"Moneyball" Strikes Out

On Sunday, February 26th, millions of viewers tuned-in to watch the Academy Awards. Up for Best Picture were 3 films about France, 2 about adultery, 1 about terrorism, 1 about the Civil Rights Movement.....and one about the economics of baseball. "Moneyball," a film which was nominated for 6 Academy Awards, left that night with none. A feature aired during the middle of the night discussed "Field of Dreams," a baseball film which also missed out on Best Picture, Best Score, and Best Screenplay. The announcer told the audience that no baseball film had ever won Best Picture and questioned if "Moneyball" would break the losing streak.

Other than "Moneyball," all the films tackled issues filled with drama and intensity. While I watched the Oscars, I couldn't help but notice how differently the films were discussed. Much time was spent hailing the genius of "The Artist" and the prolific career of Meryl Streep."Moneyball" looked like a AA-player moving up overnight to be the Yankee's starting-pitcher in the World Series. In other words, absolutely and totally out of place.

If baseball is the Great American Past-Time, then why have its cultural depictions always been so verily shafted? In The Great American Novel, Roth tethers baseball to American culture while also addressing its critics. While discussing the GAN with Smitty, Ernest Hemingway mocks the idea of a GAN about baseball. My interpretation of what he said is that baseball is a low-brow distraction. While it is the "Great American Past-Time," it is just a group of men running around the bases at the end of the day.

Until recently, I had really never thought about baseball's role in American culture as anything more than natural. The cliche that baseball is as American as apple-pie always struck me as just that. But in reality, all of these myths are entirely historical. Baseball has been socially crafted as the Great American past-time, but when we're faced with the serious issues of the world it takes a backseat in our minds. "Moneyball" was shafted at the Oscars because it's subject-matter was seen as more"fluffy" and "sentimental" than the hard-hitting films about adultery, France, and the Civil Rights Movement.