Hi Dasha, here's a few points. When Billy talked about winning the last game of the season, he meant the championship. Everyone else loses and is eliminated. As for the Yankees paying half of Justice's salary, here's how it works. Teams frequently give long term contracts in order to sign the best players. For example: maybe the Yankees give Justice a 5 year contract for $7,000,000 per year. After the 4th year Justice is getting old and isn't worth the money. The Yankees can release him, but they still must pay the full contract. So they offer him to Oakland. The A's say "we'll take him, but only for if we pay a portion of his contract." The Yankees then decide that giving him away and paying half is better than releasing him and paying the full contract.
I don’t like baseball, but I fricking love this movie! The subtle things that go on, subtle humor, great soundtrack, awesome dialogue. It’s just such an emotional movie.
Thats nothing compared to what they get paid these days. Mike Trout signed a $426.5 million contract. Bobby Bonilla retired in 2001 and still gets $1.2 million a year every year until 2035. Great review!
As someone who watches baseball, a lot, I always check this movie out if it's available to watch. I love this movie because they use real player names and actual footage in this. My favorite part is Pitt and Hill negotiating between 2 or 3 baseball teams on the phone. I remember every one of those players they mentioned when they played. So the nostalgia was so good in this movie. Great job Dasha!
As someone who has followed and loved the game of baseball for over 55 years this is a great fun movie. Based on a book of how this team was put together obviously some dramatic license was taken to make it an interesting movie. Im glad you were able to enjoy it. Statistical Analysis has been a part of baseball for a long time but not to the extent as now. In the end it allows you to put the best players in a position to succeed but does not guarantee it. BTW the team i have followed since i was 5 years old (im over 60 now) The Angels won the World Series in the year(2002) depicted in the move. 😊
Does she also love The Perfect Game? ALSO based on an incredible true story and also so wonderful that even those of us who don’t care about baseball love it. (I do need to add that although I don’t like professional sports and don’t care about baseball, I’m still a Sox fan, because there’s basically no way to be from New England and not be a fan of the Red Sox unless you’re an absolute curmudgeon. 😄)
at 20:15 what happened is that sometimes if a team wants to get rid of a player they have on the roster but that player is being paid too much for the amount of production they provide the team trading them will offer some money along with the player so that another team is more willing to take that player. So basically they were more willing to pay that player to not play for them than to actually play on their roster
if a baseball player chews on something its usually either tobacco, gum, or sunflower seeds. The red sox offered Billy a $12.5 million contract for 5 years (2.5 mil a year)
They really did manage to change baseball player evaluation. Other teams began adopting the same methods, and eventually the cheap, good players became too expensive for teams like the A's because everybody wanted them.
Thank you for a great reaction. It was fun re-watching this film with you. You have great sense of humor, intutive and naturally wonderful personality.
Good reaction. My friends and I were extras as fans in the stands in the movie. The A’s asked for any fans to be extras for the film. We got to briefly meet Brad Pitt too. It was a fun unforgettable experience. The A’s did groundbreaking work in the field of sports analytics. Unfortunately MLB and other sports are still not full believers. They discredit the data and look down on anyone who speaks of analytics. But I’m in your camp that you need a mixture of both sides old school/new school of analysis. Sadly, the A’s remain a small market team and this year was their worst. The owner didn’t want to field a competitive team this year. Now, they have finalized a deal to move the team to Las Vegas. Such a sad ending to their glorious history in Oakland, California and a gut punch to the loyal fanbase.
My Miami Marlins (then, the Florida Marlins) won the World Series the next year in 2003 with a $40 million payroll over the Dark Side (Yankees)- #1 payroll at $126 million. John Henry had bought the Marlins and sold it to Jeffrey Loria. Loria played Money Ball. They should have made this movie about the '03 Marlins. Payrolls have tripled AGAIN since then and now top out with the Mets (which finished poorly) last year and missed the playoffs despite a payroll of nearly $350 MILLION. Both the Tampa Bay Rays AND the Marlins made the playoffs with less than 1/5th the Mets payroll. The Yankees with nearly $300 million in payroll ALSO missed the playoffs.
A couple of notes on how contracts work: When a player gets drafted and makes his debut in the Major leagues the team owns the right to the player for seven seasons, after that the player becomes a 'free agent' and can negotiate with any team. Getting lucky in the draft you get an effective player for little money for seven years. If a drafted player don't play well the team can cut his contract at the end of the season, in which case he also becomes a free agent. At the start of the movie Oakland just lost Damon and Giambi after seven cheap years. Hatteberg and Bradford were without contracts so they signed for the league minimum. Pena was early in his seven-year service, so owning the rights to him was a valuable commodity, Oakland probably got a good return for his trade. Justice was a veteran who had signed a free agent contract with New York. It is a feature of those contracts that they can't be cut by the team, one way or another the player will be payed. The contracts are also often of a length beneficial to the player so that he gets payed well een after he gets too old to play well. With one year left of the NY contract Justice was just blocking a spot on the NYY roster. They could have just said "Justice is injured" and handed over $7M, but instead made the deal with Oakland paying half of what Justice was qwed.
Dasha, I always love your reactions. Here you reacted to a movie about a game that you say you know almost nothing about and your comments show great insight! Your reactions are always heartfelt, intelligent and insightful. Thanks for all the work you put into this, we all appreciate it!
22:12 I forget this player's name, but him losing his job cost him a lot of money for the rest of his life. In Major League Baseball (MLB) there is a player's retirement pension, but in order to get this pension you have to be in the MLB for 10 seasons. It doesn't matter if you play for a few different teams, just as long as you stay in the MLB. This player was literally days away from qualifying for the pension. MLB would've have paid him $7,500 a month for the rest of his life if he started taking the money from the day he retired. If the player doesn't start drawing from the pension right away and holds off until they're 62 years old. MLB would pay them over $200,000 a year for the rest of their lives. Billy knew this when he had to let the player go.
"Baseball is a lot like church. It's attended by many but really understood by a lucky few". -Leo Durocher I love baseball. To me, it's the most perfect thing ever.
To quote Robert Deniro in the movie The Fan."A sac fly doesn't count against the batter's batting average. That's why baseball is better than life because it's fair."
Moneyball is based on the book of the same name by Michael Lewis. The tone of the book is very different from the movie. It's a work of journalism, for one thing, not a piece of storytelling. It's been said (accurately, I think) that's it's really more a book about business than baseball. It's a good movie as long as you don't expect it to represent reality. While it's true that the A's didn't have as much money as a lot of other teams, they didn't make the players buy their own sodas. They didn't get an analyst in a trade (players can be traded, but regular employees can't be). And, perhaps most importantly, Art Howe was not a jerk. He got along quite well with Billy Beane (and everyone else on the team), and he never had a problem with Beane's management philosophy. It's another case of Hollywood needing an antagonist. Art Howe was actually offended by how he was portrayed. The movie also focused on a few players and ignored others. The Big Three (starting pitchers Barry Zito, Mark Mulder, and Tim Hudson) had a lot to do with the A's success in the 2002 season, yet they're pretty much invisible in the movie. But the basic idea is correct. The A's were successful because they found value in players that other teams ignored. In a sense, they were doing player arbitrage. Michael Lewis was interested in it because he had a business background. His first book was Liar's Poker, about his experiences as a stock broker. Also, the A's really did win 20 consecutive games, and Scott Hatteberg really did hit a walk-off homer in the last game. I attended games 3, 18, and 20 of the streak. BTW, as great as Jason Giambi was, his brother Jeremy was, let's say, a problem. I've been an A's fan for decades, and I saw him make so many mental errors on the field that he drove me nuts. He lasted in the majors only one more season after the A's traded him to Philadelphia.
Just a couple counterpoints to some of what you said. 1) Artistic license happens in basically every "based on..." movie, such as this is. They need to include drama where there wasn't any to make the stakes feel real. That said, the film makers could have easily reached out to Art Howe and told him their plan and maybe allow him to get out in front of it as soon as the movie debuted. 2) If I'm not mistaken, Zito, Hudson, and Mulder were all in the middle of their initial contracts from being called up to the majors. For those who don't know, a team has 6 years of exclusive contract rights to any player they call up from the minor leagues. Each of those guys had been in the league for less than 4 years, still under team control and they weren't going anywhere, so it stands to reason if they weren't going to be traded away and were under complete team control that they wouldn't be featured in the movie at all. Having three of the biggest/best starting pitchers at the time doesn't add to the drama for the movie's plot. I don't disagree on any one point you make, just mentioning a few things for clarity. In short, Hollywood doesn't give a damn about the truth and movies need drama to get people to invest in them, so they manufacture some in the writing.
Baseball is statistics, but its also heartache, history, joy, talking to your buddies about last nights game, memories of eating hotdogs with your dad, biting your nails. Baseball creates moments like no other sports. I love it so.
Really funny fact about the love of soccer from your country! I think because it’s related to baseball as well. But when the United States was flying spy planes over Cuba, the people analyzed the pictures and noticed soccer fields were being built. They knew Cubans don’t play soccer because baseball is the popular sport over there, that’s how they notice the USSR being in Cuba. Which some say kicked off the Cuban missile crisis.. Soccer fields being built lol. But, really good reaction from a person who knows limited stuff about baseball. I love the sport so much, it’s really one of the few sports that I can think of that has a high failure rate and still be considered “great”. If you’re a career hitter of .300 you’re basically a hall of famer, but if you break that down… if you go up to bat 10 times youll only get a hit 3 outta those 10 times, and still be considered GREAT. Life & the game of baseball are so similar. You can fail many times, but you only need those 3 times in life to succeed.
For the one guy that said he was struggling and they "sent him down", he didn't lose his job. He was just sent down to a lower skill level. Players that this happens to are still employed by the team, and are still getting paid.
This is partly because it was written by Aaron Sorkin, a great writer can make you care about ANYTHING 💔 and break your heart and in the end have the audience thank you for the entire experience 😌 that's how you get to be a pro
I love this movie only because I remember that game. I watched as the A's blew that lead then Hatteberg hitting that homerun to win the game! Great memory! Then to realize that system worked to win a World Series for the Red Sox.. Wow! Dasha i really enjoyed your reaction and i hope you get to a professional game someday! Dont worry about knowing all the rules just enjoy yourself! ⚾ Luv ya Dasha ❤️💛
Dasha, a lot of baseball players are superstitious. If they associate winning a game with something they did before playing, then they will do that same thing for every game until a new superstition replaces it. Billy's superstitious routine is to never watch his team play a game, because he thinks it would bring them bad luck and make them lose. To describe it in baseball lingo, he doesn't want to "jinx" the game.
Really liked this film, more so as it is based on a true story. At the end when Jonah Hill shows the video clip of the pitcher, is for me one of the most heart warming scenes.
He’s eating and spitting sunflower seeds. Baseball players have a habit of chewing stuff on the field like gum or seeds while waiting for action. Sunflower seeds are the most popular.
Love how the daughter changes the lyrics in her song to "you're such a loser dad" instead of "I want my money back". Also perfect the song is called "the show" and that's a nickname for baseball
Dasha , you have a lot of MOXY to take on a movie about baseball - but , as usual , your insight and being a very quick study --- make for a very enjoyable 'reaction' !
I wasn’t sure how well you would enjoy this movie because it’s a DEEP baseball movie! I shouldn’t have doubted you because you handled it like a CHAMP! That’s why you’re one of my favorites! 🙂
I'm one of your subscribers. Mainly because of your charm and your susceptibility to your emotions but seldom I leave a comment because how many times can you say I liked your reaction. I just give you a well deserved thumbs up. BUT. This time I am leaving you a comment because you surprised me with your final comments. I'm a big old school baseball guy and I am not an analytics guy. I liked the Movie Moneyball but I hate the theory of Moneyball. However, when you said isn't it supposed to be a little bit of both, I said YES!!!! SHE GETS IT!!!!! Analytics is a tool. It is a valuable tool but it is not a die hard approach. Baseball is instinctual. It has a feel to it. In the end, you have to use all the tools in the game. That includes the things Moneyball would do away with like the bunt, the stolen base and the sacrifice. Sorry for so long a comment but who knows when I'll comment again. Just needed to say this! Laita!!!
You can despise baseball and absolutely adore this movie at the same time. That's the best way to describe this movie to someone. It's a lot like the Walking Dead series. You can hate zombie garbage but still fall in love with the characters and the overall story. This movie is a subtle masterpiece...in my opinion. Much love Dasha!😂❤ By the way, Beane turned down a 5 year 12.5$ million dollar contract from the Red Sox.
Dasha, you really should go watch a professional baseball game next summer. Even if you don't really watch or even care about the game itself, the atmosphere at the game is so much fun. The crowd, the food, etc... There's something therapeutic about it.
A movie near and dear to me. I’m from the north bay which is an hour from Oakland (and San Francisco). This movie will be a memory for a lot of us who are A’s fans (whether its their main fav or second fav) as the A’s will relocate to Las Vegas in 2025 so it’s heartbreaking to those of us here.
The best way to learn about baseball is to attend local little league or high school games with someone who knows the game, and absorb the rules a little at a time. What's a strike, what's a ball, how does the umpire decide? You'll pick it up quickly. Baseball is a game of nuance and possibilities; backed by over 150 years of heroes, goats, and legends!
Sports movies that are just great movies in general - White Men Can’t Jump (1992) - Bull Durham - Rudy (1993) - He Got Game (1998) - Miracle - Hoosiers - Coach Carter - Friday Night Lights (2004)
Dasha, sweetheart, this is the only channel I've ever subscribed to! Also, this story took place in 2002. Today, the top players make over $40 MILLION IN A YEAR!!!!!
Al right, Dasha. Let's gather 'round, everybody make a huddle, grab a knee. Let's rap: The screenwriter for MONEYBALL is the great modern American scibe Aaron Sorkin. Sorkin is probably the greatest American screen and playwright in the last fifty years outside of David Mamet (Glengarry Glen Ross). Sorkin's first produced screenplay was the adaptation from his stage pkay A FEW GOOD MEN. He has won three Academy awards for screenwiting for THE SOCIAL NETWORK, STEVE JOBS and THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7. But, perhaps he is most famous for creating and writing the late 90's long running popular and highly acclaimed television drama THE WEST WING. So, landing Aaron Sorkin to write this movie was the producers own form of magic Moneyball. Sorkin is know for his zippy, rapid fire cheeky clever dialogue. There's a term coined by his other known signature style called The Walk And Talk. This is primarily in his television work, but does crop up occasionally in his film work too like STEVE JOBS and THE SOCIAL NETWORK which is where there is usually two characters talking in quick soundbite exchanges back and forth while walking quickly with urgency and usually other people coming in and out of frame around them handing them props or getting things thrown to them all done usually in one protractedly long unbroken single camera take. For this film, the director wanted to break away from that and said to Sorkin that his dialogue was strong enough to make people just sitting around in a room compelling and he proved that correct. It doesn't matter if the audience doesn't get all the inside baseball lingo and terminology, it is still a gripping human drama of high stakes and relatability. It also doesn't hurt to hedge your bet as filmmakers and cast as your numbers stat guy leading man Brad Pitt.
The 20 win season is a core memory from my teens. I remember where I was when Hatteburg hit that Home Run. And now they are probably moving to Las Vegas...... 😢
There is an old saying. Nobody should look very closely at two professions, sausage-making, nor legislation. I may add a close third, sports team deal-making. It's done in darkness and you come out with your hands bloody and filthy.
It's unfortunate that the in real life 2023 sequel to Moneyball, the owners of the Oakland A's continued to cheap out and not play All-Star players in a years long attempt to purposefully lose so they can move the team from Oakland to Las Vegas, betraying and abandoning one of the most loyal fan bases in baseball.
As @Stevarooni pointed out, the plot comparison been a conspiracy that's been brought up time and time again here in the Bay in recent years. The downward trend of the A's has mirrored that movie too perfectly. It's so obvious to everyone that the ownership sees dollar signs in Las Vegas and local sports media has been quietly (and sometimes not so quietly) bringing up that comparison for a bit. The saddest thing is that The MLB and ownership all profit from this move, so screw the fans right? Even as a lifelong Giants fan, I would have loved to see the A's stay here since Oakland could use the win (they already lost the Warriors across the Bay to us and Raiders to Las Vegas) and keep the Battle of the Bay rivalry going.
Love your sweet reactions as always, Dasha. You might want to watch a little known movie entitled, The Comrades, about a disgraced professional baseball player who's hired to coach the Russian Olympic baseball team. I think you'd enjoy it even if you watch it on your own.
Another good baseball movie that is accessible for all is "The Natural" (1984) starring Robert Redford. It is a drama wrapped in a baseball movie and I suspect you will love it. Cheers!
Hey good reaction thanks for doing that. I remember the 2000 Oakland A’s and what happened to them afterwards, I am a Braves fan and I have been for my entire life so going from the 1980s Atlanta Braves were they lead the league in errors to the 90s braves Was one of the most amazing sports event in my life. I am not an A’s fan. I was just happy for the A’s fans.
Also Art Howe the manager of the A’s hated how he was portrayed as a manger hinting to throwing the season because they’re not discussing a new contract. He was down to try something, anything to get this team to not only in the World Series but win the World Series.
The statistical approach they depict in this movie was largely adopted by the Red Sox over the next few seasons after that. However, they also had one of the largest payrolls in the game at the time. Having the financial ability to pay big name players, but also round out the team with those other guys who got on base made the Red Sox a formidable team in 2003, but then put them over the top to win the World Series in 2004. Using the Bill James statistical approach and adding value players along with superstars helped the Red Sox break their curse of not winning for 86 years, and then win 3 more World Series since then, with the last one being in 2018.
The man who inspired the character who Jonah Hill plays didn’t like how he was portrayed in the script that he demanded to not have his name used. He went on to be the general manager of my favorite the Los Angeles Dodgers (which explains a lot to me on why the Dodgers went cheap with acquiring some players).
One hockey movie you may want to see is Miracle, even if it’s about playing against the country of your origin. If you like track and field, you may want to see Chariots of Fire. So far I don’t think anyone has done a reaction to it.
The reason you see players reacting passively to getting traded or sent to the minors is because it happened to other players in front of their eyes dozens of times a year. I was thinking the exact same thing happened to Jonah, and he's not a player. But he was "bought" and had to move.
Sports movies are pretty magical. They always manage to inspire and capture the imagination even if you know nothing about sports or, in my case, don't really enjoy watching Baseball.
@@zh2184incorrect. Billy Beane chewed tobacco for years & that's what Brad is portraying in the movie, although I'd guess that Brad wasn't actually chewing tobacco.
Well, you’re kind of both wrong. He has dip in his mouth, which yes, it is tobacco but not chewing tobacco in that you don’t chew it. You just leave it in between your cheek and gums and spit into a cup or bottle. Chewing tobacco is far nastier in that you chew tobacco leaves and spit way more often because it salivates more. And yes both are very common in baseball.
I think Brad Pitt was eating sunflower seeds. Way back in the day baseball players used chewing tobacco, but after discovering it caused cancer players shifted to other things gum, sunflower seeds etc.
DASHA, very impressive reaction from a young lady who has virtually no knowledge of baseball. Let me see if I can give you a quick rundown of the basics of the game! Two teams, each with nine players on the field! The home team takes the field first and the team on the field has a pitcher, that is the man who throws the ball to the batter!! So the pitcher must try to strike the batter out, which means the batter misses the ball three times! The batter's job is to hit the ball, hopefully in between the players that are defending the field, and get on base! Once that player goes around all the bases and touches home (that is the white bass that they stand at to bat) THAT scores a run for the batting team!! The Fielding team must get three players out in order to get their turn at bat!! This goes on for nine innings with each team getting an at-bat in each inning!! Whoever has the most runs, the most players to touch home plate, at the end of nine innings is the winner!! If by chance the score is tied then they play until one team scores! And the home team always gets the last at bat!! That's pretty basic explanation of baseball and then of course you have all the nuances of different kinds of pictures and different kinds of strategies to try and score runs, which as a fan you learn as you go!! I hope that helps and I hope you get to another baseball game to enjoy it!!!❤
Great Reaction. :) Now you are ready to watch "Draft Day", the football version of acquiring players. And like "Moneyball", "Draft Day" won't require you to know a lot about football for you to enjoy it.
Baseball used to be VERY popular in the U.S. Not so much now. It's a very slow game compared to other sports. This movie does sort of give an insight into "how the sausage is made" though.. good job, Dasha..as usual.👍
The song is "The Show". A bit of a double meaning. Baseball has the Major Leagues with teams like the Oakland As (Athletics), Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, etc. There are also many minor league teams (possibly like the teams in the game you went to see), and many minor league teams are associated with Major League teams. They will send a young player to the minors to gain experience, and to see if they can play. Good minor league players get 'called up' to the major league teams. They call the major leagues 'The Show', because that's what everyone pays to see, and where the big money is. Major league players that don't do well get 'sent down' to the minors. It sounded as if the player in the movie that was cut and not traded to another team, was being sent down to the minors. They get paid much less, play in small stadiums and there are no perks. The movie Bull Durham is about the minor league baseball experience. An Australian singer, Lenka, released the song The Show a few years before the movie came out. Kerris Dorsey (the actress playing his daughter) recorded the song. She is also a singer, and is very good. You might like A League of Their Own. Tom Hanks, Madonna, Geena Davis. There's no crying in baseball!!
Even though Beane didn’t take the Boston gm job the Red Sox did use his money ball analytics and paired with a lot more money (over $100 million payroll) helped the Red Sox win their first World Series in over 80 years in 2004.
2:27--U oughta see the salaries now--easily doubled! 13:20.Coach gettin' a little brassy there--must've forgot the GM's his boss and can fire his azz. 26:59-Good point--In any sport, players that know the GM/owners care about them will play harder. Why Billy chose to stay in Oakland is beyond me, But hey, home is home sometimes, ya know? ( Unfair the Red Sox won a Title using his and Pete's method..they should've copyrighted it and would have become rich)
brad pitt is chewing sunflower seeds (probably). i like them. in base ball, its was big to chew dip but now i guess his character chews sunflower seeds as a replacement. youre so cute. btw.
Surprisingly complex movie. They set you up to think the guys running the stats are the underdog against the chaos of managerial tradition. But then the movie showcases how the guys that were there to just do what they're told _by the stats,_ that they're not just numerical values. They can play their instincts and still be excellent. And in the end highlighting that the whole point of sports, competition, most anything in life, is excellence against the odds. And for those watching, seeing that excellence, and the unexpected. Nobody is a fan of watching something that should be exciting and competitive becoming a predictable glacier moving forward.
I think it’s a massive credit to this film that it can be understood by someone with a very limited knowledge of the sport
7:32 "what is he eating?"
sunflower seeds
Hi Dasha, here's a few points. When Billy talked about winning the last game of the season, he meant the championship. Everyone else loses and is eliminated. As for the Yankees paying half of Justice's salary, here's how it works. Teams frequently give long term contracts in order to sign the best players. For example: maybe the Yankees give Justice a 5 year contract for $7,000,000 per year. After the 4th year Justice is getting old and isn't worth the money. The Yankees can release him, but they still must pay the full contract. So they offer him to Oakland. The A's say "we'll take him, but only for if we pay a portion of his contract." The Yankees then decide that giving him away and paying half is better than releasing him and paying the full contract.
I don’t like baseball, but I fricking love this movie! The subtle things that go on, subtle humor, great soundtrack, awesome dialogue. It’s just such an emotional movie.
Thats nothing compared to what they get paid these days. Mike Trout signed a $426.5 million contract. Bobby Bonilla retired in 2001 and still gets $1.2 million a year every year until 2035. Great review!
22:56 "no explanation? they literally can explain it on paper."
exactly. 😆
I wasn’t expecting to see you here but I guess that makes sense. Nice work on your edits, dude.
I really enjoy your channel. You're doing good work.
@@Filmfiend27thanks!
@@dggydddy59thank you.
As someone who watches baseball, a lot, I always check this movie out if it's available to watch. I love this movie because they use real player names and actual footage in this. My favorite part is Pitt and Hill negotiating between 2 or 3 baseball teams on the phone. I remember every one of those players they mentioned when they played. So the nostalgia was so good in this movie. Great job Dasha!
As someone who has followed and loved the game of baseball for over 55 years this is a great fun movie. Based on a book of how this team was put together obviously some dramatic license was taken to make it an interesting movie. Im glad you were able to enjoy it. Statistical Analysis has been a part of baseball for a long time but not to the extent as now. In the end it allows you to put the best players in a position to succeed but does not guarantee it. BTW the team i have followed since i was 5 years old (im over 60 now) The Angels won the World Series in the year(2002) depicted in the move. 😊
“Was that a bad throw?” That made me smile.
When the hitter dived to the ground in fear, yeah that’s usually a bad throw.
My mother hates sport and knows nothing about baseball but she really likes this movie. That’s how you know it’s really well done
Yes!
Does she also love The Perfect Game? ALSO based on an incredible true story and also so wonderful that even those of us who don’t care about baseball love it.
(I do need to add that although I don’t like professional sports and don’t care about baseball, I’m still a Sox fan, because there’s basically no way to be from New England and not be a fan of the Red Sox unless you’re an absolute curmudgeon. 😄)
at 20:15 what happened is that sometimes if a team wants to get rid of a player they have on the roster but that player is being paid too much for the amount of production they provide the team trading them will offer some money along with the player so that another team is more willing to take that player. So basically they were more willing to pay that player to not play for them than to actually play on their roster
Theres nothing like baseball money. Shohei Ohtani just signed a $700 million dollar contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers
if a baseball player chews on something its usually either tobacco, gum, or sunflower seeds.
The red sox offered Billy a $12.5 million contract for 5 years (2.5 mil a year)
They really did manage to change baseball player evaluation. Other teams began adopting the same methods, and eventually the cheap, good players became too expensive for teams like the A's because everybody wanted them.
Thank you for a great reaction. It was fun re-watching this film with you. You have great sense of humor, intutive and naturally wonderful personality.
Good reaction. My friends and I were extras as fans in the stands in the movie. The A’s asked for any fans to be extras for the film. We got to briefly meet Brad Pitt too. It was a fun unforgettable experience.
The A’s did groundbreaking work in the field of sports analytics. Unfortunately MLB and other sports are still not full believers. They discredit the data and look down on anyone who speaks of analytics. But I’m in your camp that you need a mixture of both sides old school/new school of analysis.
Sadly, the A’s remain a small market team and this year was their worst. The owner didn’t want to field a competitive team this year. Now, they have finalized a deal to move the team to Las Vegas. Such a sad ending to their glorious history in Oakland, California and a gut punch to the loyal fanbase.
AMEN!!!
If people who don't like baseball love this movie, you can imagine how people who love baseball feel.
Billy is chewing on sunflower seeds. Very popular amongst baseball players.
My Miami Marlins (then, the Florida Marlins) won the World Series the next year in 2003 with a $40 million payroll over the Dark Side (Yankees)- #1 payroll at $126 million. John Henry had bought the Marlins and sold it to Jeffrey Loria. Loria played Money Ball. They should have made this movie about the '03 Marlins. Payrolls have tripled AGAIN since then and now top out with the Mets (which finished poorly) last year and missed the playoffs despite a payroll of nearly $350 MILLION. Both the Tampa Bay Rays AND the Marlins made the playoffs with less than 1/5th the Mets payroll. The Yankees with nearly $300 million in payroll ALSO missed the playoffs.
A couple of notes on how contracts work:
When a player gets drafted and makes his debut in the Major leagues the team owns the right to the player for seven seasons, after that the player becomes a 'free agent' and can negotiate with any team. Getting lucky in the draft you get an effective player for little money for seven years. If a drafted player don't play well the team can cut his contract at the end of the season, in which case he also becomes a free agent.
At the start of the movie Oakland just lost Damon and Giambi after seven cheap years. Hatteberg and Bradford were without contracts so they signed for the league minimum.
Pena was early in his seven-year service, so owning the rights to him was a valuable commodity, Oakland probably got a good return for his trade.
Justice was a veteran who had signed a free agent contract with New York. It is a feature of those contracts that they can't be cut by the team, one way or another the player will be payed. The contracts are also often of a length beneficial to the player so that he gets payed well een after he gets too old to play well. With one year left of the NY contract Justice was just blocking a spot on the NYY roster. They could have just said "Justice is injured" and handed over $7M, but instead made the deal with Oakland paying half of what Justice was qwed.
Dasha, I always love your reactions. Here you reacted to a movie about a game that you say you know almost nothing about and your comments show great insight! Your reactions are always heartfelt, intelligent and insightful. Thanks for all the work you put into this, we all appreciate it!
22:12 I forget this player's name, but him losing his job cost him a lot of money for the rest of his life. In Major League Baseball (MLB) there is a player's retirement pension, but in order to get this pension you have to be in the MLB for 10 seasons. It doesn't matter if you play for a few different teams, just as long as you stay in the MLB. This player was literally days away from qualifying for the pension. MLB would've have paid him $7,500 a month for the rest of his life if he started taking the money from the day he retired.
If the player doesn't start drawing from the pension right away and holds off until they're 62 years old. MLB would pay them over $200,000 a year for the rest of their lives. Billy knew this when he had to let the player go.
"Baseball is a lot like church. It's attended by many but really understood by a lucky few". -Leo Durocher
I love baseball. To me, it's the most perfect thing ever.
Except baseball is real and the garbage that they tell you in church is a fairytale. Do you understand that!?😂 Enjoy your brainwashing!
To quote Robert Deniro in the movie The Fan."A sac fly doesn't count against the batter's batting average. That's why baseball is better than life because it's fair."
Moneyball is based on the book of the same name by Michael Lewis. The tone of the book is very different from the movie. It's a work of journalism, for one thing, not a piece of storytelling. It's been said (accurately, I think) that's it's really more a book about business than baseball.
It's a good movie as long as you don't expect it to represent reality. While it's true that the A's didn't have as much money as a lot of other teams, they didn't make the players buy their own sodas. They didn't get an analyst in a trade (players can be traded, but regular employees can't be). And, perhaps most importantly, Art Howe was not a jerk. He got along quite well with Billy Beane (and everyone else on the team), and he never had a problem with Beane's management philosophy. It's another case of Hollywood needing an antagonist. Art Howe was actually offended by how he was portrayed.
The movie also focused on a few players and ignored others. The Big Three (starting pitchers Barry Zito, Mark Mulder, and Tim Hudson) had a lot to do with the A's success in the 2002 season, yet they're pretty much invisible in the movie.
But the basic idea is correct. The A's were successful because they found value in players that other teams ignored. In a sense, they were doing player arbitrage. Michael Lewis was interested in it because he had a business background. His first book was Liar's Poker, about his experiences as a stock broker.
Also, the A's really did win 20 consecutive games, and Scott Hatteberg really did hit a walk-off homer in the last game. I attended games 3, 18, and 20 of the streak.
BTW, as great as Jason Giambi was, his brother Jeremy was, let's say, a problem. I've been an A's fan for decades, and I saw him make so many mental errors on the field that he drove me nuts. He lasted in the majors only one more season after the A's traded him to Philadelphia.
Just a couple counterpoints to some of what you said.
1) Artistic license happens in basically every "based on..." movie, such as this is. They need to include drama where there wasn't any to make the stakes feel real. That said, the film makers could have easily reached out to Art Howe and told him their plan and maybe allow him to get out in front of it as soon as the movie debuted.
2) If I'm not mistaken, Zito, Hudson, and Mulder were all in the middle of their initial contracts from being called up to the majors. For those who don't know, a team has 6 years of exclusive contract rights to any player they call up from the minor leagues. Each of those guys had been in the league for less than 4 years, still under team control and they weren't going anywhere, so it stands to reason if they weren't going to be traded away and were under complete team control that they wouldn't be featured in the movie at all. Having three of the biggest/best starting pitchers at the time doesn't add to the drama for the movie's plot.
I don't disagree on any one point you make, just mentioning a few things for clarity. In short, Hollywood doesn't give a damn about the truth and movies need drama to get people to invest in them, so they manufacture some in the writing.
Baseball is statistics, but its also heartache, history, joy, talking to your buddies about last nights game, memories of eating hotdogs with your dad, biting your nails. Baseball creates moments like no other sports. I love it so.
Really funny fact about the love of soccer from your country! I think because it’s related to baseball as well.
But when the United States was flying spy planes over Cuba, the people analyzed the pictures and noticed soccer fields were being built. They knew Cubans don’t play soccer because baseball is the popular sport over there, that’s how they notice the USSR being in Cuba. Which some say kicked off the Cuban missile crisis..
Soccer fields being built lol.
But, really good reaction from a person who knows limited stuff about baseball. I love the sport so much, it’s really one of the few sports that I can think of that has a high failure rate and still be considered “great”. If you’re a career hitter of .300 you’re basically a hall of famer, but if you break that down… if you go up to bat 10 times youll only get a hit 3 outta those 10 times, and still be considered GREAT.
Life & the game of baseball are so similar. You can fail many times, but you only need those 3 times in life to succeed.
Great review Dasha! It's a pleasure watching your videos. ❤
For the one guy that said he was struggling and they "sent him down", he didn't lose his job. He was just sent down to a lower skill level. Players that this happens to are still employed by the team, and are still getting paid.
"What does he keep eating?" ... Watch Brad Pitt in most any movie and he's always eating something.
This is partly because it was written by Aaron Sorkin, a great writer can make you care about ANYTHING 💔 and break your heart and in the end have the audience thank you for the entire experience 😌 that's how you get to be a pro
I love this movie only because I remember that game. I watched as the A's blew that lead then Hatteberg hitting that homerun to win the game! Great memory! Then to realize that system worked to win a World Series for the Red Sox.. Wow! Dasha i really enjoyed your reaction and i hope you get to a professional game someday! Dont worry about knowing all the rules just enjoy yourself! ⚾ Luv ya Dasha ❤️💛
Dasha, a lot of baseball players are superstitious. If they associate winning a game with something they did before playing, then they will do that same thing for every game until a new superstition replaces it. Billy's superstitious routine is to never watch his team play a game, because he thinks it would bring them bad luck and make them lose. To describe it in baseball lingo, he doesn't want to "jinx" the game.
Really liked this film, more so as it is based on a true story.
At the end when Jonah Hill shows the video clip of the pitcher, is for me one of the most heart warming scenes.
He’s eating and spitting sunflower seeds. Baseball players have a habit of chewing stuff on the field like gum or seeds while waiting for action. Sunflower seeds are the most popular.
Love how the daughter changes the lyrics in her song to "you're such a loser dad" instead of "I want my money back". Also perfect the song is called "the show" and that's a nickname for baseball
Nicely done, Dasha! Two more baseball movies I think you would like: A League of Their Own and Bull Durham.
It's truly unbelievable how this movie gives you the feeling of love for the game.
Dasha , you have a lot of MOXY to take on a movie about baseball - but , as usual , your insight and being a very quick study --- make for a very enjoyable 'reaction' !
I wasn’t sure how well you would enjoy this movie because it’s a DEEP baseball movie! I shouldn’t have doubted you because you handled it like a CHAMP! That’s why you’re one of my favorites! 🙂
Like you, I knew virtually nothing about baseball (I'm from the UK) and still loved the movie. :)
22:21 "just sad... acceptance." 🙁
11:39 "was it a good throw? was it a bad throw?" 😆
OMG, that was so adorable! So innocent!
"Moneyball. I love the title."
Those ARE the two things we TH-camrs love most. 😄
I’m not a big baseball fan but I’m a big Dasha fan ☺️ great job as always.
I'm one of your subscribers. Mainly because of your charm and your susceptibility to your emotions but seldom I leave a comment because how many times can you say I liked your reaction. I just give you a well deserved thumbs up. BUT. This time I am leaving you a comment because you surprised me with your final comments. I'm a big old school baseball guy and I am not an analytics guy. I liked the Movie Moneyball but I hate the theory of Moneyball. However, when you said isn't it supposed to be a little bit of both, I said YES!!!! SHE GETS IT!!!!! Analytics is a tool. It is a valuable tool but it is not a die hard approach. Baseball is instinctual. It has a feel to it. In the end, you have to use all the tools in the game. That includes the things Moneyball would do away with like the bunt, the stolen base and the sacrifice. Sorry for so long a comment but who knows when I'll comment again. Just needed to say this! Laita!!!
Loyalty counts, Billy Beane is now a minority owner of the A's and Executive Vice President
This movie is like the Ford vs Ferrari of Baseball. You dont need to know much about the sport, but you will underatand the human side of it.
Field of Dreams (1989)
You can despise baseball and absolutely adore this movie at the same time. That's the best way to describe this movie to someone. It's a lot like the Walking Dead series. You can hate zombie garbage but still fall in love with the characters and the overall story. This movie is a subtle masterpiece...in my opinion. Much love Dasha!😂❤
By the way, Beane turned down a 5 year 12.5$ million dollar contract from the Red Sox.
If you want some more baseball movies, I suggest Major League, The Natural, Field of Dreams or Bull Durham
Dasha, you really should go watch a professional baseball game next summer. Even if you don't really watch or even care about the game itself, the atmosphere at the game is so much fun. The crowd, the food, etc... There's something therapeutic about it.
Terrific movie, delightful reaction. Thanks again, Dasha, for a nice movie night.
In case you wanted to know, the song that the daughter sang was called "The Show" by Lenka.
A movie near and dear to me. I’m from the north bay which is an hour from Oakland (and San Francisco). This movie will be a memory for a lot of us who are A’s fans (whether its their main fav or second fav) as the A’s will relocate to Las Vegas in 2025 so it’s heartbreaking to those of us here.
The best way to learn about baseball is to attend local little league or high school games with someone who knows the game, and absorb the rules a little at a time. What's a strike, what's a ball, how does the umpire decide? You'll pick it up quickly. Baseball is a game of nuance and possibilities; backed by over 150 years of heroes, goats, and legends!
Sports movies that are just great movies in general
- White Men Can’t Jump (1992)
- Bull Durham
- Rudy (1993)
- He Got Game (1998)
- Miracle
- Hoosiers
- Coach Carter
- Friday Night Lights (2004)
Dasha, sweetheart, this is the only channel I've ever subscribed to! Also, this story took place in 2002. Today, the top players make over $40 MILLION IN A YEAR!!!!!
Al right, Dasha. Let's gather 'round, everybody make a huddle, grab a knee. Let's rap:
The screenwriter for MONEYBALL is the great modern American scibe Aaron Sorkin. Sorkin is probably the greatest American screen and playwright in the last fifty years outside of David Mamet (Glengarry Glen Ross). Sorkin's first produced screenplay was the adaptation from his stage pkay A FEW GOOD MEN. He has won three Academy awards for screenwiting for THE SOCIAL NETWORK, STEVE JOBS and THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7. But, perhaps he is most famous for creating and writing the late 90's long running popular and highly acclaimed television drama THE WEST WING.
So, landing Aaron Sorkin to write this movie was the producers own form of magic Moneyball.
Sorkin is know for his zippy, rapid fire cheeky clever dialogue. There's a term coined by his other known signature style called The Walk And Talk. This is primarily in his television work, but does crop up occasionally in his film work too like STEVE JOBS and THE SOCIAL NETWORK which is where there is usually two characters talking in quick soundbite exchanges back and forth while walking quickly with urgency and usually other people coming in and out of frame around them handing them props or getting things thrown to them all done usually in one protractedly long unbroken single camera take. For this film, the director wanted to break away from that and said to Sorkin that his dialogue was strong enough to make people just sitting around in a room compelling and he proved that correct. It doesn't matter if the audience doesn't get all the inside baseball lingo and terminology, it is still a gripping human drama of high stakes and relatability.
It also doesn't hurt to hedge your bet as filmmakers and cast as your numbers stat guy leading man Brad Pitt.
By far the most adorable reactor I subscribe to. The giggle and the inflections. Not bad to look at either. Love you miss Dasha. Das Vidanya.
16:29 "ok, this is very sweet." 🥰
19:39 "or play." 🤣
The 20 win season is a core memory from my teens. I remember where I was when Hatteburg hit that Home Run.
And now they are probably moving to Las Vegas...... 😢
There is an old saying. Nobody should look very closely at two professions, sausage-making, nor legislation. I may add a close third, sports team deal-making. It's done in darkness and you come out with your hands bloody and filthy.
It's unfortunate that the in real life 2023 sequel to Moneyball, the owners of the Oakland A's continued to cheap out and not play All-Star players in a years long attempt to purposefully lose so they can move the team from Oakland to Las Vegas, betraying and abandoning one of the most loyal fan bases in baseball.
Sounds like a sequel to _Major League_ rather than _Moneyball_ .
Totally agree the owners and baseball really screwed over the city of oakland. I would give you a thumbs up but that would be 13 and i don't do 13.
As @Stevarooni pointed out, the plot comparison been a conspiracy that's been brought up time and time again here in the Bay in recent years. The downward trend of the A's has mirrored that movie too perfectly. It's so obvious to everyone that the ownership sees dollar signs in Las Vegas and local sports media has been quietly (and sometimes not so quietly) bringing up that comparison for a bit. The saddest thing is that The MLB and ownership all profit from this move, so screw the fans right? Even as a lifelong Giants fan, I would have loved to see the A's stay here since Oakland could use the win (they already lost the Warriors across the Bay to us and Raiders to Las Vegas) and keep the Battle of the Bay rivalry going.
Love your sweet reactions as always, Dasha. You might want to watch a little known movie entitled, The Comrades, about a disgraced professional baseball player who's hired to coach the Russian Olympic baseball team. I think you'd enjoy it even if you watch it on your own.
Another good baseball movie that is accessible for all is "The Natural" (1984) starring Robert Redford. It is a drama wrapped in a baseball movie and I suspect you will love it. Cheers!
Hey good reaction thanks for doing that. I remember the 2000 Oakland A’s and what happened to them afterwards, I am a Braves fan and I have been for my entire life so going from the 1980s Atlanta Braves were they lead the league in errors to the 90s braves Was one of the most amazing sports event in my life. I am not an A’s fan. I was just happy for the A’s fans.
Also Art Howe the manager of the A’s hated how he was portrayed as a manger hinting to throwing the season because they’re not discussing a new contract. He was down to try something, anything to get this team to not only in the World Series but win the World Series.
Romance of baseball is best in Field of Dreams.
The statistical approach they depict in this movie was largely adopted by the Red Sox over the next few seasons after that. However, they also had one of the largest payrolls in the game at the time. Having the financial ability to pay big name players, but also round out the team with those other guys who got on base made the Red Sox a formidable team in 2003, but then put them over the top to win the World Series in 2004.
Using the Bill James statistical approach and adding value players along with superstars helped the Red Sox break their curse of not winning for 86 years, and then win 3 more World Series since then, with the last one being in 2018.
The man who inspired the character who Jonah Hill plays didn’t like how he was portrayed in the script that he demanded to not have his name used. He went on to be the general manager of my favorite the Los Angeles Dodgers (which explains a lot to me on why the Dodgers went cheap with acquiring some players).
that 20th win is exactly how it happened in real life
Baseball is played internationally. The Russian national team is pretty good. 🇷🇺 ⚾️
One hockey movie you may want to see is Miracle, even if it’s about playing against the country of your origin.
If you like track and field, you may want to see Chariots of Fire. So far I don’t think anyone has done a reaction to it.
The reason you see players reacting passively to getting traded or sent to the minors is because it happened to other players in front of their eyes dozens of times a year. I was thinking the exact same thing happened to Jonah, and he's not a player. But he was "bought" and had to move.
Sports movies are pretty magical. They always manage to inspire and capture the imagination even if you know nothing about sports or, in my case, don't really enjoy watching Baseball.
You should try to catch a Toronto Blue Jays game or two this summer Dasha!
Brad Pitt has chewing tobacco in his mouth throughout the movie & is spitting it into the cup. Very common among baseball players.
@@zh2184incorrect. Billy Beane chewed tobacco for years & that's what Brad is portraying in the movie, although I'd guess that Brad wasn't actually chewing tobacco.
Well, you’re kind of both wrong. He has dip in his mouth, which yes, it is tobacco but not chewing tobacco in that you don’t chew it. You just leave it in between your cheek and gums and spit into a cup or bottle. Chewing tobacco is far nastier in that you chew tobacco leaves and spit way more often because it salivates more. And yes both are very common in baseball.
I think Brad Pitt was eating sunflower seeds. Way back in the day baseball players used chewing tobacco, but after discovering it caused cancer players shifted to other things gum, sunflower seeds etc.
This is the reaction I’ve been waiting for
in 2023 these were the top 3 salaries for baseball players 70 million, 60 million, and 44 million per year
DASHA, very impressive reaction from a young lady who has virtually no knowledge of baseball.
Let me see if I can give you a quick rundown of the basics of the game!
Two teams, each with nine players on the field! The home team takes the field first and the team on the field has a pitcher, that is the man who throws the ball to the batter!!
So the pitcher must try to strike the batter out, which means the batter misses the ball three times! The batter's job is to hit the ball, hopefully in between the players that are defending the field, and get on base! Once that player goes around all the bases and touches home (that is the white bass that they stand at to bat) THAT scores a run for the batting team!! The Fielding team must get three players out in order to get their turn at bat!! This goes on for nine innings with each team getting an at-bat in each inning!! Whoever has the most runs, the most players to touch home plate, at the end of nine innings is the winner!! If by chance the score is tied then they play until one team scores! And the home team always gets the last at bat!! That's pretty basic explanation of baseball and then of course you have all the nuances of different kinds of pictures and different kinds of strategies to try and score runs, which as a fan you learn as you go!!
I hope that helps and I hope you get to another baseball game to enjoy it!!!❤
Great Reaction. :) Now you are ready to watch "Draft Day", the football version of acquiring players. And like "Moneyball", "Draft Day" won't require you to know a lot about football for you to enjoy it.
I’m a Braves fan that has lov d baseball my whole life, I absolutely love this movie
Baseball used to be VERY popular in the U.S. Not so much now. It's a very slow game compared to other sports. This movie does sort of give an insight into "how the sausage is made" though.. good job, Dasha..as usual.👍
so glad you GOT this movie. i was curious why you chose this american sport movie being from another country, but you did great! keep on rockin
The song is "The Show". A bit of a double meaning. Baseball has the Major Leagues with teams like the Oakland As (Athletics), Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, etc. There are also many minor league teams (possibly like the teams in the game you went to see), and many minor league teams are associated with Major League teams. They will send a young player to the minors to gain experience, and to see if they can play. Good minor league players get 'called up' to the major league teams. They call the major leagues 'The Show', because that's what everyone pays to see, and where the big money is. Major league players that don't do well get 'sent down' to the minors. It sounded as if the player in the movie that was cut and not traded to another team, was being sent down to the minors. They get paid much less, play in small stadiums and there are no perks. The movie Bull Durham is about the minor league baseball experience.
An Australian singer, Lenka, released the song The Show a few years before the movie came out. Kerris Dorsey (the actress playing his daughter) recorded the song. She is also a singer, and is very good.
You might like A League of Their Own. Tom Hanks, Madonna, Geena Davis. There's no crying in baseball!!
Now you'll have to watch all the baseball movies--Field of Dreams, Eight Men Out and, of course, Major League.
Great reaction Dasha, I think you'd love seeing live professional baseball at a real stadium, the atmosphere is amazing and the game is fun to watch.
Even though Beane didn’t take the Boston gm job the Red Sox did use his money ball analytics and paired with a lot more money (over $100 million payroll) helped the Red Sox win their first World Series in over 80 years in 2004.
7:34 he's eating sunflower seeds
Now you have to watch a movie called Fever Pitch. The secondary storyline is the Red Sox season where they finally win the World Series.
Moneyball reaction was unexpected but good🎉
If you liked the behind the scene of trading players, you should watch "Draft Day", which is with NFL Players
2:27--U oughta see the salaries now--easily doubled! 13:20.Coach gettin' a little brassy there--must've forgot the GM's his boss and can fire his azz. 26:59-Good point--In any sport, players that know the GM/owners care about them will play harder. Why Billy chose to stay in Oakland is beyond me, But hey, home is home sometimes, ya know? ( Unfair the Red Sox won a Title using his and Pete's method..they should've copyrighted it and would have become rich)
He’s eating sunflower seeds 👍
brad pitt is chewing sunflower seeds (probably). i like them. in base ball, its was big to chew dip but now i guess his character chews sunflower seeds as a replacement. youre so cute. btw.
never noticed that activision CEO did a cameo in this movie, weird
he is eating sunflower seeds and spitting out the shells
Surprisingly complex movie. They set you up to think the guys running the stats are the underdog against the chaos of managerial tradition. But then the movie showcases how the guys that were there to just do what they're told _by the stats,_ that they're not just numerical values. They can play their instincts and still be excellent. And in the end highlighting that the whole point of sports, competition, most anything in life, is excellence against the odds. And for those watching, seeing that excellence, and the unexpected. Nobody is a fan of watching something that should be exciting and competitive becoming a predictable glacier moving forward.