(2011) Moneyball

Chris Pratt is best known as Andy Dwyer, the hilariously dim yet lovable Mouserat singer on "Parks and Recreation," but the actor will be seen in a new l...

Moneyball is a 2011 American biographical sports drama film directed by Bennett Miller from a screenplay by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin. The film is based on Michael Lewis's 2003 nonfiction book of the same name, an account of the Oakland Athletics baseball team's 2002 season and their general manager Billy Beane's attempts to assemble a competitive team. In the film, Beane (Brad Pitt) and assistant GM Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), faced with the franchise's limited budget for players, build a team of undervalued talent by taking a sophisticated sabermetric approach towards scouting and analyzing players. They acquire "submarine" pitcher Chad Bradford (Casey Bond) and former catcher Scott Hatteberg (Chris Pratt), and win 20 consecutive games, an American League record. Columbia Pictures bought the rights to Lewis's book in 2004. The film was featured at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival and was released on September 23, 2011 to a box-office success and positive reviews. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Actor for Pitt, Best Supporting Actor for Hill, and Best Picture.

Baseball fans who remember the 2002 season and business-book aficionados who loved Michael Lewis' "Moneyball" immediately will spot some of the "artistic license," to use Brad Pitt's words, that the movie version takes. For those less familiar with the A's of nine seasons ago, and with the movie that opened Friday, here is a quick primer on where "Moneyball" departs from reality or exaggerates for dramatic effect: David Justice, however, is captured just about perfectly by Stephen Bishop - and it would be appropriate for Pitt to get an Academy Award nomination for playing Beane. Pitt nails Beane's gestures, mannerisms, speech patterns and his hair and wardrobe idiosyncrasies. Local sports radio never has spent even a fraction of the time discussing the A's that the movie suggests, and Bay Area media did not call for Beane's firing after the 2001 season or during the first half of the 2002 season. [...] the A's had a club option for 2003 - which isn't guaranteed job security, but it's at least an indication of the organization's support, which is what he believes he is lacking in the movie.

It's rare when popular culture uses Six Sigma principles to entertain the masses. It is rarer still when that entertainment incorporates professional sports. The rarest of the rare is when Six Sigma and professional sports are combined to help create a blockbuster movie.

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The movie dwells on Oakland's loss of three star players (Jason Giambi, Johnny Damon, and Jason Isringhausen) after the 2001 season and Beane's efforts to replace them. Presumably he can't because his owner will not increase the payroll. His choices are Jason Giambi, Scott Hattenburg, and David Justice. His scouts are appalled.

Chris Pratt, aka Andy Dwyer from "Parks and Recreation" (or Bright Abbott from "Everwood") co-stars in Brad Pitt's new movie "Moneyball" coming out on Septem...

Chris Pratt from "Parks and Recreation" sits down with Kevin Pereira to talk about his new movie about the true story of Billy Beane's Oakland A's trying to ...

Someone had to give this movie the eyeball test.

How a widely misinterpreted business book about market inefficiencies became an Oscar-bait movie starring Brad Pitt