Brad Pitt plays Billy Beane, the former baseball prospect-turned scout—
turned general manager of the Oakland Athletics. After an almost-breakout
season (those “Damn Yankees”), the team is completely gutted during
the off-season with its star players going to free agency. The ownership
makes it clear to Beane that there will be no more money to sign equivalent
free agents. He’s going to have to figure out how to fill his roster with
inexpensive players that nobody yet knows are any good.
Fortunately for Beane, in visiting with one of the other GM’s about a
trade, he notices a young stranger in the room who seems to have a huge
influence in the decision-making process. When he inquires further, he
learns that he’s dealing with a techno-nerd, Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), who
never played the game himself, and knows nothing about the good-old-boy
network that currently runs Major League Baseball. All he knows about is
his computer analysis. He has an economics degree from Yale. He designed
a software program that looks only at statistics. It’s strictly by the numbers.
He knows nothing about who looks athletic, or who appears to possess
the “intangibles” like leadership and good citizenship that have so often
governed player decisions in the past.
Billy Beane is intrigued. Having himself been, in his younger years, a “five-
tool” prospect who didn’t live up to all his supposed potential, he knows
something about how scouts can allow their eyes to deceive them. They’re
too enamored with the “good-looking” player, the one who moves smoothly
on the field and is well-versed in “the fundamentals” like bunting and base
stealing and hitting the opposite way. Beane sees in Peter Brand a chance
to look at the evaluation process differently, thereby being able to “steal”
some potential producers from other teams who have not yet recognized
their value. On-base percentage suddenly becomes a primary factor; that
is, players who will patiently take pitches outside the strike zone, which
not only means they will have more walks, they will also, collectively,
wear down the opponent’s starters and get into their bullpen of relief
pitchers faster, gaining an advantage in attrition, particularly over a several-
game series. This was fundamentally different from the “old days,” when
Caribbean-born players would always claim, “Walking doesn’t get you off
the island.”
Beane’s collection of good-old-boy baseball guys didn’t take kindly to the
radical change. It basically meant their “instincts,” honed over years of
observation, were no longer valued. Beane even had his clashes with the
old-school manager, Art Howe (Philip Seymour Hoffman, who looks like
he’s never done anything athletic in his life).
Those of us who are baseball fans, and have read the book, already
know “the rest of the story”: Billy Beane’s “Moneyball” philosophy paid
immediate dividends. He was able to acquire “bargain” players who fit
into his philosophy before others teams caught on to his strictly-by-the-
numbers player evaluations. Now, of course, everyone else has the same
information, and there are less likely to be “steals” on the market. And,
of course, the “Elephant in the Room” during this period (the steroids, the
steroids) never even gets mentioned. But “Moneyball” is about more than
the romance of baseball: it is about being innovative in the face of stultified
and ossified tradition, and about believing in your own convictions even
if they don’t correspond to everyone else’s. In a way, it’s about “being
your own man” in a way that feels satisfying not just to baseball fans, but to
everyone who’s ever wanted to walk to the beat of another drum.
Ronald P. Salfen is interim pastor of St. Stephens Presbyterian Church in
Irving, Texas.
