Moneyball

Rating: 8
Starring: Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Philip Seymour Hoffman
Genre: Drama

Billy Beane was a hot young prospect at one time, an early draft choice of whom great things were expected. But he had trouble handling       Major League pitching. His active career in the big leagues was a short one. He gravitated toward the management side of the game and eventually became a general manager of the Oakland Athletics, where he operated successfully on a small budget by employing scientific principals. 

Baseball's Neanderthal culture, which prides itself on "gut instinct," resisted his attempt to  shine the bright light of analysis into the game's mythological dark corners. Today, however, his pioneering approach dominates the game's management ranks to the extent his methods are no longer unique. 

This is not so much a baseball movie as it is the story of one man fighting against a "head-in-the-sand" mindset. A sidebar to this story is his failed marriage and the influence of his young daughter. This is a really interesting movie, perhaps more so to me than most. It is loosely  based on a book of the movie's title written by Michael Lewis, and has received excellent  critical reviews as has Pitt's portrayal of Beane.