2. Overview
Old School vs. New School
“What’s the problem?”
Polite Negotiation
Analysis
Final Interview
3. The movie opens with a montage of clips from a
baseball game betweenThe Oakland A’s and the
NewYorkYankees.
You see a quote from Mickey Mantle saying, “It’s
unbelievable how much you don’t know about
the game you’ve been playing all your life.”
You see more clips from the game.You learn that
it’s an elimination game in the playoffs.
Then it flashes two numbers on the screen –
$114,457,768 vs. $39,722,689.Then, you get a bit
more context.The team names are added to the
screen.You see that those numbers represent
the payroll of the two teams from the clips.You
immediately see the problem.
7. Moneyball has made such an impact in professional
baseball that the term itself has entered the glossary
of baseball.Teams which appear to value the
concepts of sabermetrics are often said to be playing
"Moneyball." Baseball traditionalists, in particular
some scouts and media members, decry the
sabermetric revolution and have disparaged
Moneyball for emphasizing concepts of sabermetrics
over more traditional methods of player evaluation.
Nevertheless, the impact of Moneyball upon major
league front offices is undeniable.
Editor's Notes
Key actorsBrad Pitt – as Billy BeaneJohan Hill – as Peter Brand
Based on the true story of Billy Beane - once a would-be baseball superstar who was drafted by the New York Mets straight out of high school, now the General Manager of the Oakland Athletics. Heading into the 2002 season, Billy faces a miserable situation: his small-market Oakland A's have lost their star players to big market clubs and is left to rebuild his team.
In the clip we see that the old school scouts are looking for replacement players based on looks and the player’s swing of the bat.
In the following scene we see Billy asking the scouts what the problem is. We can see that Grady Fuson, played by Ken Medlock, is getting frustrated while the other scouts seem confused.On the 2 clips just shown, we see that there is a miscommunication between Billy and the scouts. The scouts are looking for players with pop in their bat and good looks, while Billy explains that the problem is because they don’t have the type of salary as the big teams do that can afford the type of players they are looking for.
Here is a great clip of Billy negotiating through Peter Brand on purchasing another player.
Throughout the entire movie there are scenes of total miscommunication. The way that Billy was able to handle all of the situations and get everyone on the same page as him took great communication skills.
