If you do not know the story of Billy Beane, here is a preface: played in the 2011 movie Moneyball by Brad Pitt, Beane was the General Manager (and is now the executive vice president) of the Oakland Athletics major league baseball team.
Back in 2002, he changed the methodology of the game by adapting some far-out, newfangled strategy called “sabermetrics,” which took a mathematics approach to a perceived game of instincts and savvy. Sabermetrics was ahead of its time; where scouts believed a hitter’s potential came down to force of character and pure athleticism, sabermetrics proposed that the key to a good hitter was, in fact, in his ability to get on base, be it a walk or a hit.
Peter Brand (Jonah Hill): Billy Beane’s assistant and brain trust, who advises, “your goal should be to buy wins”.
As Beane’s Assistant GM Paul DePodesta (known as “Peter Brand” in the film and played by Jonah Hill) stated, “your goal shouldn’t be to buy players, your goal should be to buy wins.” Taunted, dismissed, at times blatantly threatened, the Beane-Brand partnership prevailed in applying this controversial approach to the A’s 2002-2003 season’s lineup.
What does this cinematic tale mean? Specifically, how does Moneyball add up as a great “parable of masculinity”? Well, many reasons, but first, it helps to have context: Moneyball was directed by Bennett Miller, who crafted the masterful 2014 wrestling film, Foxcatcher. Both films, respectively, wrestle (Foxcatcher literally) with masculine ideals and centre on male characters who are naturally competitive and have a strong will for greatness.
Where Foxcatcher resembles a Greek tragedy, Moneyball is, mostly, a success story. “Mostly” because, like real life, stories should not be relayed as black-and-white and sweet-or-sour. True, the A’s lose in the AL Elimination Game. True, Beane declined the general manager job for a team that won the World Series two years later (and broke its perennial Bambino’s Curse). And true, by the film’s end, Billy “is still trying to win that last game of the season.”
In “Foxcatcher”, Dave Schultz (Mark Ruffalo, right) is the Billy Beane character–resolute, skillful, intelligent–and the centre of the film’s tragedy.
But throughout the course of the film, in spite of all his opponents and obstacles, Beane never loses track of his individuality and integrity. He stands by his decisions, even in the absence of light, and stays true to them until they hold true to all of baseball.
One of the greatest obstacles for all men is overcoming those pangs of self-doubt. That often unshakeable insecurity of questioning your thoughts, convictions, and actions, and wondering if you should cave at the behest of a brash majority or vocal minority. When it comes to principles–something this decadent modern era seems to lack–one should look to what Thomas Jefferson said and “stand like a rock.” Billy Beane, indeed, stands like a rock—his unwavering flag of audacity planted firmly in the ground.
As GM, Beane was already regarded with a certain amount of respect by his colleagues. He had experience as a pro baseball player (played for the Mets, Twins, Tigers, and A’s), where most managers did not. But when Beane presents the eccentric idea of sabermetrics (pioneered by pork-and-beans worker, Bill James), his credibility is put at stake. Still, Billy keeps his cool, spits tobacco into his paper cup, and deduces to a table full of fogey scouts: “If we try to play like the Yankees in here, we will lose to the Yankees out there.”
The real Billy Beane, executive vice president of the Oakland Athletics.
Firstly, that is one of Billy’s great (and manly) strengths: he is an expert purveyor of logic. Sitting at the end of the boardroom table, Beane reminds his scouts if the Athletics try to “play like the Yankees in here, [they] will lose to the Yankees out there.” As harebrained as sabermetrics first sounds, Beane explains himself calmly, but not without some sardonic wit to boot (“there are rich teams and there are poor teams… then there’s fifty feet of crap… and then there’s us”).
Repeatedly, Beane experiences confrontations that, if dealt incorrectly (that is, with irrational emotions), could damage his integrity or reputation as GM. But Beane handles it like a champ, never conceding points or cowering to low-blow character attacks. While Beane does come off a little carefree, that is more of a defence mechanism against the swaths of in-house skepticism. In reality, he is firm, strong-minded, and respectful of his associates’ views. He listens, so he can properly deal with objections from the coaching staff.
For instance, Beane’s initial conversation with head coach Art Howe (played by the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman) about his shaky one-year contract is dealt with supremely. Billy explains that he can’t look at Art’s short-term contract until he puts the players on the field. Until then, Beane affirms, everything is “on” him. Beane is essentially warding off a nagging kvetch using sound logic, while being fair—he puts all the onus on himself, giving Art no further course of argument.
“There’s fifty feet of crap… then there’s us”: Beane breaks down reality to a room full of skeptics.
This is what makes Beane not only a true man, but a true leader (should they not be one and the same?). He is always willing to assume responsibility – i.e. when the responsibility is truly his. At first, he makes some excuses. He whines to A’s co-owner Steve Schott about the team’s low budget, but gets up off his butt and owns the reality of his predicament.
He acquires Peter Brand, a Yale economics graduate who has an uncanny way with numbers and codifying player performance. Together, they dump expensive players for cheap underdogs. Originally in a tough fix, Beane pulls through by making personal, calculated decisions that ultimately alter the landscape of baseball.
An important subplot of Moneyball shows Beane as a divorced father. There’s an interesting scene where Beane waits for his daughter at his ex-wife’s home. Her new husband (played effetely by Spike Jonze) sits across from Beane, asking him inane, uninformed questions about baseball. We can’t help but wonder: “did Billy’s ex-wife hedge her bets or something with this beta?”
The Billy Beane-Peter Brand partnership that turned the whole MLB right-side up.
As the conversation sputters, Beane learns that his ex and her boytoy gave his daughter a cell phone. When the boyfriend sheepishly says Billy can be part of that decision (even though it’s obviously too late), Beane dominantly replies “her mother and I will discuss it, but thank you.”
That’s another one of Beane’s masculine virtues in this film. He handles bullshit, fakery, and macho hostility with a Stoic’s acuity. Consider the scene below where head scout Grady Fuson criticizes Billy’s new crusade with “Google boy” Brand. When Grady asks to have “a word,” Beane knows the scout has a major gripe and immediately decides he won’t succumb to the tension.
Before Grady can say anything, Billy slaps his hands (a good, though kind of theatrical, way of commanding an opponent’s attention) and inquires, “you’re not happy, Grady… why.” Immediately, Beane has called out Grady’s agenda, disarming him. Beane is direct with his opponent and pulls no punches (literally): “adapt or die,” he asserts. Frustrated, Grady aggressively puts a hand on Billy’s shoulder, which he immediately shucks off. Notice how Beane doesn’t physically escalate and buy into Grady’s macho theatrics. Instead, he calmly fires the incensed Grady–not simply because he can but, with this physical threat, Beane now has every right to.
Following this code of conduct will help you win in life and overcome the many, many conflicts you will face as a man in a system that wants you to fail. It is what separates the alphas from the betas. You should face these conflicts head-on, because if you don’t that means you have not been a challenge to the powers that be and you are just another pawn in the game of life.
Billy Beane is the opposite: he represents the struggles of a man in a powerful position, who uses his authority to challenge the system from the top-down. He accepts that “it’s a process” to stand out from the crowd and separate yourself from the status quo, all while staying true to his principles. That is the basic parable of Moneyball: it is not about the joys of playing America’s greatest game and staying in “the show,” but about changing the way it should be played. Billy Beane’s achievements should be a guide for every man who challenges an existing flawed system.
Read More: The Parable of Aepyornis Island
Great article. Great movie. Great book. If you want to put your gf/wive to sleep so you can sneak out for a night with the boys, I highly recommend this film.
Beane’s strategy worked great until other wealthier teams got wise to it; it became more- moneyed ball after that
Not really — mentioning to her girls/harem/facebook that she saw a ‘Brad Pitt movie’ will earn her 20xp like points. She’ll probably watch it more intently than you and sprinkle estrogen all over it.
(insert obligatory kratom deficiency joke here)
OK I cant fake it anymore….
WTF is Kratom?!?!?!?!?
A plant, which consumption alleggedly gives you:
– A ripped body in 6 days
– 12 additional inches to your pecker
– More pussy than you can ever handle
– Unlimited bacon for breakfast
Oh come on enough exaggeration.My pecker only grew 2 extra inches with Kratom, and it took me over 2 weeks to get jacked on it. I would say my bacon consumption stayed about the same, although there was an increase in attention from women, but they were all fat birds.
You obviously got scammed and bought low quality stuff, probably a Chinese knock-off.
SWEET!!
“Allegedly”?
Well, I didn’t try it.
I disagree. A film about statistics is likely to bore any hot 20-something American slut to absolute death.
Does she have big tits?
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The glaring problem with the film was too much Pitt, not enough probability presented.
Watch the sequel, Money Tits, where Pete Brand devises a statistical model to increase a strip club owner’s revenue from 6 to 7 figures in a single season.
Indeed, because your average moviegoer is mathematically illiterate. That being said, there’s some good books on the issue.
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Jonah Hill is disgusting.
I am more than a little surprised readers HERE are posting about “sneaking out”.
Though I suppose I shouldn’t be.
This same strategy can be applied to other sports, namely soccer or football. However, given soccer’s lack of discrete order (i.e measurable intermediaries between scoring), this is hard.
Baseball is basically all about stats. The real fans are stat freaks.
Testify!
Philip Seymour Hoffman….. great actor….. bad heroin addict……
Met him once. At the Jefferson Memorial of all places. He’s dead.
Jefferson Too!
Incorrect: Friends don’t let friends do drugs.
Correct: Friends with experience help friends do drugs correctly, without long-lasting harmful side effects or death.
This is the only recent film I have watched repeatedly- at least 5 times in the last few years. It’s amazing and powerful on several levels. Watch it. Study it. Repeat…
Yup. It’s one of the very few films put out by the social-agenda entertainment complex that was not only watchable, but engaging and entertaining, even by sexing up something as statistical analysis with Brad Pitt in the lead role.
The new Mel Gibson film Blood Father was pretty good. Gibson can still carry a film better than all the effeminate leading men these days put together.
Watched it last night. Boring and tons of a SJW shit from his dumb fuck daughter.
I dunno, the guys from this movie with their statistics and math would usually be the villain – the big corporation that cares only about money, and they will usually get beaten by a team of underdogs that look beyond mere numbers…..
Except, that’s not how real world works. Math is in everything and knowing your math makes the difference between pulling it off and failing spectacularly.
Those feel good movies are just that.
This type of American sports for profit only mentality is ruining football in Europe. Rich Arabs and Russians are contribution by laundering their dirty wares in UEFA.
We should stop having ball sports and have sports that are actually useful. Like who is the faster and more efficient surgeon, MMA, wrestling, boxing, best carpenter, screw pole vaulting, we should have women’s pole dancing contest
It “works” in sports like baseball because there is no salary cap. Oakland is technically in a small market, much like the likes of Kansas City, my Milwaukee Brewers and I suppose Cincinnati. Even with profit sharing, these teams cannot and will never have the capability to spend like the massive markets in New York, Chicago, Boston, LA, etc. KC won a world series recently by making good trades and adding pieces right when it was necessary to do so.
My Brewers have only been close to World Series contention once in recent memory (2011) and ownership went “all out” to get some bigger name players in and boost payroll. Even with that, in 2011, they were ranked 15th in all of baseball spending 84 million. New York for example, spent 201 million…
This year for example, Milwaukee is definitely playing something similar to money ball. They are approaching the All-Star break first in the NL Central and even though the defending World Series champs are close, they haven’t really shown any real signs of picking up as of yet.
Milwaukee’s payroll is dead last in the league, spending 32 million and if they continue to play at the level they are playing and make the playoffs, it will be one of the more massive success stories that MLB has ever witnessed. They’ve made some incredible trades for players teams thought were washed up and done and signed some free agents that have panned out. It has definitely been a fun ride.
I’ll watch it again after that glowing review but the first time through, and I had high hopes, it was a real yawner.
The funniest thing is the fact that Paul DePodesta refused to allow his name be used in the movie when he found out that Beane was going to be played by Brad Pitt and his role was cast with Jonah Hill. Depodesta was a two-sport athlete who went to Harvard, can’t blame him for not wanting his likeness to be represented by that fat ugly fuck Jonah Hill.
Well it’s really not about standing out from the crowd but having functional property, to do what you got to do. If you’re a train engineer you build a train what a train needs, a moving engine, wheels, passenger seats, not what your boss says it needs, not what the media says it needs you just make it the safest, fastest, most simple controlled vehicle out there.
Trying to stand out and be different for the sake of being different is a losing fight. When you become this type of poser you will always be outpicked by someone else that is a common mold. But if yoh have functional and exceptional skill you’re hired