Peter Brand: There is an epidemic failure within the

game to understand what is really happening and this

leads people who run major league baseball teams to

misjudge their players and mismanage their teams. I

apologize.

Billy Beane: Go on.

Peter Brand: Okay, people who run ball clubs, they think

in terms of buying players. Your goal shouldn't be to buy

players. Your goal should be to buy wins and in order to

buy wins, you need to buy your run. You're trying to

replace Johnny Damon. The Boston Red Sox see Johnny

Damon and they see a star who's worth seven and a half

million dollars a year. When I see Johnny Damon, what I

see is...is an imperfect understanding of where runs

come from. The guy's got a great glove, he's a decent

league off hitter, he can steal bases. But is he worth the

seven and a half million dollars a year the Boston Red Sox

are paying him? No! No! Baseball thinking is medieval,

they are asking all the wrong questions and if I say it to

anybody I'm...I'm ostracized. I'm a rebel, so that's why

I'm...I'm cagey about this with you, that's why I respect

you Mr. Beane and if you want full disclosure, I think it's

a good thing you got Damon off of your payroll. I think it

opens up all kinds of interesting possibilities.

[Billy calls Peter up late at night]

Billy Beane: Hey, it's Billy Beane.

Peter Brand: What time is it?

Billy Beane: I don't know. Listen, would you have drafted

me in the first round?

Peter Brand: What?

Billy Beane: After I left, you looked my up on your

computer. Would you have drafted me in the first round?

Peter Brand: I did, yeah. You were a good player.

Billy Beane: Cut the crap, man! Would you have drafted

me in the first round?

Peter Brand: I'd have taken you in the ninth round. Left

side and bonus. I imagine you would have passed and

taken the scholarship.

Billy Beane: Yeah. Pack you bags, Pete. I just bought you

from the Cleveland Indians.

[he hangs up the phone]

first day in his job]

Peter Brand: Hey, Billy. I wanted you to see these player

evaluations that you asked me to do.

[he hands Billy the document]

Billy Beane: I asked you to do three.

Peter Brand: Yeah.

Billy Beane: To evaluate three players?

Peter Brand: Yeah.

Billy Beane: How many did you do?

Peter Brand: Forty seven.

Billy Beane: Okay.

Peter Brand: Actually, fifty one. I don't know why I lied

just there.

[showing Billy his equation for projecting their games]

Peter Brand: So using this equation on the upper left

right here, I'm projecting that we need to win at least

ninety nine games in order to make it to the pro season.

We need to score at least eight hundred fourteen runs in

order to win those games and allow no more than six

hundred and forty five runs.

[showing Billy the results of the code his run on the

computer]

Billy Beane: What's this?

Peter Brand: This is a code that I've written to run your

projections. This is building in all the intelligence that we

have to project players.

Billy Beane: Okay.

Peter Brand: It's about getting things down to one

number. Using stats to reread them, we'll find the value of

players that nobody else can see. People are over looked

for a variety of biased reasons and perceived flaws. Age,

appearance, personality. Bill James and Mathematics cuts

straight through that. Billy, of the twenty thousand

knowable players for us to consider, I believe that there's

a championship team of twenty five people that we can

afford. Because everyone else in baseball under values

them. Like and island of misfit toys.

[Art interrupts Billy as he's about to have a meeting with

the scouts and Peter]

Art Howe: It's not easy doing what I do under the cloud

of one year contract.

Billy Beane: Okay, I understand that. I've been there.

Art Howe: I know. I know you have. A one year contract

means the same thing to a manager as it does to a player.

There's not a lot of faith there. Which is strange after a

hundred and two and six.

Billy Beane: I see. If you lose the last game in the season,

nobody gives a shit.

Art Howe: So it's on me now.

Billy Beane: No, Art. It's on me. And the kid is the new

Assistant G.M.

[at the meeting with the scouts]

Billy Beane: Guys, you're still trying to replace Giambi. I

told you we can't do it. We can't do it. Now what we

might be able to do is recreate him. We create him in the

adding field.

Grady Fuson: The what?

Billy Beane: Giambi's on base percentage was four

seventy seven. Damon's on base, three twenty four and

Almada's was two ninety one. Add that up and you get

[he snaps his finger and points to Peter sitting across

from him]

Peter Brand: Do you want me to speak?

Billy Beane: When I'm pointing at you, yeah.

Peter Brand: Ten ninety two.

Billy Beane: Divided by three.

[Billy snaps his finger again]

Peter Brand: Three sixty four.

Billy Beane: That's what we're looking for. Three ball

players...three ball players who's average O.B.P is...

[he snaps his finger again and points to Peter]

Peter Brand: Three sixty four.

Billy Beane: Aaahhh! The problem we're trying to solve

is that there are rich teams and there are poor teams, then

there's fifty feet of crap, and then there's us. It's an unfair

game. And now we're being gutted, organ donors for the

rich. Boston has taken our kidney's, Yankees takin' our

heart and you guys are sittin' around talkin' the same old

good body nonsense, like we're selling deeds. Like we're

looking for Fabio. We got to think differently.

Billy Beane: We are the last dog at the ball. You've seen

what happens to the runt of the litter? He dies!

flashback to young Billy playing in MLB and losing game

after game]

Voice of Sports Announcer: There's not an organization

in baseball who would not have taken the chance on this

young guy. It didn't pan out. It happens every year. Some

do, some don't. Two scouts can go into the mind of a

young man and determine whether he's really confident

about what he can do. So he gets to sign him based on

his ability, but then he's gotta be successful to be

confident. And once he becomes confident that's when

you got something. You make a decision on what you see

and things don't pan out, you move on. That's baseball.

Many are called, few are chosen.

Billy Beane: You look unhappy, Grady. Why?

Grady Fuson: Wow! May I speak candidly?

Billy Beane: Sure. Go ahead.

Grady Fuson: Major league baseball and it's fans they're

gonna be more than happy to throw you and Google boy

into the bus if you keep doing what you're doing here.

You don't put a team together with a computer, Billy.

Billy Beane: No?

Grady Fuson: No. Baseball isn't just numbers, it's not

science. If it was then anybody could do what we're

doing, but they can't because they don't know what we

know. They don't have our experience and they don't have

our intuition.

Billy Beane: Okay.

Grady Fuson: Billy, you got a kid in there that's got a

degree in Economics from Yale. You got a scout here

with twenty nine years of baseball experience. You're

listening to the wrong one. Now there are intangibles that

only baseball people understand. You're discounting what

scouts have done for a hundred and fifty years, even

yourself!

Grady Fuson: This is about you and your shit, isn't it?

Twenty years ago some scout got it wrong.

Billy Beane: Woh! Okay.

Grady Fuson: Now you're gonna declare war on the

whole system.

Billy Beane: Okay! Okay. My turn. You don't have a

crystal ball, you can't look at a kid and predict his future

any more than I can. I've sat at those kitchen tables with

you and listened to you tell those parents 'When I know, I

know! And when it comes to your son, I know'. And you

don't. You don't!

Grady Fuson: Okay, I don't give a shit about friendship,

this situation or the past. Major league baseball thinks the

way I think. You're not gonna win. And I'll give you a

nickel's worth of free advice. You're never gonna get

another job when Schott fires you after this catastrophic

season you're about to set us all up for. And you're gonna

have to explain to your kid why you work at a Dick's

Sporting Goods.

Billy Beane: I'm not gonna fire you, Grady.

[Grady puts his hand on Billy's shoulder and Billy pushes

it off]

Grady Fuson: Fuck you, Billy!

Billy Beane: Now I will

[after losing the first game of the season]

Billy Beane: I should have made you a bigger part of the

conversation from day one. That way we'd be clear what

we're trying to do here. That was my mistake, Art, and I

take responsibility for that.

Art Howe: What are you trying to say?

Billy Beane: I'm saying it doesn't matter what moves I

make if you don't play the team they way they're designed

to be played.

Art Howe: Billy, you're out of your depth.

Billy Beane: Why not Hatteberg at first?

Art Howe: Because he can't play first.

Billy Beane: How do you know?

Art Howe: It's not my first baseball game. Scott

Hatteberg can't hit, he's keeping us in the fences.

Billy Beane: Could this be about your contract?

Art Howe: No. This is about you doing your job and me

doing mine. Mine's being left alone to manage this team

you assembled for me.

Billy Beane: I didn't assemble it for you, Art.

Art Howe: No shit.

Billy Beane: Good meeting. Everytime we talk, I'm

reinvigorated by my love of the game.

Billy Beane: I want you to go on the road with the team.

Peter Brand: You don't go on the road with the team.

Billy Beane: That's why I want you to do it.

Peter Brand: Why don't you?

Billy Beane: I can't develop personal relationships with

these guys. I gotta be able to trade 'em, send 'em down,

sometimes cut them. Which is something you should

learn to do, by the way.

Peter Brand: I would never have to cut a player, unless

you...

[Bean's puts his hand up]

Peter Brand: Oh, com on!

Billy Beane: Come on, what? Let's practice.

Peter Brand: No.

Billy Beane: Yeah, I'm a player and you gotta cut me

from the roster. Go.

Peter Brand: No!

Billy Beane: What do you mean 'no'?

Peter Brand: No!

Billy Beane: Do it.

Peter Brand: This is stupid.

Billy Beane: Part of the job, man.

[playing the part of having to cut a player with Billy

pretending to be a player]

Peter Brand: Billy, please have a seat. I need to talk you

to for a minute

Billy Beane: Go on.

Peter Brand: You've been a huge part of this team, but

sometimes you have to make decisions that are best for

the team. I'm sure you can understand that.

Billy Beane: You're cutting me.

Peter Brand: I'm really sorry.

Billy Beane: I just bought a house here.

Peter Brand: Well...

Billy Beane: You know?

Peter Brand: Oh, uh...well...

Billy Beane: Well...? Well! That's all you got to say? My

kids just started a new school, they made friends.

Peter Brand: That's uh...well, you shouldn't pull 'em out

in the middle of the school year. You should wait.

Billy Beane: What the hell are you talking about?

Peter Brand: I don't know! I don't know! I shouldn't...I'm

not gonna do this. I don't think that...this is stupid. I'm not

gonna fire anybody and this is dumb!

Billy Beane: They're professional ball players. Just be

straight with them. No fluff, just facts. 'Pete, I gotta let

you go. Jack's office will handle the details.'

Peter Brand: That's it?

[Billy does a silent hand movement of cutting off the

head]

Peter Brand: Really?

Billy Beane: Would you rather get a bullet to the head, or

fire to the chest or bleed to death?

Peter Brand: Are those my only two options?

Billy Beane: Go on the road with the team.

Peter Brand: Okay.

[on the plane Peter is traveling with the team sat next to

Justice]

David Justice: How come your boss doesn't travel with

the team?

Peter Brand: He doesn't like to mingle with players.

David Justice: Is that supposed to make it easier to cut?

Peter Brand: I don't...I don't know.

David Justice: And how come soda is a dollar in the club

house? Cause I've never seen it like that.

Peter Brand: Billy likes to keep the money on the field.

David Justice: Soda money? Really? Where on the field

is the dollar I'm paying for soda?

Peter Brand: It's hard to see exactly, but...

David Justice: Yeah.

Peter Brand: ...it's there.

David Justice: It is hard to see. I'm done.

Billy Beane: Look, Steve, I believe in what we're doing. I

believe the record doesn't actively reflect the strength of

this team or where we're gonna be at the end of the

season. Now, Pete and I here, feel very strongly that we

stay on the track we've chosen.

Peter Brand: Our sample size has just honestly been too

small...

Billy Beane: It's early. It's too early. Where do we expect

to be by the All Star break?

Peter Brand: Our goal and our expectation is by mid-July

to be within seven games first. That would get this

working.

Billy Beane: That keeps us in the hunt.

Exceptionally below.

Stephen Schott: By July.

Billy Beane: July.

Stephen Schott: And what's gonna prevent you from

accomplishing that? What are you afraid of?

Billy Beane: Nothing. That's why we're here, Steve.

That's why we got a bit of money. That's all we're doing.

As Billy is trying to trade Giambi and Pena]

Peter Brand: Billy, I think you need to take a minute. I

think you seriously need to just think about what you're

doing, because you're upset.

Billy Beane: Okay. What am I missing?

Peter Brand: These are hard rules to explain to people.

Billy Beane: Why is that a problem, Pete?

Peter Brand: Don't make an emotional decision, Billy.

[to Peter as he takes a call from one of the club owners]

Billy Beane: We're gonna shake things up.

Peter Brand: Billy, Pena is an All Star. Okay? And if

you dump him and this Hatteberg thing doesn't work out

the way that we want it to, you know, this is...this is the

kind of decision that gets you fired. It is!

Billy Beane: Yes, you're right. I may lose my job, in

which case I'm a forty four year old guy with a high

school diploma and a daughter I'd like to be able to send

to college. You're twenty five years old with a degree

from Yale and a pretty impressive apprenticeship. I don't

think we're asking the right question. I think the question

we should be asking is, do you believe in this thing or

not?

Peter Brand: I do.

Billy Beane: It's a problem you think we need to explain

ourselves. Don't. To anyone.

Peter Brand: Okay.

Billy Beane: Now, we're gonna see this thing through, for

better or worse. Just tell me, do you project we'll win

more with Hatteberg or Pena first?

Peter Brand: It's close, but theoretically Hatteberg.

Billy Beane: What are we talking about then?

Billy Beane: Go tell Pena he's gotta pack.

Peter Brand: You want me to tell Pena?

Billy Beane: Part of the job.

Peter Brand: What about Giambi? Do you want me to

tell too?

Billy Beane: I'll tell him

David Justice: I've never seen a GM talk to players like

that, man.

Billy Beane: You've never seen a GM that was a player.

David Justice: No.

Billy Beane: We got a problem, David?

David Justice: No, it's okay. I know your routine. It's a

pattern, it's for effect. But it's for them, alright? That shit

ain't for me.

Billy Beane: Oh, you're special?

David Justice: You pay me seven million bucks a year,

man. So, yeah. Maybe I am a little bit.

Billy Beane: No, man. I ain't paying you seven. Yankee's

are paying half your salary. That's what the New York

Yankee's think of you. They're paying you three and a

half million dollars to play against 'em.

David Justice: Where you goin' with this, Billy?

Billy Beane: David, you're thirty seven. How about you

and I be honest about what each of us want out of this? I

wanna milk the last ounce of baseball you got in you and

you wanna stay in the show. Let's do that. I'm not paying

you for the player you used to be, I'm paying you for the

player you are right now. You're smart, you get what

we're trying to do here. Make an example for the younger

guys, be a leader. Can you do that?

David Justice: Alright. I got you.

Billy Beane: We're cool?

David Justice: We're cool.

flashback to Billy decided to give up playing baseball]

Billy's Coach: You wanna give up baseball to become a

scout?

Billy Beane: I'm not a baseball player.

Billy's Coach: Are you sure this is what you want?

[after winning their 20th game in a row]

Billy Beane: It's hard not to be romantic about baseball.

It's the kind of thing it's fun for the fans, sells tickets and

hot dogs. It doesn't mean anything.

Peter Brand: Billy, we just won twenty games in a row.

Billy Beane: And what's the point?

Peter Brand: We just got the record.

Billy Beane: Man, I've been doing this for.... Listen, man.

I've been in this game a long time. I'm not in it for a

record, I'll tell you that. I'm not in it for a ring. That's

when people get hurt. If we don't win the last game of the

series, they'll dismiss us. I know these guys, I know they

way think, and they will erase us. And everything we've

done here, none of it will matter. Any other team wins the

world series, good for them. They're drinking champagne,

they'll get a ring. But if we win, on our budget with this

team, we'll change the game. And that's what I want, I

want it to mean something.

[after the Oakland A's lose to the Minnesota Twins]

Radio Commentator: What the Minnesota Twins

exposed, is the fact that the Oakland A's were

fundamentally not a sound baseball team. I mean, they

had a flawed concept that started with the General

Manager and the brain trust over there thinking they could

reinvent baseball. You can't approach baseball from a

statistically Beane counter point of view, it's won on the

field with fundamental play. You have to steal, you have

to bunt, you have to sacrifice, you gotta get mens score in

position and then you gotta bring 'em in. And you don't do

that with a bunch of statistical gimmicks. Nobody

reinvents this game.

[Billy takes a meeting with the owner of the Red Sox]

John: Steve told me he's offering you a new contract.

Billy Beane: Yes.

John: So why did you return my call?

Billy Beane: Cause it's the Red Sox. Because I believe

science might offer an answer to curse of the Bambino.

Because I hear you hired Bill James.

John: Yep. You know, why someone took so long to hire

that guy is beyond me.

Billy Beane: Baseball hates him.

John: I know. Baseball...baseball kinda hated me and all.

One of the great things about money is that it buys a lot

of things. One of which is the luxury to disregard what

baseball like, doesn't like, what baseball think, doesn't

think.

Billy Beane: Yeah, sounds nice.

Billy Beane: Well, I was grateful for the call.

John: You were grateful?

Billy Beane: Yeah.

John: For forty one million, you built a playoff team.

You lost Damon, Giambi, Isringhausen, Pena and you

won more games without them than you did with them.

You won the exact same number of games that the

Yankee's won, but the Yankee's spent one point four

million per win and you paid two hundred and sixty

thousand. I know you've taken it in the teeth out there, but

the first guy through the wall. It always gets bloody,

always. It's the threat and not just the way of doing

business, but in their minds it's threatening the game. But

really what it's threatening is their livelihoods, it's

threatening their jobs, it's threatening the way that they do

things. And every time that happens, whether it's the

government or a way of doing business or whatever it is,

the people are holding the reins, have their hands on the

switch. They will bet you're crazy. I mean, anybody who's

not building a team right and rebuilding it using your

model, they're dinosaurs. They'll be sittin' on their ass on

the sofa in October, watch the Boston Red Sox win the

world series.

[he takes out a paper from his coat pocket and puts it in

front of Billy]

Billy Beane: What's this?

John: I want you to be my General Manager. That's my

offer.

[Billy take the paper and reads the offer then looks back

in shock at John]

Peter Brand: How was Boston?

Billy Beane: Impressive.

Peter Brand: Did Henry make you a good offer at least?

Billy Beane: Doesn't matter.

Peter Brand: What was it?

Billy Beane: Doesn't matter!

What was it?

Billy Beane: It doesn't matter!

Peter Brand: What was it?

[Billy takes out the paper with the offer written on it and

passes to Peter and he reads it]

Peter Brand: Well, at least you got highest paid GM in

the history of sports.

Billy Beane: So? So what? You know, I made one

decision in my life based on money and I swore I would

never do it again.

Peter Brand: You're not doing it for the money.

Billy Beane: No?

Peter Brand: No. You're doing it for what the money

says and it says, well it says, that any player that makes

big money, that they're worth it.

[looking around at the Oakland A's locker room]

Billy Beane: What a dump! I really wanted to win here. I

really did.

Peter Brand: I think you won pretty big, Billy.

Billy Beane: Pete, we lost. We lost.

Peter Brand: It's only been a few days. You gotta give

yourself some time to get over it.

Billy Beane: You know, I...I don't get over these things.

Ever.

Peter Brand: Come with me to the video room, I wanna

show you something.

Billy Beane: No, man, I'm not feeling...right now.

Peter Brand: Come on, Billy. Seriously. Come on, Billy.

Come on.

[Peter shows Billy a tape of an Orioles game]

Peter Brand: The Visalia Oaks and our two hundred and

forty pounds catcher, Jeremy Brown, who as you know is

scared to run to second base. This is in the game six

weeks ago. This guy is gonna start him off with a fast

ball. Jeremy's gonna take it in the deep center.

[tape shows Jeremy hitting the ball and starts running

and Peter pauses the tape]

Peter Brand: Here's what's really interesting. Because

Jeremy is gonna do what he never does, he's gonna go for

it. He's gonna round first and he's gonna go for it. Okay?

[he starts the tape again and Billy watches it closely]

Peter Brand: This is all Jeremy's nightmare's coming to

life.

Billy Beane: Ah, they're laughing at him.

Peter Brand: And Jeremy's about to find out why.

[he pauses the tape again]

Peter Brand: Jeremy is about to realize that the ball went

sixty feet over the fence. He hit a home run and didn't

even realize it.

[after Peter has showed him the tape of Jeremy Brown

hitting a home run]

Billy Beane: How can you not be romantic about

baseball?

Peter Brand: It's a metaphor.

Billy Beane: I know it's a metaphor.

[Billy gets up to leave]

Billy Beane: Okay. Pete, you're a good egg. I'll call you.

[last lines; Billy is driving his truck listening to a CD his

daughter made for him]

Casey Beane: Uh...hey, dad. This is the song you asked

me to record. Please don't show it anyone else. Uh... let

me know if you change your mind and stay in California.

If not, you were really great dad.

[end title states Billy turned down the Red Sox's offer of

12.5 million dollars and stayed as the GM of the Oakland

A's. Two years later, the Red Sox won the 2004 World

Series, using the same model Billy pioneered and Billy is

still trying to win the last game]