No Explosions, Just a Great Movie

Bennett Miller’s “Moneyball” is a solid account of Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland Athletics baseball club, and how he used a statistical technique called “sabermetrics” to create a winning team with a payroll roughly one fourth the size of the New York Yankees’. Bill James, inventor of sabermetrics (from the acronym for the Society of American baseball Research), published, back in the 1980s, a yearly book called the Baseball Abstract. As a fan, I used to grab it as soon as it appeared in the bookstores. It had all kinds of great stuff, such as how so-and-so does with runners in scoring position and two outs late in a game. In “Moneyball,” a young man named Peter Brand (Jonah Hill) is hired away from the Cleveland Indians by Beane (Brad Pitt). Using Brand’s sabermetrics — above all, the on-base percentage — they figure out how to replace departed stars Jason Giambi and Johnny Damon with players overlooked or rejected by baseball scouts who used traditional baseball methods, such as figuring the relative pulchritude of a player’s girlfriend. “She’s a six at best,” says one old coot, implying a lack of confidence and aggression on the part of the ballplayer content with such a woman. The A’s get off to a terrible start, and part of the problem is manager Art Howe’s refusal to play (money)ball. Howe, played with pot-bellied verisimilitude by Philip Seymour Hoffman, won’t follow Beane’s plan to turn a catcher, who can’t throw, into a first baseman; Beane figures the player’s on-base percentage will make up for any defensive liabilities. Never mind that he has never played the position and is terrified of a ball being hit in his direction. Beane trades the players who don’t fit in the scheme, leaving Howe no choice but to follow directions, and eventually the A’s catch on fire in a big way, not just going from last to first in the American League West division but winning an American League record of 20 consecutive games between Aug. 13 and Sept. 4 in 2002. Miller’s direction doesn’t draw attention to itself (much like a good baseball umpire’s work). He occasionally employs flashbacks, slow motion and silence on the soundtrack at key moments — all to good effect. Pitt and Hoffman are instantly believable, and Hill shines as the dorky young Brand. Sabermetrics inventor James recently told Bloomberg.com reporter Ira Boudway: “My work is trying to figure out how to quantify something that has previously been regarded as intangible. It’s not to say that there aren’t true intangibles. People think that you start with the statistics, which was never true. You start with a question and you end up with a statistic.” The only statistic for moviegoers to consider is that this film is a winner — even if you are no fan. And if you are a fan, then “Moneyball” is a grand slam, a Triple Crown, a perfect game (take your pick). I liked it. No explosions. I didn’t even notice that the movie, at two hours and 13 minutes, was too long. And for those of you of the male persuasion who have spent the better part of two decades loathing Brad Pitt on general manly principles, you can relax. He’s starting to look middle-aged. “Moneyball” is playing at The Moviehouse in Millerton, NY, and widely elsewhere. It is rated PG-13 for strong language, which you would not anticipate from baseball players.