Money Ball the movie

Hawk Harrelson weighs in:

http://www.csnchicago.com/09/26/11/Sox-Drawer-Hawk--Stone-rip-Beane-Moneyba/landing_soxdrawer_v3.html?blockID=567770&feedID=661

“It’s bull----, and he’s proven it’s bull---- by the moves that he’s made and the deals he’s made, and the games that he’s lost. How long has he been there?”

“When you start inundating players with numbers and information, you lose something,” Harrelson explained. “I think baseball has lost a lot of its childlike qualities, and it’s a kid’s game. You take Mark Buehrle, he has never lost his childlike qualities. That’s one reason he can go out there and throw an 86 miles-per-hour fastball and still compete and win. A lot of players have lost it. So if a lot of players lose it, the individual game loses it.”

“I think he’s the most overrated general manager in the history of the game. In my history. 52 years.”

“I couldn’t believe what Ricketts said about the Cubs, that whoever is going to be the new general manager is going to have to be well-versed in sabermetrics,” Harrelson said. “If that’s got to be a criteria for hiring a good general manager, he’s making a big mistake, or he’s bought into the wrong game. He should hire a good baseball man to be the general manager.”

 

Stupid.

I'm pretty happy with Avg./HR/RBI. It gives you a good amount of info. If you look at a guy's whole line and see how many walks, doubles, steals, etc. he has, you get a fuller picture.

Advanced metrics tell you more. If you're trying to build a team and decide where to spend money, you can't ignore them.

They help you differentiate between two (seemingly) similar players.

I don't understand why guys get worked up about that.

 

Because the American male ego is frequently tied up in the idea that they can watch a lot of baseball, play in high school or junior college, and be experts on what's happening.

 

It's insane. We wouldn't want a Congressman to vote on gut feeling without examining the policy ramifications of a new law. But somehow baseball is apparently different.

 

I thought the film was very good. And I'm somebody who's not wild about Brad Pitt. He will get an Oscar nom, as will the film.

I believe the reason Beane did not take the Boston job was indeed his daughter, and I thought the film suggested that. Loved the casting choice for the daughter.

 

Yes, that is one of the main reasons that was cited at the time. It's also relevant to current discussion about Billy's future, because that daughter is now in college in Ohio (hence not an impediment to his moving), and he has younger kids who I think haven't started kindergarten yet. Given Billy's belief that you have to teach 'em in diapers how to take pitches, I'm sure they spend much of their days just watching objects go past them.

 

I think a lot of time your "gut feeling" is taking in lots of information that you don't even realize.

But I kinda like the grinding the stats, too.

My only complaint is that all these stats are making the box scores bigger.

 

I posted sometime back in here that this sounded like a good movie to watch when it came on HBO. Well, the wife suggested we (me, her, our 2 kids) see it tonight and so we did. And maybe because I had low expectations, I liked it. And my wife liked it. And my kids said they liked it. I get why Keith Law wouldn't - it is like any movie about *your* profession. It is so easy to pick apart. That's now how it happens or happened! This sucks!

Anyway, there was one girl sitting in front of us that actually clapped and was excited after a home run. People who aren't baseball savants will - and do/did - like this movie.

Of course, I had to explain later to my wife how the book is totally different, there's no daughter, they had this great pitching staff (she said it made it seem like Bradford was their best guy) and that Jeremy Brown had a much bigger role in the book. Of course, she doesn't really understand that when players get drafted they go to the minor leagues, etc. In other words, she was probably the perfect target for this movie.

 

Christ, what an idiot.

It took YEARS for them to recover from the shipwreck job he engineered during his brief time at the helm.

Please leave. You've done enough damage.

 

Stop asking this bozo his opinions on things. He's a public nuisance and nothing more.

 

Saw this Friday night with her. We both enjoyed it.

Lots of good baseball detail, I thought. Justice having to pay for a coke was a detail that just nailed it.

The scouts sitting around the table and talking about players rang especially true as did the interaction between the Billy and Peter characters. That's when the Sorkin-written script was at its most Sorkin-y.

 

Also ... completely make-believe.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/09/24/SPT71L7Q0V.DTL