Moneyball

Of course, I wouldn't disagree with the decision to not include them, because that stuff wouldn't work well in a movie, along with ... yeah, 95% of the rest of the book.

xpost!

Well, I guess it might be cool if they went OTT with it, e.g. portray Young Bill James as a "Rain Man" type, and plz to include uproarious historical scene with Branch Rickey and a bunch of old boys getting mashed on fine brandy and finer hookers while debating the merits of team OBP. With James Gandolfini as Branch Rickey, naturally.

I wonder if his health-care shit works in the playoffs?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/24/opinion/24beane.html

Weird.

That's not a contributor line I would expect to see.

I figured it was a parody at first!

The article is kind of weird to, as I don't think it really gets at what the problem with American healthcare is by all accounts.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117999601.html?categoryid=13&cs=1

soderbergh poss. on board

Ocean's Nine

VORPopolis

Youkilaris

sax, flies, and tale of the tape

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/sweetspot/0-1-90/Coming-soon-to-a-theater-near-you--Moneyball-.html

Pitt as Beane seems like perversely weird casting.

This dude reminds me of Beane (physically, at least):

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001004/

Yeah or even Peter Gallagher (a former Soderburgh fav) would be closer.

Angelina Jolie as Barry Zito?

Tobey Maguire as Paul DePodesta
Hanley Ramirez as Darryl Strawberry
Jonah Hill as Jeremy Brown

― NoTimeBeforeTime, Friday, October 17, 2008 2:27 PM (6 months ago) Bookmark

Not too far off, really.

OK, I'm 1/3 through Moneyball, and so far it appears to me the real genius isn't Billy Beane; it's Paul DePodesta the Harvard grad, Billy's right-hand man. He's the one that came up with all the crazy evaluations of players. It seems to me that Billy is just a figurehead.

So far, this book is amazing.

I think it's more that Lewis has a bigger hard-on for DePodesta because of that background. And part of being a good GM, especially one who rose from the player ranks like Beane, is hiring smart people and letting them do their job.

OK, I'm 1/3 through Moneyball, and so far it appears to me the real genius isn't Billy Beane; it's Bill James, the Kansas graveyard shift security guard. He's the one that came up with all the crazy evaluations of players. It seems to me that Billy is just a figurehead.

OK, I'm 1/3 through Moneyball, and so far it appears to me the real genius isn't Billy Beane; it's Michael Lewis, the writer of this book. He's the one that came up with the idea of writing about these guys. It seems to me that Billy is just a figurehead.

Actually seven years on, no one in the book seems like a unimpeachable genius. Their 2002 draft turned out to be outside of Swisher, Teahen and Blanton pretty mediocre and a lot of people Beane claimed he would have taken Swisher ahead of turned out to be pretty great (including three high school pitchers: Hamels, Greinke, and Kazmir.) Bonderman had his moments so maybe throwing a chair wasn't a great idea. Brant Colamarino was not the best hitter in the draft contrary to Paul DePodesta's assertion. Nor was it a good idea as far as anyone could tell to draft only by laptop. That said they still come off better than the cavemen in the afterword.

That said Beane has proven to be a great GM (probably one of the best three in the game) whose consistently kept the A's in contention so facts schmacts.

they wanted Youk the most though, don't forget that.

Yeah he turned out to be pretty good.

That said.

LOL

Soderbergh on movie:

http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1610467/story.jhtml

" "My clearly stated goal is to set a new standard for realism in that world."

To that end, he'll be recreating the bowels of Oakland Coliseum — where the A's play — on a soundstage and filming at actual American League stadiums around the country. And since he has the cooperation of the MLB, "Moneyball" will also be able to use actual game footage from the 2002 season.

Soderbergh is also shooting for realism in his cast, which will be made up of both actors and the real-life participants. "Anybody who is not actively playing who was on the 2002 team has been approached," he said. "We've got about 60 percent of them. We have Art Howe, we've got Rick Peterson, the pitching coach. We've got three-quarters of the scouts who were there. ... The guys on the team we can't get — we're casting real people who can play and perform. We'll have the real footage and then we'll go to the close-up with our guy in it, and it should be seamless," the director explained.

Pittaro on deck for stardom

http://www.nj.com/sports/times/index.ssf?/base/sports-6/1240981510157800.xml&coll=5

Lenny Dykstra apparently on board to deliver his "Dude, reading hurts your eyes" line

Which real-life athletes will they pick for re-creating the sprinting scene at the start of the book, that's what I wanna know. Oh, and no Darryl Strawberry, no credibility.

Strawberry is on the movie's iMdB page.

fat catcher brown gets second life

not quite apropos as Brown walked away from baseball of his own volition.

Jeremy Brown's career MLB stats:
300/364/500

http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2009/05/06/exclusive-steven-soderbergh-to-use-animated-bill-james-character-in-moneyball/

Whether this movie is amazing or awful, I am pretty sure I will be laughing all the way through it.

I've been in James' vicinity a number of times; he has an animated aura. Perhaps a cartoon bear (not as vivacious as Yogi).

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/11/SPTI17IHTB.DTL

Ex-A's third-base coach Ron Washington is also too busy managing the Rangers, so Hatteberg has a suggestion: longtime Soderbergh collaborator Don Cheadle.

Sony scraps Soderbergh's 'Moneyball'

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118005208.html?categoryid=13&cs=1&nid=2854

kinda figures. more:

http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2009/06/benched.php

I'm still trying to figure out the $50M price tag.

Kinda thinkin' that if the A's hadn't been one of the worst teams in the AL for the past 3 seasons that there'd be more momentum behind this picture. This current season is pretty much the nail in the coffin for the Moneyball fallacy imo. I guess they could switch teams to the Red Sox and call it Fever Pitch 2: The Jamesian Prophecies.

of course, the A's current record has absolutlely fucking nothing to do with the validity of Beane's approach in the period the book covers, an approach that's generally embraced to some degree by nearly every MLB team.

Obv a Hollywood studio wants a feelgood Big Game sports movie for the droolers. Maybe one about Ryan Ludwick's current MVP season, right Steve?

I'm still trying to figure out the $50M price tag.

― Alex in SF, Monday, June 22, 2009 10:27 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

it's all a publicity stunt, now soderbergh will make it sex, lies, and videotape style for only $5 million

How to make $45M disappear from budget: scrap animated Bill James, replace with James Murphy in fat suit/beard.

What else?

Don't use MLB, but instead completely make up team names/jerseys/et all. Like the Philadelphia A's or the Boston Braves.

dont use MLB, but instead make it about a made-up sport

shoot it on-location in steven soderbergh's living room

Change it to badminton, call it Moneybirdie, and have Brad Pitt stop everything every few minutes to wink broadly at the camera.

i would love to see the dykstra footage tbh