Moneyball -- CALL Discussion Group

 Moneyball (2011)

                    Director: Bennett Miller (Capote)

Billy Beane was a high school baseball hot shot (“a can’t-miss prospect”), who turned down a Stanford University full scholarship because he believed the pro scouts’ hype and was drawn to the big-bucks contract. When his career in the majors fizzled, he became a scout, but had the savvy to work his way up to manage the Oakland Athletics. But that small-market team couldn’t compete with the large-market baseball teams who can buy away the best players. Now GM Beane (now Brad Pitt) has the major leagues’ lowest budget for player salaries. In 2002 at $40 million it’s one third of the Yankees’. He loses three stars to the Yankees and Red Sox. 

Then a Yale Economics grad, Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), proposes an unconventional approach to evaluating players. Sabermetrics pioneer Bill James (an ex-security guard) contended that the humble guy who can get on base is more important than the glamorous hitter. With Brand’s statistical technique Beane collects undervalued players who end up making a winning team, despite the skepticism of coach Art Howe (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and scout Grady Fuson (Ken Medlock). Beane resuscitates the dead career of Red Sox catcher Scott Hatteberg (Chris Pratt). He fires Fuson but keeps the coach, who refuses to follow his orders. Beane trades away the coach’s stars and in effect takes over the coaching himself behind the scenes. The media credit Howe with the team’s surprising success. The A’s win an American League record 20 games in a row. In that 20th win, the A’s blow an 11-0 lead, to be tied at the top of the ninth. In the bottom of the ninth, Howe accepts Beane’s philosophy and sends in Hatteberg as lead-off batter, hoping just to get him on base. Instead Hatteberg hits the winning homer. Nevertheless, as in the previous year the A’s are eliminated in the first playoff round. The Boston Red Sox offer Beane $12.5 million,to make him the highest paid GM in sports history. 

Of course, Beane has a happily resettled ex-wife Sharon (Robin Wright) and a beloved 12-year-old daughter (Kerris Dorsey). To stay close to the latter -- and not wanting to repeat his earlier bad decision made for money -- Beane declines the Boston offer, stays with the A’s and reverts to losing. Beane’s and Brand’s computer-based statistical analysis revolutionizes “America’s national pastime.” The other teams beat Beane with his strategy. The Red Sox -- without Beane -- win the title two years later.

Questions

1. “[Baseball] is a metaphor?” (Brand). Do you believe that? For what?
2.  What does the title suggest? What’s Moneyball vs Baseball?
3. The Oakland A’s never did win a title under Beane’s system, have not even made the playoffs since 2006 and remain losers even now. Why is this relevant/irrelevant to the film?
4. What does this film say about Now?
5. If this were entirely fiction, why would Billy Beane be the perfect name for the hero? (Hint: a “beanball” is a pitch directed at the batter’s head, in order to make him lose his (i) composure, (ii) consciousness, or (iii) head.)  Note: Factual/historic names do not always serve metaphoric function. In a classic miscasting, the historic Ned Buntline wrote pulp myths about the wild west and Bowie Kuhn was the baseball commissioner. There should have been a trade.
6. A film may have multiple/alternative auteurs. Director Bennett Miller directed the Truman Capote biopic (also starring Hoffman). One of the screenplay writers is Aaron Sorkin, who created The West Wing TV series and scripted Charlie Wilson’s War (2007)and The Social Network (2010). How is each artist reflected in this film? 
7. As it happens, Steven Soderbergh (remember Contagion?) was slated to direct this film but the studio axed him because he wanted to add interviews with ex-players for “documentary enhancement.” Any thoughts? 
8. What’s the point of Beane’s orality (compulsive spitting, eating, chawing, etc.)
9. How does Beane’s relationship with his 12-year-old daughter, reflect on the main themes? What does her song say, in each of its two scenes?
10. The film’s first scene shows Beane in the wake of the elimination loss to New York. The last has his daughter’s recorded song. What’s the connection/point?
11. What’s the thematic point of Beane’s refusal to watch his team’s games?
12. How does Bill James’s sabermetrics apply beyond baseball?
13. Like the Vietnam War-era Rocky, in this Underdog sport film the Underdog doesn’t win. He barely manages to survive. So?

What can you make of the following dialogue:

1. “It’s hard not to be romantic about baseball?” (Beane, converted to computer stats) He adds: “It doesn’t mean anything.”
2. “It’s an unfair game.”
3. “Who’s Fabbio?” (a scout asks)
4. “This guy walks into a room, his dick’s been there for six minutes.”
5. “There’s an epidemic failure in the game to understand what’s really happening.” (Brand)
6. “This is all about your shit, isn’t it?” (scout Grady Fuson gets himself fired)
7. “We’re all told at some time that we’re too old to play the children’s game.” (How does this statement’s meaning change the second time we hear it?)
8. “I’d have drafted you in the ninth round. No signing bonus.” (Brand to Beane, winning the job)
9. “We’re organ donors for the rich.” (Beane)
10. “I don’t know why I lied just then.” (Brand)
11. “People are overlooked for a variety of reasons.”
12. “If this guy’s such a good hitter, why can’t he hit good?” (Beane)
13. “Ugly girlfriend means no confidence.” (The actor/scout’s original ad lib was “Ugly girlfriend means bad eyesight.”)
14. “Adapt or die.” (Billy)
15. “There’s an element of randomness in [the A’s] success.” (Commentator)
16. “There’s no explanation for what’s going on right now.” (ditto)
17. “Nobody reinvents this game.”
18. The daughter’s song:  “I’m just a little bit, caught in the middle... Life is a maze.... I’ve got to let it go. Just enjoy the show... It’s a lot, to be what I’m not.... You’re just a loser, You’re just a loser. Just enjoy the show.”