First off, how many people from the old "Moneyball" regime is Sandy Alderson going to import to the Mets? Is Scott Hatteberg going to get a job on the team, too?
Squawker Jon wrote that I said:
Squawker Lisa compared the front office big three of Sandy Alderson, Paul DePodesta and J.P. Ricciardi to the Miami Heat's dream team, lamenting that there was no ESPN special in which they would announce that they were taking their talents to Flushing.Well, I was a wee bit more sarcastic there than you give me credit for, Jon, especially given that I'm on record as thinking Ricciardi is way overrated! At any rate, at least your new GM getting the band back together keeps people from talking too much about that Mets clubhouse manager. What's the deal with that Charlie Samuels dude? What did he do to make Jeff Francouer tip him $50,000 -- wash his laundry especially nice? And how about K-Rod living at this guy's house? That's just wacky.
Back to "Moneyball" -- the subject of the book got me thinking about the new "Moneyball" movie. I couldn't find out who was playing Alderson or Ricciardi in the movie, but I did see that DePodesta's character, who will be played by Jonah Hill (!) in the film, has a different name now -- Peter Brand. DePodesta told Yahoo Sports he was uncomfortable not with Hill, but with the way the script depicted him, saying "I didn’t feel comfortable with my name being attached to a fictitious character."
Maybe it's just as well -- it's not like Jonah Hill looked anything remotely like DePodesta, anyway. DePodesta played football and baseball at Harvard, while the most athetic thing Hill looks like he's ever done is maybe a rousing game of beer pong or something.
According to the IMDB, Jorge Posada is in the movie, portrayed by Sergio Garcia click here to see his photo and bio, and no, I don't think he looks all that much like Posada, either.
Philip Seymour Hoffman is playing Art Howe. Giving that Hoffman seems to play an odious character in virtually every movie he's in, if I were Howe, I'd be calling my lawyer right now!
What do you think? Tell us about it!
I've never understood why everyone made a fuss over, and why someone's now making a movie about, "Moneyball."
ReplyDeleteA, The Oakland Athletics have never won a Pennant with Billy Beane as general manager. They haven't even won so much as an ALCS game.
B, In spite of the A's "success" from 2000 to 2006, no franchise in baseball -- perhaps none in all of North American major league sports -- is in danger of moving to a new metropolitan area. Translation: This team is dying, and none of Beane's "achievements" has been able to save it, and there's no reason to believe the publicity generated by "Moneyball: The Movie" is going to help. (After all, the Minnesota Twins were nearly contracted just 8 years after they were the focus of "Little Big League.")
Now, Sandy Alderson and J.P. Ricciardi, they HAVE won Pennants and World Series. This is not all that different from the Mets hiring former Baltimore executive Frank Cashen to rebuild 30 years ago. This appears to be the right move, although that largely depends on what manager Alderson hires.
Billy Beane refused to go to his team's owners and say, "Give me more money so I can sign the players to put us over the top." If the A's move, if Major League Baseball in the East Bay dies, Beane will be the man who sold the killer the gun. It's time to stop treating him like a genius and a hero. He is, in fact, a coward. George Steinbrenner would have fired him around 2004 or so.