Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game is the most influential baseball book of the last two decades, and it isn’t particularly close. Written by Michael Lewis, the man behind The Blind Side and The Big Short, Moneyball chronicles Oakland A’s GM Billy Beane as he attempts to build a championship ballclub on a shoestring budget.
Lewis was granted behind-the-scenes access into the Athletics front office, and his text reads like a riveting docudrama. The book had a profound influence on the baseball landscape, and its enduring popularity made it an appealing property for Hollywood studios.
Adapting the Bestseller
After years of languishing in development hell, Moneyball was adapted into a film starring Brad Pitt in 2011. Like the book, the film received almost unanimous critical acclaim. But while the film makes for an excellent companion piece to Lewis’s writing, it succeeds because of how it differs from the original text.
Moneyball the book is about gaining a competitive advantage by rejecting conventional wisdom, whereas Moneyball the movie is about Billy Beane’s struggle to find meaning in his work. In the book, Lewis takes the reader through various stages of Oakland’s 2002 season, including Spring Training, the first-year player draft, and the team’s record-setting 20-game win streak.
Understanding Billy Beane
But while Billy Beane is a prominent figure in the text, his life away from the ballpark is barely mentioned. We learn how he was once a promising prospect, and that his playing career fizzled despite his vast potential. These details help us understand Beane’s views on player development, and why he is reluctant to make decisions based on money. However, Lewis does not delve into Beane’s family life or his interpersonal relationships outside the workplace.
The film adaptation of Moneyball, with a screenplay credited to Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillian, takes a much different approach to the story. Throughout the film, we see Beane bond with his adolescent daughter and navigate an awkward relationship with his ex-wife and her new boyfriend.
These scenes show us that although Beane is at the height of his professional career, his private life is far messier. Spending time with his daughter allows Beane to let his guard down, but he is still reluctant to discuss his job around her. In the end, he knows he can’t fully take pride in his work until the A’s win a championship.
When his daughter asks why newspaper writers and baseball pundits are calling for him to be fired, Beane advises her to tune out the criticism. Deep down, however, Beane understands that in spite of what he’s accomplished, “unless you win the last game of the season, nobody gives a shit.”
Just Enjoy the Show
Ultimately, through his interactions with his daughter and co-worker Peter Brand, Beane learns to be romantic about baseball again. In the film’s final scene, Beane drives off in his car while listening to a tape of his daughter singing “The Show” by Australian artist Lenka.
The song was released six years after the story takes place, but the music is powerful enough that we overlook the anachronism. The chorus, with its reminder to “let it go and just enjoy the show” moves Beane to tears. Before the tape reaches its conclusion, Beane’s daughter sings a cheeky refrain of “You’re such a loser, Dad,” which prompts laughter from Beane.
This moment encapsulates Beane’s emotional journey over the course of the film, from a bitter and frustrated GM to someone who embraces the challenge of his chosen profession. The song causes Beane to have an epiphany: he’s been so consumed by the desire to please his critics that he’s forgotten why he fell in love with baseball in the first place.
Realizing the error of his ways, Beane finally finds joy in a game that has caused him constant heartbreak. It is this scene that elevates Moneyball from a compelling baseball movie to a truly thought-provoking character study.
Moneyball is a brilliant baseball book, and it is deservedly viewed as a classic of its genre. But through expert character development and nuanced performances, the movie adds a layer of emotional complexity that is missing from the original text.
