“Moneyball”: Billy Bean as a Father - Grant Astin
Picture from Induron.com
Moneyball is a movie from 2011 based on the true story of the Oakland A’s and their next-gen statistical analysis in major league baseball. Brad Pitt plays Billy Beane, the General Manager of the A’s, and the movie demonstrates his quest to earn a World Series Title. Since Father’s Day just passed, and baseball is the true sport of father’s and sons, I thought I would analyze Billy Beane as a father. The movie interestingly spends almost equal time covering Billy’s personal life and his work life. Although Billy is far from perfect, the movie emphasizes the caring and leading aspects of Billy that lend to his characterization as a good Dad for Casey and a good mentor for Pete.
Billy has a daughter, Casey, that he only receives partial custody of. The movie doesn’t reason with why that is, but Billy’s ex-wife has a new partner that is the antithesis of Billy, so it might be inferred that she thought her happiness resided in someone who was the opposite of Billy. Billy is also known to be violent around the office, throwing chairs through windows and water coolers across locker rooms when things are not going as planned. Despite these flaws, Billy maximizes his time with his daughter, which emphasizes how much he loves her.
The scenes of Billy being violent are commonly juxtaposed with delicate scenes of him and his daughter. In one, he goes from tossing a chair through a window to making an ice cream sundae with extra whipped cream (don’t tell your mother, Casey). This demonstrates that just like his strategy as a General Manager, Billy’s strategy as a person is misunderstood. There isn’t a single moment of Billy being short or angry with his daughter, but on the contrary, he asks her to sing to him, compliments her, carries her bags, and seems to have every attribute of the perfect dad except for the divorce.
At the office, although this is where most of his flaws are seen, Billy takes Pete under his wing as an assistant. Pete is a young and brilliant individual who loves baseball as much as Billy. The emotion exercised most with Pete is confidence. With frequency, catcher-turned-first baseman Scott Hatteberg, inexperienced 1st round draftee Billy, and shy, awkward Pete emphasize that confidence is the key to success. Billy notes that this is what he lacked as a player, and that he failed in the MLB because he didn’t have the confidence. Billy’s goal, therefore, is to give his prodigy and his daughter something that he didn’t have- confidence. By the end of the movie, Casey has enough confidence to sing on recording for her dad, and Pete has the confidence to do his job, firing players and asking for trades.
This is Moneyball’s definition of a good dad, and I think it agrees with mine. Although not perfect, and sometimes misunderstood, Billy tries hard to give those around him things that he didn’t have, things that caused him to fail. The most touching moment is that after Billy’s daughter asks if he is going to stay in California, because if he is not, he is “still a good dad.” The movie reveals that he turned down 12.3 million dollars from the Boston Red Sox, and given the positioning of that information, it seems as if he turned it down to stay close to his daughter.
In short, if you have seen this movie, Billy Bean is not a great guy. He is gruff, callous, headstrong, and violent. However, I think the moments of him as a father in this movie are commonly overlooked, and he is characterized as a good leader and mentor through his attempts to instill confidence in his daughter and Pete. If you’re looking for something to watch this Father’s Day Weekend with your dad or father figure, this might be a good place to start.
