 |
| The true story of a team that lost in the first round of the playoffs...just like 4 teams do every single year. |
So what does everyone think of the Money Ball Movie? Going to see it? Not going to see it? Could give two shits because you haven’t been to the theaters in years because of all the hoodrats and kids in oversized white t-shirts?
I’m completely torn on this, the sports fan in me feels I have to see it, it’s the first move made about the mundane details of a sport, no fairy tale story, no trumped up endings or events, just the in’s and outs of an everyday baseball front office.
Which would be fascinating if it were a Ken Burns documentary that I could watch on PBS, but it’s not. It’s a Hollywood movie. It’s got Brad Pitt, a still fat Jonah Hill, and one of my all-time fav’s, Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Yet, despite all that, I can’t shake that this is going to be one hell of a boring movie. Like historically boring. It’s not that I won’t find the subject matter interesting; it’s just that in the theaters, I’m pretty sure the movie fan in me, who abhors boring and slow films, will win out over the sports fan in me.
What’s the climax going to be? Winning the 2002 American League West…Umm, gee, great guys, go Billy Beane. Can’t be that, so probably the 20 game regular season winning streak, which while quite the feat, and entertaining while happening, is hardly the stuff of legends 9 years down the road. I’m fairly certain there’s not one person in America waxing poetically about the great summer streak of the 2002 A’s…not to mention the fallacy of giving credit to Billy Beane or his tactics of that time for making that streak possible. That streak was possible for 4 reasons. 1) Mark Mulder, 2) Tim Hudson, 3) Barry Zito, and 4) American League MVP Miguel Tejada. It’s not all that hard to manufacture a winning streak with the MVP and arguable 3 of the top 10 pitchers in baseball at that time. Trust me, Scott Hatteberg and David Justice were nice role players, but they didn’t win those 20 games. Which would also help explain how they were so successful with a middling obp for the year, but let’s not bother with that either.
So even if they decide to live the lie and pretend they rode obp (yes I know finding undervalued assets and not obp/ops were the point of moneyball, but obp was the undervalued asset of the day) all the way to the top…err, first round loss in the playoffs (Yayy!), what comes next?
Just about every baseball movie I’ve ever loved has an after-word presented in text to let you know how everything finished up, what could this movie’s possible say? "Billy Beane would continue on as GM of the A’s, and despite continued reverence with in the game, would preside over five straight years and counting of teams that finished .500 or worse." "Scott Hatteberg went on to finish his career as a platoon/role player," "Jeremy Giambi gained infamy as one half of the most disrespected brothers in baseball history," "The A’s proceeded to see all 3 of their young aces move to other teams, without ever truly getting anything good in return"… That’s just depressing.
So 600 some words on, where do I stand? Well, pretty much in the same place I started. As a sports fan, I’m probably going to go see it, as a fan of movies and entertainment, I’m sure to hate it. On a positive note, I’m tickled pink to get a chance to see Fat Jonah Hill one last time before we’re stuck with post gastric bypass Jonah for the next 5 years as he makes flop after flop and tries to prove he’s still as funny as he always was, only he never will be and ends up being a hanger-on'er in Adam Sandlers crew of washed up comedian friends…Just look at his buddy Seth Rogen…
