It’s hard to believe, but there’s a highly touted General Manager of a last-place MLB team who has an impressive resume of zero World Series titles and zero World Series appearances in his 13 attempts. In addition, his team has convincingly missed the playoffs every season after he hired the Best Man of his wedding as Head Coach. This has resulted in his team consistently drawing an annual attendance that ranks near the bottom of the league. Yet, many people praise his unique approach to building a ball club’s roster. In fact, there’s a book about it titled “Moneyball” and the movie is set to debut on the first day of autumn.
I’m not a supporter of the Oakland Athletics, but falling into the categories of being a fan of baseball, a fan of Moneyball’s author Michael Lewis, and living a few miles away from the ballpark in which the primary setting of the film takes place, I will definitely watch this movie. The question is…Will the people outside of these categories (which are a lot of friggin’ people) be interested?With that said, the target audience is limited to a small set of specific demographics and no one expects this movie to shatter box office records. Face it, Scott Hatteberg and his high OBP will excite viewers about as much as the possibility of the film containing a shower scene involving “the old scout.” However, it won’t be a flop with the aide of Brad Pitt playing the lead role as A’s general manager, Billy Beane. I find this very ironic. The premise of Moneyball involves using a successful approach to building a ball club’s roster on a tight budget. Obviously the limited payroll hinders the GM’s ability to sign big-named MLB stars. For Moneyball to attract a wide audience, casting one of the top ten richest actors in the world to play the lead role is a necessity. Then again, if you took Angelina Jolie out of the picture (in real life…she isn’t in this movie), Brad Pitt would have a high OBP and score every time. Warning: Man crush love for Brad Pitt is engaged.
Casting Brad Pitt will increase national appeal of the movie and I know that the douchiness of Beane couldn’t be happier about the coolness of Pitt playing him in a film. This leads me to feeling bad for Beane’s right-hand-man Paul Depodesta. Depodesta served as Billy Beane’s brainiac assistant during his time in Oakland. If Beane gets Brad Pitt, then surely Depodesta gets someone who has respectable appeal to the ladies, right? Wrong, he gets a future contestant on “The Biggest Loser,” Jonah Hill. Yeah, the fat kid with the fro from Super Bad.
Despite reports of Depodesta admiring Jonah Hill as an actor, I believe this has to be insulting to him. In fact, Depodesta refused to have his actual name used in the movie because he believed the character loosely illustrates who he is in reality to the point where the depiction is simply inaccurate (His name has been changed to Peter Brand). But we all know the real reason why he isn’t too thrilled about how he is portrayed in the film…
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| Paul Depodesta (Above -Real Life) |
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| Paul Depodesta's character in Moneyball (Above) |
Back to ticket sales…Even with the film taking place in the Bay Area, I don’t see the casual A’s fans lining up to see this movie. After all, a ticket to the movies cost more than the cheapest A’s ticket and we all know how well the A’s fans fail to fill up “Understock.com Stadium.” Maybe if they see the movie on a Wednesday the ticket price will only be $2 and every one will receive a voucher for a free hot dog. And if the amount of people that show up to see this movie mirrors the attendance at an A’s game, will theater management tarp off the empty seats?
In all seriousness, I really enjoyed reading Moneyball and I look forward to seeing it in theaters. I’m also happy for my friends who are A’s fans that get to witness their team receive national attention out of an area currently dominated by their cross-town rivals. But for a baseball philosophy introduced by a general manager that has had limited, short-term success and to be made into a movie, it kind of boggles my mind. I guess the only importance is entertainment and that’s what Michael Lewis has delivered (The Blindside), but even then, I’m curious to see how they’ll manage to do this successfully.
