Brad Pitt Takes The Field At 'Moneyball' Premiere

[NelsonG]

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This opening night, like so many recent ones in the lockout-shadowed sports world, almost didn't happen.

[url="http://www.mtv.com/movies/person/50260/personmain.jhtml"]Brad Pitt[/url]'s [url="http://moviesblog.mtv.com/tag/moneyball"]"Moneyball"[/url] was shutdown back in the summer of '09, just days before production was to begin, over concerns that director Steven Soderbergh's take wouldn't attract roaring crowds at the multiplex. But Pitt predicted something of a [url="http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2009/08/12/brad-pitt-predicts-ninth-inning-rally-for-moneyball/"]ninth-inning rally[/url], and one [url="http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2009/12/07/moneyball-lands-in-fair-territory-under-the-direction-of-bennett-miller/"]new director[/url] later (Bennett Miller of "Capote" fame), the David-vs.-Goliath tale about the Oakland Athletics shot back to life and, almost two years later, premiered at the MLB team's stadium on Monday night.

Pitt was on hand under the stadium floodlights, as were costars [url="http://www.mtv.com/movies/person/379429/personmain.jhtml"]Jonah Hill[/url] and Philip Seymour Hoffman, plus Miller, screenwriter Aaron Sorkin and ballplayers including current A's designated hitter Hideki Matsui.

Photos of Pitt and Matsui provided an intriguing contrast to the film's central message that a small market team can best its richer rivals through the savvy use of statistical analysis. While the 2002 A's featured in the flick were able to win 103 games and their division title, the current team is struggling through another losing season — their fourth in five years. Whether the rest of baseball has caught up to the once-outside-the-box-but-now-commonplace approach that general manager Billy Bean (played by Pitt) pioneered or if so-called sabermetrics is an overhyped phenomenon is a question for another day (and, perhaps, another blog). Monday was a night for two pillars of the entertainment world to come together and celebrate something beloved in both sports and Hollywood: an underdog story.

"These are guys that are working in an unfair game," Pitt told MTV News recently about the '02 squad. "They are a team with no money trying to fight — it's David vs. Goliath. How are they going to be competitive? How are they going to stand a chance? They can't fight the other guys' fight; they're going to lose every time. These guys had to rethink it and rethink what they were doing… They're Galileo, in a sense, going up against an institution that is not going to be very happy about them questioning their norms."

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