Coming soon … Moneyball and its memorabilia
By Chris Olds | Beckett Baseball Editor | Commentary
The one-sheet for the latest baseball movie on the horizon — Moneyball, starring Brad Pitt — has arrived, and it perhaps carries a non-traditional feel for what should be a less-than traditional sports film.
Based on the 2003 best-selling book Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, the film will dramatize the story of Oakland A’s General Manager Billy Beane and his non-traditional ways of trying to build a competitive team with the small-market, low-budget Athletics fighting the behemoths of Major League Baseball such as the New York Yankees.
“There are rich teams, and there are poor teams. Then there’s 50 feet of crap. And then there’s us.”
Moneyball‘s central theme is that gut feeling, rather than analytical thought, had permeated throughout baseball and its scouting departments — and that because of its immense disadvantage financially, Beane’s team needed to think, build and draft differently to outsmart their competition. That included statistical analysis — sabermetrics — instead of instinct. (See the trailer after the jump.)
The film stars Pitt as Beane, Jonah Hill as Assistant GM Peter Brand (Paul DePodesta, now with the Mets requested his name not be used for the role), Philip Seymour Hoffman as manager Art Howe and Robin Wright as Beane’s ex-wife, Sharon.
With any new release, there will be marketing campaigns, which, in the past, meant materials that ultimately become memorabilia for many popular movies. While most promotion these days is done online or in digital form via press kits on CD — we’ll see what kind of materials arrive in the coming weeks to promote Moneyball before its Sept. 23 release — there’s still one king of the movie memorabilia world … well, at least not including movie-used props.
And that’s the one-sheet.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiAHlZVgXjk[/youtube]
“Posters are definitely the top-selling movie memorabilia items, ” said Wayne Woodward of MovieGoods.com, a Morrisville, N.C.-based movie memorabilia mega-dealer. “There are two elements that make for a top-selling movie poster: The artwork or images on the poster have to be visually appealing, and the movie itself has to make some kind of emotional connection to people.
“That emotional connection can be on a dramatic level, or a great sports comedy level such as Caddyshack or Bull Durham,” Woodward said. “The nature of so many sports films is emotional, such as underdog stories — The Rookie, The Fighter, Miracle, Rudy — or overcoming obstacles stories that the movies naturally make an emotional connection with people.”
Sports movie memorabilia and movie memorabilia in general is a largely undocumented area of collecting — no extensive catalogs or price guides exist, unlike sports cards — and, ironically, it’s the common item, the poster, that draws the most attention. Want even more irony? Strong pieces of movie memorabilia, including rare finds, can often be found at a fraction of the price for somewhat everyday pieces of sports memorabilia.
“There aren’t any great sources of documentation on the value of vintage movie posters,” Woodward said. “Some websites have tried in the past to be the key industry source but found it was hard to keep their databases up-to-date and accurate on the market value of specific posters. This can be a hindrance to determining the value of posters you own.
“The eBay marketplace was a good barometer for a while, but many top sellers in the industry stopped using eBay due to high costs of selling on that market,” said Woodward, noting that MovieGoods opened in 1999. “Our many years of experience in the business does give us an advantage in helping sellers value and possibly sell their original poster collections for them, which we’ve done many times over the years.”
Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball magazine. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an email to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.
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YOUR TAKE: WE WANT TO KNOW …
We’ll be focusing an upcoming issue of Beckett Sports Card Monthly on sports movies and the various types of memorabilia found for some of them as well as the ways you can collect the reel-life stars that you see either in the theater or on DVD.
We want to know …
1. What are your favorite sports movies?
2. Do you have any favorite movie items made in the past?
3. What movie props would be dream items for you to own?
4. What might you want to read about for sports movies?
5. What movie tie-ins would you want trading card companies to try?
Leave us a comment or send me an email (address above) …the best responses and stories will be collected and published in the issue.
1. What are your favorite sports movies?
“The Rookie” (Jimmy Morris) and “61” (Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle)
2. Do you have any favorite movie items made in the past?
NO, just the DVD
3. What movie props would be dream items for you to own?
“The Natural” = Roy Hobbs’ bat
4. What might you want to read about?
Story about Abner Doubleday or Peck and Snyder
5. What movie tie-ins would you want trading card companies to make?
Roy Hobbs has already been done. I like to see all baseball movie with actors playing and dress as their character.
1. Hoosiers, Major League, The Natural, Rocky, The Program, Brian’s Song, The Longest Yard, Wildcats, Everybody’s All-American, Johnny B Good, School Ties, Varsity Blues, Any Given Sunday, The Blind Side, Invincible, Bad News Bears, Bull Durham, Blue Chips, Hoop Dreams, Slap Shot, Caddyshack
2.
3. The bat from The Natural, Rocky’s belt, Wildthing’s Glasses/jersey, Letterman jacket from Hoosiers, signed hockey stick from Slap Shot, signed baseball from Bull Durham just to name a few
4.
5. Major League for sure
First I want to say, I was an extra in the movie “Moneyball”!!!! We spent the day at Dodger Stadium being film for the crowd scenes and for some of the pitching/batting action, etc….was a great time…
1. What are your favorite sports movies?
The Sandlot, The Rookie, Brian’s Song, The Blind Side, Major League, The Replacements, The Natural, Field of Dreams, Tin Cup, For the Love of the Game, many many more!!!
2. Do you have any favorite movie items made in the past? No
3. What movie props would be dream items for you to own? The whole location of Field Of Dreams in Iowa!!!! lol
1. Major League, The Natural, Rocky, Rudy, Any Given Sunday, Field of Dreams, League of Their Own, Jerry Maguire, Happy Gilmore, Dodgeball, and unlike many, I actually enjoyed For Love of the Game.
2. I do have Kevin Costner’s Bull Durham minor league card.
3. Roy Hobb’s bat, Wonderboy would be at the top of the list.
4. I’d love to read more about turn of the century baseball (I’m talking 1900s not 2000s).
5. Movie worn jersey cards.
Thanks for this article. I’m not into baseball so I’d be interested in seeing comments from some basball fans on what the reality of this story was like.
1. What are your favorite sports movies?
If you consider martial arts a sport, I’d say 36th Chamber, otherwise -not having seen many non martial arts sports movies- I’d go with the Madonna ladies’ baseball movie which was alright.
2. Do you have any favorite movie items made in the past?
Going with the martial arts theory, I’d say this VCD signed by Gordon Liu (known by the wide audience for his roles in Kill Bill 1 & 2 as Johnny Mo and Priest Pa Mei respectively)
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/42/escanear0112.jpg/
3. What movie props would be dream items for you to own?
The yellow training suit Bruce Lee wore in Game of Death, with Kareem Abdul Jabbar’s foot print on the chest (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsSoX6qB9N0)
4. What might you want to read about?
Have been a fan of Phil Jackson’s books, and Dennis Rodman’s ‘Bad As I wanna Be’ was entertaining too. I’d be interested in an autobiography by Rik Smits, giving an analysis of the NBA business from the perspective of a calm and simple Dutch guy.
5. What movie tie-ins would you want trading card companies to make?
Not sure I understand the question. If you’re asking what sports movie I’d like to see being made, as I think the other posters interpreted it, I’d say the story of Dennis Rodman. There’s a lot of material there I can assure you that!
1. Field of dreams, Bang the drum slowly,The Natural,Rocky,Longest Yard(original)Friday Night Lights,Invincible ,Rudy,The Rookie,9 men Out,COBB,The Blind Side,Caddy SHACK ,Tin Cupp,Slap shot.Hosiers, Brians Song,bull durham
2.No dvd’s also
3.Brian Piccalo’ jersey, Filed of dreams sholess joe bat,Daniero bat -bang the drum,cady shack cap chevy chase,Rudy-football signed,cobb bat,tin cup golf ball or club rocky -glove signed,
hoosiers jesey,
4.not sure –
5.movie tie ins –the 2004 red sox season dramatic you got A rod slap you got the bloody sox from Curt schilling come from behind beat Yankees there you go hollywood
1. In no particular order since sports movies are my favorite for the most part – Remember the Titans, The Blind Side, The Replacements, The Longest Yard, Field of Dreams, For Love of the Game, Tin Cup, The Legend of Bagger Vance, Cinderella Man, Rudy, A League of their Own, Glory Road, Coach Carter, Love and Basketball, Hoosiers, Blue Chips, Happy Gilmore, Jerry Maguire, Any Given Sunday, Major League (all of them), Angels in the Outfield, Space Jam, 6th Man, Juanna-Man, The Sandlot (only the first one), Cool Runnings, (and if we include Martial Arts – if it’s the main premise of the movie) Best of the Best (the first three), Dragon – The Story of Bruce Lee, Enter the Dragon, and many other movies of other sports.
2. No, just some of the DVDs, don’t have them all yet.
3. Again, in no particular order: A baseball from For Love of the Game, the 7-iron from Tin Cup, the putter from Happy Gilmore, Christopher Lloyd’s hat from Angels in the Outfield, the PF Flyers from The Sandlot, Ray Liotta’s glove from Field of Dreams (although I’d love to have the entire field as another poster stated), the chains from Coach Carter.
4. Well, if by reading you mean in a book (not Beckett Magazine) then an autobiography of Joe Dumars. If by in the magazine, actors accounts of getting to know the real person they were playing (if they met them) and their favorite memories of sports. If in movie, I’d love to see a movie about the evolution of basketball. It’d be hard, since it’s over 100 years old, but I would love to see who they could get to play different players. :)
5. I’m not too fond of movie cards per se, such as an actual set dedicated to one movie or shoe, but I would like to see random inserts into a sports product items from different movies. Take basketball for instance. UD (since they have the NCAA license) could put items in next year’s products for Blue Chips and other college movies. Panini, having the NBA license, could put in items from Space Jam (non of the cartoony stuff), Juanna-Man, and other NBA movies. Just stuff like that.
[…] Moneyball starring Brad Pitt. Coming soon … Moneyball and its memorabilia | I'll probably check it […]
1. Field of Dreams, Rudy, Major League 1 and 3(liked it more than 2), Little Big League, The Rookie
2. Just DVDs
3. Joboo(Cerrano’s God)
4. I loved Moneyball the book.
5. A Major League set
1. Rudy, The Stratton Story, The Longest Yard, The Natural, The Replacements, Necessary Roughness, Miracle, The Rookie, The Jackie Robinson Story, The Bad News Bears, and The Blide Side. I’m a sucker for the underdog.
2. No. Just the DVDs.
3. Roy Hobbs bat, The Andy Pafko from Cop Out, Happy Gilmore’s special putter, Manu Manu’s jersey, Mark Wahlberg’s from invincible, or a Billy Crystal autographed Cubs hat.
4. I would like to read and watch more about Hank Aaron.
5. I think the fans of the game cards were pretty cool and would like to see more of those insert sets. Baring that, insert memorabilia sets from movies like The longest Yard, North Dallas Forty, 61* , etc portraying the characters from the films.
1. slap shot ,mighty ducks, remember the titians
2.no
3.hockey equipment from slapshot signed by the cast
4.got the mario lemieux book
5.not sure
1. What are your favorite sports movies?
The replacements and The Longest Yard remake with Adam Sandler and bench warmers
2. Do you have any favorite movie items made in the past?
Does a Talking Smeagle count?
3. What movie props would be dream items for you to own?
The house from bench warmers
4. What might you want to read about?
What sports stars helped in the making of those movies
5. What movie tie-ins would you want trading card companies to make?
More odd ball movie cards
1. What are your favorite sports movies?
Blind side, The Replacements & Invincible.
2. Do you have any favorite movie items made in the past?
No. Wish i had something of any of the movies.
3. What movie props would be dream items for you to own?
Would love a auto helmet of Shane Falco :P
4. What might you want to read about?
The most popular sports movies and why.
5. What movie tie-ins would you want trading card companies to make?
autos of the real player and the actor.
1. The Natural, Little Big League, Rudy, The Babe, Radio, Remember the Titans, Tin Cup, Sandlot, Longest Yard, Hoosiers, Above the Rim, Ladybugs, We are Marshall, Blindside, White Men Can’t Jump….well almost any sports movie I love so I could be listing here for days.
2. No movie memorabilia except DVD’s and a VHS of Little Big League(cause Griffey is in it)
3. Roy Hobbs bat, Griffey’s full uniform from Little Big League and I know it;s not a movie but I would love Lou Costello’s jersey from the Who’s on First skit
4. IDK
5. i would love to see a card set that was multi-sport for all sports movies with relic cards from the actors and maybe even redemptions for props or autographed movie memorabilia
1. What are your favorite sports movies? Any Given Sunday, The Longest Yard-the original, Invictus, Radio, Field of Dreams
2. Do you have any favorite movie items made in the past? no
3. What movie props would be dream items for you to own? Any jersey-signed or other sports items
4. What might you want to read about? What the actors had to do to get ready to play a sportsperson, and which real-life sports people have been in a movie
5. What movie tie-ins would you want trading card companies to make? Maybe ask players what there favorite movies are (and movie stars) and incorporate actors autos with the sports autos or ask moviestars who their faavorite sports stars and teams are and get some dual stuff going-like Buster Posey & Kevin Costner, or Adam Sandler and Reggie Bush (just an example).
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Slapshot come on the Hanson borthers (they do have hockey cards from this year Panini product but don’t own any of them yet) and talk about old time hockey like this guy [IMG]http://i802.photobucket.com/albums/yy309/bonnev659/maybetrade/da3-4.jpg[/IMG]
1. What are your favorite sports movies?
61 and Pride of the Yankees
2. Do you have any favorite movie items made in the past?
I don’t own none
3. What movie props would be dream items for you to own?
I would love to own either the Maris uniform or the Mantle uniform from the movie 61
4. What might you want to read about for sports movies?
I would like to read how accurate it is if was based on a true story
5. What movie tie-ins would you want trading card companies to try?
I would like to see pieces of uniforms from movies about the sports they portrayed like a jersey from 61 for baseball and jersey from we are marshall for football things like that.
1. What are your favorite sports movies?
The Replacements
Paper Lion
2. Do you have any favorite movie items made in the past?
Unfortunately no :(
3. What movie props would be dream items for you to own?
Luke Skywalkers light sabre :)
4. What might you want to read about for sports movies?
reviews of the “classics” so many great movies made in the 60’s and 70’s
5. What movie tie-ins would you want trading card companies to try?
again the “classics” ….. a Brian Piccolo jersey etc. etc. etc.
1. What are your favorite sports movies? The Blind Side and The Rookie
2. Do you have any favorite movie items made in the past? no
3. What movie props would be dream items for you to own? Jersey used in The Blind Side
4. What might you want to read about? Insight into the filming of the game scenes in the various sports movies
5. What movie tie-ins would you want trading card companies to make? Game used cards from sports movies or autos from the actors/actresses
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THE SANDLOT! Raging Bull, Big Fan, Any Given Sunday, Rocky.
Some comedies: Caddyshack, Kingpin, Dodgeball, Beer League(yeah, it’s awful, but I love the odd duo of Artie Lange and Ralph Macchio)
1. What are your favorite sports movies? – RUDY
2. Do you have any favorite movie items made in the past? – Superman Cape Memoribilia
3. What movie props would be dream items for you to own? – The sign in the Notre Dame Locker room that the players all slap as they leave for the field.
4. What might you want to read about for sports movies? – The actual athletes that were involved in the making of the films.
5. What movie tie-ins would you want trading card companies to try? – Maybe just a Ray Allen set commemorating ” He Got Game” and Jesus Shuttlesworth.
Facing the Giants – It’s such a great Christian movie!!!
1. What are your favorite sports movies?
Major League, The Rookie, Sandlot
2. Do you have any favorite movie items made in the past?
No
3. What movie props would be dream items for you to own?
The ball signed by Murderers’ Row from Sandlot
4. What might you want to read about?
the real life player from various baseball movies
5. What movie tie-ins would you want trading card companies to make?
low end autograph set of actors and real life players
1. What are your favorite sports movies? Since I’m a hockey guy, SlapShot and Youngblood. I have a soft spot for The Air Up There and The Cutting Edge as I was an extra in those films.
2. Do you have any favorite movie items made in the past? Posters
3. What movie props would be dream items for you to own? Glasses from the Hanson Brothers
4. What might you want to read about for sports movies? Anything hockey and how they shot them–most people find it hard to actually skate and pass or shoot
5. What movie tie-ins would you want trading card companies to try
the usual autographs, jersey cards and maybe chance to be an extra
1. What are your favorite sports movies?
Comedy wise- Beer League, Original Bad News bears, Remake of Longest Yard, Major League
Kicking and Screaming
Drama wise- Remember the Titans, We are Marshall, The Blindside(True stories win hands down!)
2. Do you have any favorite movie items made in the past? no
3. What movie props would be dream items for you to own? Any original Star Wars stuff but realistically the poster on a Crank Yankers episode when that puppet imitates Karl Malone and while he is taking calls there is a poster of that puppet running down the court with a b-ball and his tongue hanging out that looks just like Karl Malone! It is the funniest thing I have ever seen!
4. What might you want to read about? Stories from the sport stars and their perspective/thoughts/memories from the most critical of moments in big games.
5. What movie tie-ins would you want trading card companies to make? A piece of an authentic something along with an auto on same card. IE: A piece of Jackie Gleasons- Sheriff Buford T Justice’s hat or uniform along with an auto or a piece of that piece of crap cop car he is chasing the Bandit in or even a piece of the Trans Am. Just a thought, I love that movie, but isnt really sports related.
1. What are your favorite sports movies? I am a race fan and collector so lets talk about the racing movies. Greased Lightning is one of my all time favorites
it starred Richard Pryor and told the Wendell Scott story. Also last american hero which was based on the Tom Wolfe article abOUT Junior Johnson. and no racing collection would be complete with the Shirley
Muldowney story Heart Like a Wheel. Of course I love funny and so I will add in Stroker Ace.
2. Do you have any favorite movie items made in the past? No but I do have a signed first edition of the actual stroker ace book that the movie was based on.
3. What movie props would be dream items for you to own? Either Burt Reynolds or Tom Cruise firesuits
4. What might you want to read about for sports movies? Anything that talks about how it was behind the scenes.
5. What movie tie-ins would you want trading card companies to try? I have always wanted Press Pass to do a vip set with certified autographs of the
movie stars with their charcters pictures. Due to the costs of licensing these they may never happen but how cool would it be to open a pack of racing
cards and pull a Tom Cruise ‘COLE TRICKLE’ autograph.
6. BTW favorite baseball movie is bull durham, stars costner and he ends his career in Ashevlle playing for the tourists. I have a ball signed by him but would love to get the correct Jersey.