Moneyball

Impressions before seeing it
If I were to rank everything in life based on how much I care about it, sports would be near the very bottom, just ahead of Nazis and reality shows. However, I do enjoy the occasional sports movie and I love a good underdog story. Moneyball looked interesting in that it had that behind the scenes aspect of competitive professional sports.

How was it?
What I like about this movie is the challenging of the system. Billy Beane (Pitt) asks, if there is a better way, why is everyone so against it? There is sometimes a certain stubbornness when it comes to rule systems, even when those systems are flawed, and throughout history the ones who challenge the norm and dare to stand up are the ones who encounter the toughest opposition. Only afterward, when the rest of the world finally comes around, are they praised for it. As it applies to baseball, Billy's recruitment team is looking at all the wrong reasons when drafting. "His girlfriend's a six at best," one of them says about a player, as if that has anything whatsoever to do with one's baseball career. Billy's strategy is to draft guys who, no matter what, can make it onto first base. You don't necessarily need good batters or runners, you just need guys to make it around the bases because that's how you ultimately score points.

I ended up loving this movie, so I can imagine how much more ecstatic baseball fans would be over it. I think it does a good job of building excitement and inspiration - again, I hate sports but I was floored - and even a bit of sentiment. Jonah Hill's Peter is such a baseball nerd, he's always showing Billy videos of obscure players and rare moments in the game, and some of them have a certain charm, and maybe even magic, that almost made me want to get into baseball. Almost. But even almost is a big deal.

Recommendation
You really don't have to be into sports/baseball to like this movie. You don't even see any baseball being played until the last 30-40 minutes. It's more about the inner workings of the game and the drafting process than the actual playing of the game, and more appealingly, it is a highly entertaining underdog story that almost anyone can find joy in. Go for it!