Moneyball is on the money

When the weather drops to temperatures in the teens, it's fun to hibernate indoors and settle down for a good movie. One of my favorites this season has been Moneyball, starring Brad Pitt as the Oakland Athletics' General Manager who fashioned a new way of creating a winning baseball team.

In 2002, the A's had $41 million to spend on player salaries, while competing teams often had much more to spend, such as the NY Yankees with $125 million for salaries. But using what later would be called sabermetrics - a more analytical, computerized, objective way to pick players on teams - general manager Billy Beane led the A's to win a record 20 consecutive games in '02. This true story was the inspiration for the book Moneyball by Michael Lewis, and movie of the same name in 2011.

It's a smart movie that is fun to follow, without seeming like a brainy movie - it's baseball! But legendary writer Aaron Sorkin brings the dialogue to life. Dynamite actor Jonah Hill portrays a fictional analyst who tells Billy the old way of scouting and picking players was flawed. Antiquated were the flashy but risky moves of stealing bases. Runs batted in was not a meaningful statistic. More important was picking players for on base percentages, and slugging percentages.

It tells a good story, a true story, an American story. And maybe best of all, it does it while celebrating the romance of baseball. There is a love of this game, watching and playing it, that doesn't have the same flavor as some of our other favorite sports. This movie really brings it.

Although Billy is still trying to win a World Series, the introduction of saber metrics has changed the game of baseball. After the Boston Red Sox tried to hire away Billy, he declined and they implemented this strategy on their own. Two years later they won the Series. Now teams such as the NY Mets and Yankees, San Diego Padres, Saint Louis Cardinals, and Arizona Diamondbacks all reportedly use these techniques. Brad Pitt heads up a great cast - Philip Seymour Hoffman disappears into his role magically. Use of old game films is priceless and brings back memories. This is a movie with stuff for all of us, not just us baseball fans.