Money Ball

Yesterday (Saturday) I went to see the movie, "Money Ball" in theaters. I give the movie an enthusiastic two thumbs up. It's about the the story of the General Manager of the Oakland Athletics, a major league baseball team. It's about how major league baseball can be unfair as far as paying for players. For example, the New York Yankees pay out over two hundred million dollars total each year two their players. On the other hand, you have the Oakland Athletics, a small market team, that pays their players about 50 million dollars a year total. It's hard to compete in major league baseball if you're a small market team and can't buy the right players for your ball club like a big money market team can like the Yankees or the Red Sox. This story is about a General Manager, Billy Beane, who figures out a mathematic way to reorganize his baseball team, the Oakland Athletics. Since he doesn't have the money to sign the all star baseball athletes, he signs players that are the best position for their value. He starts by using the "on base percentage method". His goal is to win. In baseball, a team can win if they score runs and you score runs by getting on base. Thus, his goal is to look for the best players that he can afford, who get on base the most. His theory doesn't work out for the first few weeks of the season but in the long run, it works wonders for the Oakland Athletics as they go on to win 20 consecutive games that season (a major league record). I don't want to say too much more because I don't want to give the movie away but it's an inspirational movie that makes you really think outside the box. Go see the movie!!