History Film / Moneyball

* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: This is one of the main complaints about the film's accuracy, especially given that the guys being portrayed as villains were all still alive when it came out and capable of coming to their own defense.

* OneSteveLimit: Directly averted with "Steve" itself.
-->'''Billy''': Get Steve on the phone.
-->'''Peter''': Schott[[note]]Then-owner of the Athletics[[/note]] or Phillips[[note]]Then-general manager of the New York Mets[[/note]]?

** When Beane and Wash visit Scott Hatteberg for the first time and inform him they want to hire him and put him on the first base, all he can do is for few seconds just looking at them, completely flabbergasted what the hell they are even talking out.

** As part of a comedic routine, when Beane breaks it to Art Howe he traded Pena, along with bunch of other players and trades away Giambi in front of him, Howe is just catching breath, unable to speak out of mix of confusion and fury.

** During the batting cage scene, David Justice tells Billy Beane that he'd never seen a general manager talk to players like Billy does, to which Billy retorts Justice never had a GM who was a player, to thematically illustrate Billy's unique viewpoint as a GM. In real life, Justice spent most of his career with general managers who were former professional players: Bobby Cox in Atlanta (who drafted him as a GM before managing him to a World Series championship in 1995) and John Hart in Cleveland; in general, it's just as likely for [=GMs=] to be ex-players as they would be analytical number-crunchers.

** During the batting cage scene, David Justice tells Billy Beane that he'd never seen a general manager talk to players like Billy does, to which Billy retorts Justice never had a GM who was a player, to thematically illustrate Billy's unique viewpoint as a GM. In real life, Justice spent most of his career with general managers who were former professional players: Bobby Cox in Atlanta (who drafted him as a GM before managing him to a World Series championship in 1995) and John Hart in Cleveland.

** During the batting cage scene, David Justice tells Billy Beane that he'd never seen a GM talk to players like Billy does, to which Billy retorts Justice never had a GM who was a player, to thematically illustrate Billy's ability to relate to the flawed players on his roster. In real life, Justice spent most of his career with general managers who were former professional players: Bobby Cox in Atlanta (who drafted him as a GM before managing him to a World Series championship in 1995) and John Hart in Cleveland.

** Chad Bradford and Jeremy Giambi are depicted as risky newcomers to plug the holes on the roster; in reality, they were already on the team the previous season leading into the 2002 season depicted in the film.

* {{Irony}}: Art Howe is shown fighting tooth and nail ''against'' sabermetrics ''and'' Beane's decisions about fielding specific players on their mathematically optimal positions. When Beane eventually outright forces Howe to play his players in his style (by firing everyone else) and A's start winning in unprecedented way, Howe is the one to get all the praises for assembling and training the team into such great performance. The sport commentators take it step further when they take his disgusted, resigned face expression of that of a calm, collected coach, while Beane and Brand watch the whole thing in confusion, noting nobody has a clue what's really going on.

* {{Irony}}: Art Howe is shown fighting tooth and nail ''against'' sabermetrics ''and'' Beane's decisions about fielding specific players on their mathematically optimal positions. When Beane eventually outright forces Howe to play his players in his style (by firing everyone else) and A's start winning in unprecedented way, Howe is the one to get all the praises for assembling and training the team into such great performance.

* BearerOfBadNews: There's a small sub-plot about Billy trying to get Peter comfortable with being the guy to tell players that they've been cut or traded. They have an entire conversation about it where Billy explicitly advises Peter ''against'' BreakingTheBadNewsGently -- instead, you need to be firm, direct and short. "Pete, I gotta let you go. Zack's office will handle the details." That's it. Billy's advice turns out to be right on, as Peter follows it later when he tells Carlos Pena he's been traded to Detroit and Pena handles it professionally.

-->'''Matt Keough:''' Ugly girlfriend means no confidence. [...] I'm just saying his girlfriend is a [[EightPointEight 6 at best]].

* RedOniBlueOni: Billy Beane and Peter Brand.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: The A's blowing an 11-0 lead, only to win on Moneyball archetype Scott Hatteberg's pinch-hit walk-off home run in the bottom on the 9th to seal their American League-record 20th consecutive win might seem like a cinematic fabrication. Not only did [[https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/OAK/OAK200209040.shtml it actually happen]], it was the ''third'' straight game that Oakland scored the winning run in the bottom of the 9th to keep their winning streak alive.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: The A's blowing an 11-0 lead only to win on Moneyball archetype Scott Hatteberg's pinch-hit walk-off home run in the bottom on the 9th to seal their American League-record 20th consecutive win might seem like a cinematic fabrication. Not only did [[https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/OAK/OAK200209040.shtml it actually happen]], it was the ''third'' straight game that Oakland scored the winning run in the bottom of the 9th.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: The A's blowing an 11-0 lead only to win on Moneyball archetype Scott Hatteberg's walk-off home run in the bottom on the 9th to seal their American League-record 20th consecutive win might seem like a cinematic fabrication. Not only did [[https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/OAK/OAK200209040.shtml it actually happen]], it was the ''third'' straight game that Oakland scored the winning run in the bottom of the 9th.

* MisaimedFandom: The ''Moneyball'' book and, to a lesser extent, the movie, were widely interpreted as paeans to sabermetrics and on-base percentage. While those specific issues received a lot of focus, the actual point of the ''Moneyball'' story is the pursuit of economic inefficiencies and the ways in which underdog teams have to adopt unconventional strategies in the face of systematic disadvantages. Baseball didn't value high-OBP guys with poor defense, so the A's pursued them. One of the ironic legacies of ''Moneyball'' is that it led to rich teams like the Yankees and Red Sox being better run and valuing these players more highly. So the A's had to adapt again and find new strategies.

* AwesomenessByAnalysis: The whole point of sabremetrics is to calculate the best possible line-up for a team by using statistics beyond the traditional "slashline" of [=batting average/homers/RBIs=], opting for overlooked metrics like on-base percentage. "Moneyball" is the process of primarily using sabremetrics to build a roster, which allows a front office to find undervalued players at potentially bargain prices while avoiding a splurge on expensive "name value" players.
* BasedOnATrueStory: One could argue {{Very Loosely|BasedOnATrueStory}}. While the on-field results and details of player transactions are mostly accurate, there is a fair bit of rearranging of characters and lines, including the complete omission of Michael Lewis (the author of the original book), and a number of people who claim they were portrayed unfairly, particularly Art Howe.

** A more traditional example is shown with David Justice. As he realises that Beane's assessment of the rest of his career is spot on (see InsultBackfire below), he goes to talk to Hatteburg in the break room to act as a mentor to him to help him out. He asks Hatteburg what his biggest fear as a player is and the exchange goes as follows:
--->'''Hatteburg:''' The baseball being hit in my general direction?

--->'''Hatteburg:''' No, seriously. That is.
:::Justice is stunned by this, and Hatteburg starts to walk off. The best Justice can manage is to shout after him "Well hey, good luck with that...", which is pretty pathetic all told.
* EscalatingPunchline: Beane when breaking it to Art Howe that Hatteberg is going to start at first. Howe again steadfastly refuses and says Carlos Peña will start. Billy informs him Peña has been traded to the Tigers, then adds several of the A's reserve infielders (implicitly the ones who can also man first base) are being demoted to Triple-A, then calls Jeremy Giambi into Howe's office to inform him he too has been traded. Howe is in StunnedSilence as he realizes Hatterberg is literally the only player he has currently who can play first.

* TheFilmOfTheBook: Based on Michael Lewis's bestseller, which was the gateway to understanding sabremetrics to many readers.

* ICouldaBeenAContender: Inverted with Billy himself -- he was convinced by scouts from the New York Mets to turn down a scholarship from Stanford to be drafted out of high school. A flame out of a short career left him embittered towards the old-school-style scouts that he butts heads with early in the movie.

* ItWillNeverCatchOn: The concept of Sabremetrics, which drives the plot.

** While all the old-school scouts are mostly playing guessing game when it comes to picking potential new players, at least part of their critique against Beane's picks are to the point. Like Hatteberg's irrepairable elbow damage (making him a disabled player by default) or Jeremy Giambi's tendency to party hard, which affects his trainings and performance during games. Giambi eventually starts to cause problems due to his excessive lifestyle, just like predicted. It even starts to affect his projected statistical value and Beane has to trade him away once he can't even use that as a justification.

* LuckBasedMission: Invoked by sportscaster Bob Costas during the montage of the A's reeling off 19 (eventually 20) wins in a row, noting that baseball by its nature is full of randomness on a given day that this A's team in particular must have unprecedented fortune on their side. To wit, he points out the longest winning streak for the 1927 Yankees, arguably the most fabled and greatest team of all-time, was nine.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: One of the frequent anti-Beane callers during the sports radio montages vocally resembles Hall of Fame player and broadcaster Joe Morgan, who in real life was a notoriously vocal opponent to the sabermetric movement in baseball.

* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]]. They deliberately choose players who are undervalued due to perceived flaws. In real life the 2002 A's were anything but, though. As mentioned they had the best starting pitching staff in baseball and potential superstars Miguel Tejada and Eric Chavez. They were picked by many to win the division and possibly the World Series. The film glosses over all of that and focuses on secondary players. Every top team is structured the same way: a few stars, and lots of good supporting players.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Billy gives this to head scout Grady after Grady chews him out for tossing out his eye-test expertise for a sabremetric approach.

* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]]. A more appropriate name would be, "Screw The Rules, I ''Don't'' Have Money."

* TheExtremistWasRight: Beane redefined the way how baseball -- and by extension all team-based sports -- is played, simply by spitting on everything that was done before.

* BunnyEarsLawyer: The players chosen have flaws but are still good enough at what they do to be good.

** The A’s had been using Sabermetrics for several seasons before the events of the film. In the late 80’s and early 90’s they actually had one of the highest payrolls in baseball and a star-studded lineup that was always at the top of the standings and won the 1989 World Series. However in the mid-90’s new ownership tightened their belts. Billy Beane took over in 1997 and immediately implemented the new strategy. The film makes it look lie he heard about it after his chance meeting with Peter Brand.