The Biggest Lies Hollywood Told You About the Oakland A’s in ‘Moneyball’

If you’re a fan of the Oakland A’s, or just a fan of general manager Billy Beane, who is now the executive VP of baseball operations and the team’s minority owner.

Moneyball, which is based on Michael Lewis’ 2003 book of the same name, dives into Oakland Athletics’ 2002 season, in which they’d just lost several big-name New York Yankees in five games.

What makes things difficult is the Oakland Athletics’ small budget. However, with the help of Jonah Hill’s character, Peter Brand, and the use of sabermetrics (or SABRmetrics), Billy Beane guides the A’s to the American League West division title with 103 wins, including an AL record 20-game winning streak, despite not having the most talented players and constantly bickering with manager Art Howe.

That’s the Moneyball story that Hollywood tells you. While the film did get many things right, there were certainly some things it got wrong. Whether omitting certain information or throwing in some extra things for effect, the film didn’t exactly depict how that season played out. Here’s a look at a few of the biggest lies from Moneyball. To get one out of the way, Art Howe was not as selfish as he was made out to be, but every movie needs a bad guy, right?

Jonah Hill’s character ed the Oakland A’s in 1999, not 2002

Named Peter Brand in the movie, Jonah Hill’s character was based on Paul DePodesta. While Moneyball told you that he ed the the chief strategy officer for the Cleveland Browns, having secured a five-year contract extension with the NFL team as of July 2021, according to the Akron Beacon Journal.

Jeremy Giambi was already with the team when the 2002 season began

 

 

During the scene in which Derek Jeter‘s unbelievable flip in the 2001 ALDS, according to the New York Post.

Regarding the other two players mentioned in that scene, Scott Hatteberg and David Justice, here’s the Moneyball lies on them. Billy Beane and Ron Washington never went to Hatteberg’s house on Christmas Day to recruit him as everything was done over the phone. As for David Justice, that famous scene involving him paying a dollar for soda in the clubhouse never happened either, according to The Star.

Carlos Peña wasn’t traded when ‘Moneyball’ says he was

While it is true that Carlos Peña was traded to allow Scott Hatteberg to play first base, that didn’t go down when Moneyball says it did. In the film, he’s traded Detroit Tigers until July, according to Baseball-Reference and Stats Crew.

Billy Beane never fired Oakland A’s scout Grady Fuson

In a scene in Moneyball, Billy Beane fires Texas Rangers and later returned to the team briefly in 2010 as a special assistant to Billy Beane, according to Mercury News.

‘Moneyball’ fails to mention that the Oakland A’s had both the AL MVP and Cy Young winner in 2002

As Moneyball mainly focuses on Billy Beane and the players who weren’t expected to perform, it omits the fact that the Oakland Athletics had both MLB betting sites when evaluating team performance.

A few other tidbits in the film were dramatized, but the things mentioned above were easily the biggest lies Hollywood told you with Moneyball. Still, as mentioned earlier, the film got the majority of things correct, which longtime Oakland A’s clubhouse manager Steve Vucinich confirmed to The Star around the time of the film’s release in Sept. 2011.

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