The New Trailer for Moneyball Changes the Game, For Good and Bad

Let’s get this out of the way up front: the latest trailer for Moneyball looks like the previous trailer for the film. It makes what many believed to be an unadaptable book into something dramatic, funny and altogether thrilling. At least in trailer form. (It helps that Brad Pitt is putting on the “full Redford” in the campaign; dude looks like Roy Hobbs’s son.) That said, there is a quibble — at least from a baseball standpoint. Says Pitt-as-Beane during a dramatic moment at the end of the newest clip, “If any other team wins the World Series, good for them. If we win, with this team, we’ll have changed the game.” Well, yes and no. If you don’t know the (very recent) history, that quote could lead you believe the third act of Moneyball includes a triumphant hoisting up of the World Series trophy. However, unless director Bennett Miller took some major dramatic license — spoiler alert if you’re not a baseball fan — that doesn’t happen. In fact, the Moneyball-era A’s never even made it to the World Series — they lost four straight American League Divisional Series match-ups between 2000-2003 (to the Yankees twice, the Red Sox and Twins), and, in 2006, were swept by Detroit in the American League Championship Series. They haven’t been to the postseason since. All of which is to say that Moneyball’s quote about changing the game is a bit disingenuous. Beane and Moneyball did change the game — the Moneyball A’s were a rag-tag group of “misfit toys” mixed with great starting pitching and at least one steroid user (Jason Giambi) that showed teams scouting wasn’t the only way to build a good team. Winning — or not winning — the World Series has nothing to do with Beane’s enduring legacy; why is the trailer pretending it did? Raise that AL West Champion banner with pride, Moneyball trailer! VERDICT: A walk is as good as a hit. [via Slashfilm]