I’ve never really had any great love for the game of
baseball. But the one time I remember really getting into it was the post 9/11
playoff season when it seemed like a Yankees victory in the World Series would
magically heal the emotional wounds left over from that tragic day; when, in
spite of the still-smoldering Ground Zero, we were able to focus on something
that is otherwise meaningless in the grand scheme of things, whose very
meaninglessness was all the more reason to assign more significance than it would
otherwise merit.
We watched together at work as the Yankees took the ALDS
against the Oakland A’s after dropping the first two games at home. Then they
went on to defeat Seattle in the ALCS, but lost the Series to Arizona in 7
games. Nothing has brought back memories of that season more than Moneyball, Bennett Miller’s first
feature since 2005’s Capote. Moneyball forced my perspective on the
Division series to change, positioning the audience into empathizing with
Oakland, three times on the brink of knocking down the mighty Yankees, but
unable to make their $40M payroll compete with the Yanks’ eleventy billion. Who
on the east coast knew that 3000 miles away, there were legions of fans
immensely disappointed by the result of that Game 5? In the wake of disaster,
New Yorkers certainly didn’t care. Watching the opening scenes, instead of
reliving the joy of seeing the Yankees win, I felt the frustration and defeat of
Billy Beane (Brad Pitt), General Manager of the A’s, as he sits alone
contemplating how he can possibly manage a team with less than one third the
payroll of the biggest behemoth in professional sports.
