On M List of Movie Reviews
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Moneyball (2011)
Rate:
5
Viewed:
5/21
5/21:
"Moneyball renews your belief in the power of movies."
So sayeth a critic except it's not the case for me. On the contrary, it failed in terms of telling the full story.
Ordinary people will take the narrative as presented to them: Billy Beane assembled a team of ragtag players for the
Oakland Athletics to win a lot of games. But to me, he got some fringe players to round out the rest of the roster to
squeeze an extra 15 to 25 regular season wins, that's it.
I don't give shit about baseball. There's nothing romantic about it. The strike of 1994 killed the game for good. Steroid
revelations, which started with Jose Canseco's book Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits & How Baseball Got Big,
punctuated everything that's wrong with the game along with what happened during the Astros' World Series
championship season. Back then, I used to know many players' names for every team, but today, I don't know one single player
overall.
An average of 44 million people watched the World Series in 1978. Today? It's around 14 million, a decline of 68%, and that
number continues to fall. Of all major professional sports, MLB has the oldest median age of fans: 57 which is still climbing. That's
because most of the concentration lies in the baby boomers of post WWII. Millennials and others born afterwards
have no general interest in baseball. Fields are often empty every time I drive past them.
The reason is crystal clear: who can watch a long, boring three-hour event of overpaid players scratching and adjusting their
dicks while chewing and spitting out tobacco? They do this for 162 games year in, year out. You must be out of your mind to
sit through this bullshit. Even Moneyball is shorter than the average baseball game nowadays. There are
better and more productive things to do.
With these facts in my mind, it's hard to watch Moneyball and feel any better about baseball. In
fact, I had no idea of what happened in 2002. Any World Series championships that occurred in this century, I don't
know who won, but if I have to guess, it's the Yankees because they always won all the time, hence the phrase "damn Yankees."
Remember what I said about "not telling the full story"? The movie conveniently leaves out the core players (Miguel Tejada,
the AL MVP of that season, and Eric Chavez) and, more importantly, the dominant pitching staff (Mark Mulder, Tim Hudson, and
Barry Zito) who were primarily responsible for the season the team had. Ironically, they were all scouted and drafted
through the traditional means. Steroids also had a lot to do with it as nine players including Miguel Tejada admitted to PED use
from 2001 to 2003. Prior to his departure, Jason Giambi was one of the biggest offenders while playing for the Athletics. So
was his brother Jeremy who was an average player for the most part (3/15/22 Author Note: Jeremy Giambi killed himself).
Oh, by the way, who played for the A's before then? Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire, two of the giants in the Mount Rushmore of
steroid users. About twelve miles away is where Barry Bonds used to play: San Francisco. Jason Giambi initially hooked up
with him through trainer Greg Anderson of BALCO. While all of the steroid stuff was going on, MLB did nothing
about it, and the game continued on while losing millions of fans in the process.
Finally, we come to the bare, basic facts about sports: talent wins championships and money buys the best talent. However,
there's only one thing that's undeniable: teamwork. It's the last and final ingredient to break through the glass ceiling. So,
how did the Athletics do this century? They still haven't won a World Series title. The 20-game winning streak in 2002? Who
cares? That's regular season stuff just like the New England Patriots' 16-0 record. It means nothing when the ultimate
championship isn't won. Of course, that's in the eyes of the fans, but to the owners, the bottom line is: profits.
And the owners consistently win, no matter what happens.
Funny enough, the Minnesota Twins that beat the Athletics in 2002 playoffs had almost equivalent budget and was in the bottom
five for salary of all MLB. Since then, Oakland lost the edge and was never good again for a long time because the
book got published chronicling its success, causing other teams to copy the blueprint which led to a World Series win for the
Boston Red Sox that had a former A's player named Johnny Damon.
As for the film, it makes for an okay viewing, but the feel is often cold, calculated, and lacking in humanity. Perhaps that's
why sports are difficult to get into nowadays due to the corporate nature of them, resulting in bland personalities as
demonstrated by many as compared to the guys of the 80's and 90's. Just think of the '85 Bears team and the superstars of
NBA like Charles Barkley and Dennis Rodman. Hell, Major League had a bunch of entertaining players and remains a
memorable baseball picture. I even liked watching tennis because of Andre Agassi, Jimmy Connors, and John McEnroe.
Brad Pitt is mostly fine and is largely the reason why I survived the dark, unentertaining movie despite many
product placements while Jonah Hill is relying on his cuteness to make through the scenes. Neither resembles the actual
guys themselves. At one point, they were making a deal for a player, and I had no idea what the heck they were
talking about.
The thing between Billy Beane and his daughter is a major deviation from the central focus. Did I have to listen to her singing?
I'm surprised to see the little screen time granted to Philip Seymour Hoffman; he must have done no more than four hours of work and
then signed off by saying, "Well, see ya around, guys...I'm gonna shoot up heroin." The actor would die three years afterwards.
All in all, a lot of facts are left out in Moneyball because they don't fit the dreamy narrative that's
routinely thought up all the time at CNN.