Book 2 Review 1 Movie Adaptations

Moneyball thus far has explained a few major things. In the preface, Lewis really explains what risk Billy Beane took in 2002 with the Oakland A’s. I think that they should include a brief scene in the movie just to explain how much of an underdog the A’s were. They should have a scene in which they say the Oakland Athletics’ had the least pay roll in all of baseball at forty million dollars. That is one third less than what the New York Yankees’ was in 2002. I think that those basic facts would just give a good little background and really show the movie viewers how much of an underdog the Athletics were. The next scene I would put in the movie would be in chapter one when the first scouts find Billy Beane. The scouts didn’t know who the sixteen year old kid was at first, but by the end of the combine every scout in the major leagues would know who Billy Beane was. He really became a legend in my eyes after the combine. They should show the scene in which Billy dominates the sixty yard dash at 6.4 seconds. It would show what a force he was. The next scene I would make sure to include in the movie would be when Billy started slumping but no scout really paid attention to the numbers. It just shows how scouts can make mistakes in drafting. Anyone could have predicted Billy wouldn’t be a good pro. It said in the book that he had dropped from batting .500 his junior year to .300 his senior year. However the scouts didn’t care, they still drafted him in the first round of the 1980 MLB draft.  

One specific part I would cut out would be explaining back stories on some of the older scouts. So far throughout the book they haven’t even mentioned them since the back stories on people like Grady and Erik. I don’t think it is necessary to include that if they are making it into a movie. Another part I would trim down, but not cut completely out, would be the business aspect in chapter two. They could just go through and dissect maybe like two players; however they do several saying that they have to go through 680. I feel like it just slows the plot down and makes it a little boring.