Baseball had become a game of Billionaires paying players millions of dollars in order to buy wins and championships. Small market clubs, such as Oakland, with a payroll shy of $40,000,000, were forced to compete with teams that had a payroll of $120,000,000. Billy Beane was forced to change his way of thinking, and managing. Let me say to those of you who are not baseball fans that the General Manager of a team handles the business end of things. The Manager sits in the dug-out and controls the players. He chooses who to start and substitute as well as a myriad of other things.
So Billy picks an assistant who is new to the game, a Yale graduate with a degree in economics.(Jonah Hill as Peter Brand.) He is a number cruncher to the nth degree and also got a rock star to the Greek Theater for a concert. Ha, ha. They trade for players that no one else wanted because 1) They got them cheap. 2) They wanted a team, not show dogs.
Like the assistant said, "These people are overlooked because of a fault, their looks or their personal lives." At times people weren't wanted because their girl friend was ugly! The scouts thought that if a guy had any confidence, he could have a good-looking chick. Really? Sounds like one shallow ****** looking for another one. Whatever.
So, the on-field manager, Art Howe, (played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman) fights his boss, Billy Beane, at every step. Things get ugly, with lots of losses. Billy gets tough and trades the players that are part of the problem, even though much of that has to do with Art Howe's stubbornness. Suddenly, the rag-tag bunch of unwanted dudes start to win, and win big. They go from last place to first in their division, make the playoffs and have a record setting 20 game winning streak along the way.
Suddenly, a phrase is coined. They called that style of franchise development... Moneyball. They could have called it "How to compete with a third of the payroll of other teams".
As I was watching this movie, I couldn't help but think about the ebook revolution. Let me talk about this a bit, please.
The other day, I was reading a book by a writer who has churned out best-sellers for years. I'm a fan of his and buy all his books. In his acknowledgements he gave credit to his 'team'. I counted 25 people who helped prepare his book. Those who researched the geography and customs of the nations the hero traveled to. People who edited, proofed and did the cover art. The list went on and on, with some of the duties encompassing things I wouldn't have dreamed of.
Meanwhile, a guy or woman no one ever heard of writes a book. They are ignored and insulted by dozens of publishers. Publishers who manipulate their stooges in the media to constantly criticize and lampoon independent authors. (In the hopes that they can get a book deal.) Then, this week, the list of the top 100 books came out. 27 of them were written by independent authors. Some of them wrote the story, their spouse typed it and proofed it and they scrounged up some kind of cover. All while working full-time jobs. No matter how polished a book is, if it's boring, it's boring. Most books sold at the book stores are too boring to finish. This is why everyone has found a few writers that are actually good and stick with them, rather than trying new ones at $15 to $25 a shot.
In any facet of life quality people lose a boyfriend, girlfriend, promotion, job, roles in movies and a million other things. They 'just don't look the part'. Maybe a guy has an overbite and dresses funny. Nobody wants to date him. Maybe a lady is brilliant but the guy gets the promotion. Maybe "He's too young." or She's too old." The list goes on forever. Who's gonna give you a shot, young man? Maybe you're short. Who cares, as long as you're good?
Moneyball and Moneybooks. They are not so different.
From the author's green retreat, I'm CE Wills.
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