Brad Pitt has turned to the insular world of baseball economics for his latest movie and yet the Hollywood heavyweight is a relative rookie in terms of obsessing over one of America’s great pastimes.
The A-list actor is one of the top draws this week at the Toronto International Film Festival for the launch of his new drama, “Moneyball.” He plays Billy Beane, the real-life general manager of Major League Baseball’s Oakland A’s, who is famed for reinventing the game by running a competitive team in a cost-effective way.
Pitt told Reuters that he learned to appreciate the nuances and complexities of the game while making the movie, helped by several meetings with 49-year-old Beane, but he is not your typical baseball fanatic.
“It’s shameful how little I know about baseball, but what I know about it, I got — it was a pop fly in the fourth grade — 18 stitches,” he told Reuters, referring to getting hit by ball when he was just a kid, opening a flesh wound.
“I find it really tranquil when it is on (TV) in the background now…There is a reason why it has become our national pastime. It’s a team sport yet at the same time it is an individual battle.”