Sabermetrics

Moneyball

Crit

Hey, I saw my two favorite Philip Something Something actors in the same weekend (Baker Hall yesterday, Seymour Hoffman today)--that's probably a first since the last time I saw Magnolia.

And of course much of baseball is about firsts and lasts and mosts and situationals, and I don't know how a nonfan or lukewarm fan will respond to this largely nonfictional account of the first time a baseball man went all in on the theories--already around for two decades by then, and revered by lots of people who only loved the game but had no say in the running of it, ignored and/or mocked by a culture dedicated to the way things had been done since Wee Willie Keeler was hittin' 'em where they weren't--of Bill James. For James and his acolytes, though, this document of revolution is a document of vindication, too: ten years farther down the road, no general manager can afford to ignore on-base average + slugging average, though dinosaurs still roam the sod-clad earth.

Of course, that doesn't change the fact that Billy Beane (played with non-movie-star conviction by Brad Pitt) "is still waiting to win the last game of the season," as the end titles have it. But that proves only that a small budget + privileging intelligence over conventional wisdom can't beat a huge budget + (finally, reluctantly) privileging intelligence over conventional wisdom. The victory of moneyball is that the teams with money are finally playing it too. Which doesn't seem fair.

Non-baseball issues: this may be a breakout role for Jonah Hill, who is the comic heart of the film without once descending to shtick. Have "Jonah Hill" and "subtlety" ever appeared in a sentence before? Let's hope that was the first of many such sentences, and many such perfect performances. And speaking of perfect, Kerris Dorsey, as Beane's daughter (one of, let's see, I can think of 5 females in the film), will break your heart with her guitar. Let's see her again.

OK, time to go check on the playoff games.

Trailers

• Immortals--LOTR-looking special effects in an epic about Theseus. Golly, I'd love it if it doesn't suck!