Moneyball was a success its first week in the theaters, grossing over $20 million. Critics seemed to enjoy it, viewers seemed to enjoy it, and Brad Pitt had a fun time making it. But one person who predictably did not enjoy it was Art Howe. The former A’s manager is unhappy with the way he was portrayed in the movie. According to Big League Stew, here’s what Howe told SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Radio:
Considering the book wasn’t real favorable to me to start with I figured it would be something like this but to be honest with you it is very disappointing to know that you spent seven years in an organization and gave your heart and soul to it and helped them go to the postseason your last three years there and win over 100 games your last two seasons and this is the way evidently your boss (Beane) feels about you.
“They never called me to get my slant on things as far as the movie was concerned. So, I mean, it’s coming from someone. I don’t know who it is but maybe it is Hollywood to make it sell, I guess. I don’t know. It’s disappointing. I spent my whole career trying to build a good reputation and I think I did that but this movie certainly doesn’t help it. And it is definitely unfair and untrue. If you ask any player that ever played for me they would say that they never saw this side of me, ever.”
It’s difficult to imagine Howe being anything other than disappointed with the way he was portrayed. I haven’t seen the movie, but in the book Howe was portrayed as a bumbling manager who didn’t think for himself but rather acted based on instruction from his GM. He was essentially portrayed as a puppet whose strings were manipulated by Billy Beane. According to the book, Beane even instructed Howe how to stand in the dugout with a powerful and authoritative stance.
Is Howe upset that the book’s author, Michael Lewis, didn’t approach him to get his side of things? Or is he upset to find out that he was more of a pawn than a manager leading a successful baseball team? I’d say it’s more of the latter than anything else. Then again, being played in a movie by Philip Seymour Hoffman is enough to launch a blow to one’s self-esteem.
