Has anyone seen the movie Money Ball?
I know I am at a disadvantage when it comes to movies. I am not able to always attend a theater showing and have to wait for the disks, so if this movie has been discussed please forgive me.
The acting did not really grab me, its was the story line. Billy Beane knew the way young guys were recruited was not the right way, but was unsure what the right process might be. When he met a young man with an economics degree he saw that maybe this was "it" and decided to rewrite baseball, or at least the way teams recruited and it worked. This movie has made me fall in love with baseball again. Has anyone seen this movie, what are your thoughts? What about when someone says hey "this" has been done this way for hundreds of years, leave it alone, how do you convince that person or people to try a new way?
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meems212
asked 4 months ago
i had a question about the transition brad pitt's character made from not being involved in the locker room with the guys, to 'coaching them and tutoring them' montage. did i miss the triggering moment for him to want to start doing this?
@wootfast: I could be wrong, yet I think it was when he was thinking about his past. How money was thrown at him or he was seduced by, depending on how you view it.He realized that the way players were recruited was the wrong way, also he was at that time the only GM who was a player.His goal was to change all that. As the movie portrayed, the players were not recruited on their potential, but rather how "good" they looked. Remember the scene when one of the scouts said "his girlfriend was a six"
I haven't seen the movie, but I have read the book. The book itself is a good and entertaining read, and I met Michael Lewis in person for a presentation about it some years ago. I don't know if I'd characterize the book as inspiring, but you have to admire the ability to a blaze a different approach to the business of baseball.
All of that said, the A's today are a mediocre team. You'd have to question what Beane's philosophy has achieved.
I thought this movie was GREAT! I really liked seeing the actual game film in the movie and recognizing the various players.
@wootfast: I believe Billy started mentoring the players after he told Hatteberg he was starting and gave his "pep talk".
@mistamoose: I think Beanes' philosophy was to change how players were recruited. In the "olden" days a player was recruited on how "good" he looked for a certain position, how much press can they garner. When the player was no longer viable for that position they became expendable. Two years later the Phillies using Beanes' method won. Now if all the teams are now employing the "Beane" method and have more money to use than the A's, well they're back to where they started, not fair, but that's how it goes.
@meems212: That's an excellent point. It applies as much to baseball as it does to business. Beane had the competitive advantage only for a brief period, but that advantage was fleeting as other teams with more resources applied the same method. It was no longer a source of competitive advantage, and everything regresses back to the mean. While it'd seem like Beane and team would need to grow and find a better mousetrap, they seem content to be where they are now.
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