar organization. Therefore, I felt the actual title of the movie can give off the wrong impression to the audience. Although the basis of the movie can be argued that it focuses on money making decisions of a baseball team, the actual concept of spending money to succeed in Major League Baseball has been a known fact since the inception of the league. The best example are the New York Yankees, who have been well known throughout history to have been afforded the luxury of being able to spend money on big market players; setting themselves up to be in the best position to win every year. Moneyball is less of a movie about money and more so the ramifications of a new ideology in baseball. Furthermore, the Oakland Athletics lacked a historical background since they won multiple championships in the 70s and one in 1989. Moneyball fails to contextualize the historical difference between the financial decisions of a baseball team, especially the Oakland Athletics, and the analytical ideology behind Billy Beane. Indeed, the movie does explain why the A’s struggle to keep up with the Yankees or Red Sox and 3 the need for their budget based decision making; but again, I thought it intertwined the two ideas that should have been two separate topics to explain rather than assumed to the audience. Although Beane’s model did not lead to the ultimate goal of a World Series in 2002, the Boston Red Sox just two years later would go on to win and break their curse using the pro-analytical blueprint set forth by the pioneering general manager. Today, every Major League Baseball team has shaped their financial and organizational decisions around the analytics of players. Beane challenged the traditions of baseball by transforming the game into a new ideology driven by numbers and belief in players who otherwise, would have never been afforded a chance to play in the MLB historically before. Overall, Moneyball gives an accurate account of Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics 2002 season; but fell short of the comparisons of new metrics over time historically and the answer behind why now? .
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