“As a celebration of the magic of movies involving baseball, at least one scene from a different film will be posted each day for the next nine days…”
—From “Top of the First” March 28th

2011 was the year that featured a movie that included two underdog story lines occurring simultaneously. The first was the major motion picture, “Moneyball,” which tells the true story of the Oakland Athletics in 2002, managed by Billy Beane, and how Beane dealt with the departure of his biggest stars: Johnny Damon, Jason Giambi and Jason Isringhausen. The second was the surprising chemistry between acclaimed leading man Brad Pitt and niche comedic actor Jonah Hill in this dramatic film about baseball…and so much more.

As described in “Top of the Second,” Brad Pitt portrays real life Oakland Athletics manger Billy Beane. He has to deal with the reality his clubhouse is, monetarily speaking, at the very bottom of the wealth ranks. “The problem we’re trying to solve is that there are rich teams and there are poor teams. Then, there’s fifty feet of crap and then there’s us. It’s an unfair game.” The fact is they cannot afford to pay any salary remotely comparable to that of the New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox. This dilemma the As faced wasn’t even about tightening belts with regard to any kind of reckless spending. Rather, they actually had to throw the belts out into the trash. The status quo was not holding anymore.

It was a dire situation. Creativity on a shoe string budget was their only viable option. Numbers were the only asset they could afford. Luckily, Beane had the aptitude to grab the smartest guy for the job from his indistinctive cubicle in the bullpen in Cleveland.

Peter Brand: “Your goal shouldn’t be to buy players. Your goal should be to buy wins. In order buy wins, you need to buy runs.”

The clip below is the final scene of the movie.

This is a SPOILER ALERT warning. If you have not seen the last scene of the movie “Moneyball” and would like to see the film in its entirety first, then please do not click on the video.

Either way, the final two and a half minutes show the ending to the true story of Billy Beane and his attempts to score more runs and strikeout more batters in the micro while trying to change the way the game is played in the macro.

On screen, actors Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill pulled off the underdog upset with their natural fluidity with each other in their respective roles that brought credibility and realism to the characters and the movie as a whole. Was the real life ending for the people they portrayed on film as victorious?

Billy Beane: “We are card counters at the blackjack table. And we’re gonna turn the odds on the casino.”

http://youtu.be/fkKCNXbtmcY

Extra! Extra! Read All About It! As can happen in this sport, we have a tie score at the end of nine innings and will be preparing for the top of the 10th!