Bryce Harper's All-Star Game Debut

Bryce Harper is a superstar in the making. At 19 years old, he became the youngest position player in Major League history to make an All-Star team. He swings hard, hustles, and shows poise offensively and defensively.

Yet, in his first Mid-Summer Classic, Harper looked his age. He got caught in a run-down after reaching on a walk in his first plate appearance and lost a routine fly ball in the bottom half of the inning, allowing Mike Napoli to reach. 

As to the claim everyone's focus at this year's game is the "who's better? Harper versus Mike Trout debate," like picking between Team Jacob or Team Edward, it's overblown. The biggest story of each All-Star Game is seeing all the stars of the league play on the same stage. Harper and Trout are no more intriguing than seeing Clayton Kershaw pitch or David Wright hit. 

If the goal was to make a memorable debut, Harper achieved it with those mistakes. 

Johan Santana No-Hits Cardinals

Fresh off surgery

Mets get major performance

Johan throws no-no

(A Haggy Haiku)

 

NBA Lottery Nonsense

All 14 NBA non-playoff teams found out their assigned seat for the June draft Wednesday, with the New Orleans Hornets catching the top spot.
The Charlotte Bobcats (7-59), which finished with the worst winning percentage in NBA history, will draft second.
Charlotte had a 25 percent chance of landing the No. 1 pick. New Orleans tied with Cleveland for the third poorest record in the NBA and had a 13.7 percent chance of winning.
The Minnesota Timberwolves will not be drafting in the top 14 despite having a bad enough record. Back in 2005, Minnesota shipped a conditional first round pick and Sam Cassell to the Clippers in exchange for Marko Jaric and Lionel Chalmers.
That pick was lottery protected for six years, until Wednesday.
Los Angeles won't be utilizing what turned out to be a No. 10 pick though, as the team traded it to the Hornets in the Chris Paul trade.
It's no surprise the draft position wasn't higher.
Minnesota has never drafted first. Since the lottery's inception in 1990, just four teams boasting the lowest winning percentage during the previous season captured the top pick.
Given Minnesota's misfortune in that regard during the team's 23-year history, Kevin McHale would have been wise then to have offered up Cassell and a future No. 1 for Jaric and Chalmers.
I kid of course, but hey, the Clippers might have still been waiting 23 years from now.

Conspiracy Theorists' Agora (Place of Assembly)

Something doesn't smell right.

It's not the stench of 36 deceased cats. Nor is it the smell of elderly people. 

The stink is pungent and overwhelming. 

That's it! It's the NBA!

THE LOTTERY

The NBA draft lottery took place last Wednesday night, and for the eighth consecutive year and 19th time in 23 years, a team other than the worst won the rights to the No. 1 pick.

New Orleans will draft in the top spot this year, a convenient result that should have conspiracy theorists grousing about the league. More on that later.

The Charlotte Bobcats, who at 7-59, finished with the lowest winning percentage in NBA history, will draft second. Michael Jordan's team had a 25 percent chance of fielding the top pick.

The Hornets tied for the third worst record in the league and had a 13.7 percent chance of winning.

Going back in recent history, the unfairness seems to swell like a sprained ankle.

A year ago, as the eighth worst team, the Clippers won the lottery. (Through a trade, Los Angeles begrudgingly passed it off to the Cleveland Cavaliers.)

More fantastical than even that was when the Chicago Bulls charged past eight others, including a Miami team with 18 fewer wins, to grab Chicago native Derrick Rose in 2008.

The year before was almost as screwy. Portland got Greg Oden with the first pick, despite being the seventh worst team. Seattle (now Oklahoma City) went from fifth to second, grabbing Kevin Durant before the team's move to a new city; and the Atlanta Hawks moved up from fourth to third. The three worst teams were stuck drafting No. 4-6.

But the greatest hoodwink had to be 1993. Orlando finished with the best record among non-playoff teams thanks to a rookie named Shaquille O'Neal. At 41-41, the Magic had nearly four times as many victories as bottom-feeder Dallas (11-71). Yet, despite the glaring disparity, the lottery ball turned up Disney.

At least changes were made after that surprise twist.

In 2006 and 2010, the fifth worst team landed in first place in the lottery sweepstakes. And in 2005, the Bucks of Milwaukee (30-52) bypassed five teams, including the 13-win Atlanta Hawks in taking Andrew Bogut.

Not since the Orlando Magic, in 2004, has the worst team actually selected first.

Overall, only four times has the lottery draft given the top pick to the previous season's worst team — Orlando in '04, Cleveland in '03 when it selected LeBron James, and Philadelphia twice, in 1996 and in 1990, the year the league adopted the weighted lottery system in place today.

CONSPIRACY THEORIES

There are plenty of drafts to feed this elephant in the room. From Rose and James getting picked by their hometown teams, to Cleveland scoring the No. 1 pick the year after the King's departure, the draft has certainly been marked with suspicious fingerprints.

Now this.

The NBA owns the Hornets. Stern runs the league. Ipso facto, Stern controls the team that just landed the No. 1 pick and chance to take an extraordinary talent in Anthony Davis of Kentucky.

Thickening the plot, the team that was coaxed into trading away Chris Paul, its franchise player and the NBA's best point guard prior to the start of last season, now has the necessary place in the welfare line to make a quick recovery.

FIXING THE STERN RULE

After the Magic scored the No. 1 pick in the '93 draft (then traded it Golden State), despite having but one chance to win, Stern adjusted the weight of the lottery.

He increased the worst team's chance to win from 16.7 percent to 25 percent; the best team's odds were lowered from 1.5 percent to .5 percent.

But the system is still glaringly flawed.

The probability of the lottery ball coming up is 25 percent. As it has played out, the team with the worst record lands it 17.4 percent of the time (not statistically significant).

That's not the issue. Neither are the conspiracy theories. Rather, it's that the share is just 25 percent.

For a man who quashed the Paul trade because he said more parity needs to exist and smaller market teams need a fighting chance, it's obnoxious that Stern continues to allow all 14 non-playoff franchises a shot at No. 1.

The best chance a bottom feeder has at improving and rostering stars is through the draft. Yet draft history shows the weakest few teams, namely, the worst one, do not benefit by the lottery system currently in place.

If the commish is so concerned about teams skimming off the top to ensure they have the worst record, which seems to be more of a knock on him for believing his league to be dishonest, keep the lottery.

Reduce it to the bottom-tier of teams, though.

THE MATH

To classify a bottom-tier team, let’s use basic statistics and standard deviation. Most data will be within two standard deviations of an average (in the NBA’s case, a .500 record). The intent of this new lottery concept isn’t to completely hand the worst team from that season the No. 1 pick, though. One standard deviation is a good place to start.

Comparing this past season's .500 mark (33 games) with the number of victories all 30 teams recorded in 2011-12 produces a standard deviation of 10.3.

Subtract that from 33. The result is 22.7 wins.

Let’s see where that number checks out with actual records from this past season. 

Six teams finished with a record worse than 22.7 wins (New Jersey, New Orleans, Charlotte, Sacramento, Washington and Cleveland).

Seems like a pretty reasonable number.

Toronto and Golden State would just miss the cut with 23 wins apiece.

Now let’s try the standard deviation rule for the 2010-11 season.

The cutoff would be 27 wins.

Again, six teams would make it. Not among them, the actual lottery winner Los Angeles Clippers.

The next step is figuring out how to fairly divide the chances at the top pick among these teams.

A sound concept would be to basically break down the shares by win totals.

For instance, Charlotte had seven wins this year. The next worst team had 20 — nearly three times more wins than the Bobcats.

Under this proposal, Charlotte would have odds nearly three times better than Washington of winning the lottery. The Wizards would then have only mildly better odds of getting the top spot, as compared to 21-win New Orleans and Cleveland. And so on.

Saving the mathematical explanation, Charlotte would receive a 37.7 percent chance of drafting in the first position. Washington would have a 13.2 percent chance, followed by the 12.6 percent chances of New Orleans and Cleveland and the 12 percent likelihoods of Sacramento and New Jersey.

For 2010-11, the six lottery-eligible teams were all similarly bad. Minnesota had 17 wins at one end. New Jersey and Sacramento had 24 at the other. While the odds would be in the Wolves' favor to snatch the first pick, they wouldn't be as favorable as Charlotte's this year.

The breakdown would go as follows: 20.7 percent to Minnesota; 18.6 to Cleveland; 16.0 to Toronto; 15.3 to Washington; and 14.7 to Sacramento and Jersey.

Ultimately, teams that finish the season in the second through sixth positions in the lottery sweepstakes would learn their percent chance of landing the No. 1 pick based on the ratio of wins they had compared to the worst team.

WHY THIS WORKS

Charlotte was bad this year because it lacked enough decent players. A No. 1 pick and the selection of Davis would help to fix that. 

The two questions that need to be addressed are, "what will prevent teams on the outside looking in of this proposal from intentionally losing games?" and "once teams know they are in the lottery grouping, what will prevent them from playing more lax?"

To the first question, since the standard deviation is based on end of the year data and there are a bunch of variables to consider (29 other teams), franchises would not know what the magic cutoff is until they've stopped playing. 

A team could intentionally lose and still miss out on a lottery chance.

To the second question, nothing can prevent these bottom feeders from quitting before the season is over. To the formula's credit, however, it would be silly to try and lose every game if five other teams are doing the same thing.

Someone's going to have to win. And given the competitive nature of most athletes, those teams are going to want to win as much as they can. 

And in the event they try as they might but find victories more elusive than Bigfoot, the standard deviation-based lottery system is set up to possibly bail them out. 

Finally Streak Ends, Wolves Win

Sink into spring gloom

April losses piled up

Wolves outlast Pistons

(A Haggy Haiku)

The Wolves at long-last ended their month of April woes, downing Detroit 91-80 Thursday night. The victory was Minnesota's 26th on the season and ends a run of 27 consecutive losses during the month of April, which dates back to 2009. 

It also snaps a season-worst 11-game losing streak. 

Nikola Pekovic led the way with 23 points. 

Justin Morneau Crushes in New York

Justin Morneau absolutely loves the new Yankee Stadium. 

It's a left-handed hitters cure-all. 

After blasting three homers in as many games this week, Morneau now has equaled his 2011 total in one-sixth the amount of games. 

As uncomfortable as he looked at the plate during the first week of the season, Morneau has turned it on of late to look every bit the guy who won an MVP award in 2006 and finished second in 2008. 

In 13 career games at the modern-day House That Ruth Built, Morneau is batting .458 with seven dingers and a 1.535 OPS. 

Let's see how he handles a new venue. 

"Warrior": A Movie Review

Sports and their subsequent storylines are less formulaic than movies would have you believe.

First there was “The Wrestler,” then “The Fighter,” and now “Warrior.”

Hollywood dabbled in an up-close look at the life of a washed up professional wrestler, followed by the life of a middling welterweight boxer and now two mixed martial artists.

Encompassing all three flicks is a noticeable existence bereft of some degree of a healthy familial relationship. At least “The Fighter” was biographical.

The movie “Warrior” follows the lives of two brothers related by blood, who couldn’t be further apart.

Afflicted by a dysfunctional upbringing and an alcoholic father (played by Nick Nolte), Tommy Conlon (Tom Hardy) and Brendan Conlon (Joel Edgerton) each separately struggle through their lives.

To begin the movie, Tommy returns to his father’s house after serving with the Marine Corps in Iraq, though he shows no sign of forgiving the parent who altered his life path and led to his mother’s early death.

Brendan is shown to be a family man and physics teacher who has fallen on tough economic times.  

He doesn’t let his father, who sobered up, into his life and has not corresponded with Tommy since they were teenagers.  

As the movie develops, both begin training for admittance to an international MMA tournament, primarily drawn by the $5 million pot.

While Tommy uses physicality to pulverize opponents, Brendan relies on Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

Of course, both brothers reach the tournament, and despite being nobodies on an international stage, you can imagine what happens from there. Typical Hollywood.

Tommy’s success is believable enough, but Brendan’s seems to be a journey through a Disney kid’s movie. He found little success in his first UFC go-round years back. At 1,000-to-1 odds, his Brett Favre-like comebacks from being “done” are more predictable than death and taxes.
Compounding the issue, why is it that in film hard-earned lessons are practically always learned when the most is at stake? 

Thankfully, the acting is terrific, especially by Hardy, who spent months training with professional fighters to make the action sequences look realistic. He succeeded. So did Edgerton. The camerawork was superb, capturing the emotions of spectators, commentators, managers and fighters alike with a poignant flair.

The movie also rightfully pays tribute to MMA, a sport which is gaining wild popularity with the continued success of UFC.

Despite director Gavin O’Connor running out of fresh ideas and sticking to Hollywood’s inside-the-box thinking, the movie will leave you believing that even the worst grudges and differences are worth forgiving.  

Stupid Is On the Way to the NBA

Photo Courtesy of USA TODAY

If life gives you tests that you cannot pass, hey, just stop taking them and attempt to cash in your chips.
That's the route Fab Melo is taking.
Last week the 7-foot sophomore from Syracuse declared for the 2012 NBA Draft. Just as he so frequently skipped out on doing schoolwork this past season, Melo will avoid playing the final two years of his eligibility at Syracuse.
Melo missed three games in late January and the entire NCAA Tournament because of academic troubles.
When he played, the Brazilian averaged 7.8 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.9 blocks for the Orange.
Now the center will try to get an NBA team to ignore his character and work ethic issues to draft him for a healthy chunk of change.
According to ESPN, Melo is projected to be a late first round pick.
Even if he finds success on the court, his past decisions to shirk his responsibility as a student-athlete doesn't bode well in a league that sees so many of its players wind up broke just a few years after their playing days end.
Katherine Mansfield once said, "make it a rule of life never to regret anything and never to look back."
Perhaps down the road a more mature Melo will feel differently.

Minnesota Twins: Where's the Consistency?

To find success in the Big Leagues, a level of consistency must be achieved.
The Minnesota Twins won six division titles over a nine year span beginning in 2002 by piecing together teams built around throwing strikes, fielding well and playing small ball.
Then came the 2011 season. A rash of injuries, an equally inexperienced and lousy bullpen and a general regression by just about every player on the active roster led to a 99-loss season.
More of the same is taking shape this year.
And in Sunday's loss, capping a three-game sweep by the Texas Rangers, the amicable Ron Gardenhire did a dastardly job managing.
It may have only been one foible, but it was the difference in the game.
Stubbornly stricken by the lefty-lefty matchup, and trusting his recently reliable reliever, Gardy elected to keep Glen Perkins in the game to face Josh Hamilton with the tying run on third -- this despite the fact the former MVP was 5-for-11 with a homer and three RBI in his career against Minnesota's setup-man.
One pitch and a mighty cut later, the Rangers took the lead for good.
It makes little sense to go with traditionally favorable generic matchups in the later innings if the specific individuals involved have a significant history. In this instance, Hamilton consistently crushes Perkins like Grave Digger a clunker.
The fact Gardenhire kept the ball in the former Gophers' left-hand is baffling. It also makes what Gardenhire verbalized Monday surprising.
The Twins manager looked at the the specifics of the Yankees series and determined that he would not be playing Justin Morneau Tuesday because the slugger "stinks" when facing C.C. Sabathia, the named starter.
Before celebrating Gardenhire's improved scouting, remember he is also the manager who insisted on batting Carlos Gomez first. The guy's reasoning: Gomez caused mayhem on the base paths. That's all fine and good if Gomez could ever reach base to showcase his abilities. But he didn't hit for average and refused to walk.
While irksome, the managing mistake with Hamilton resulted in just one loss. In a 162-game schedule, only if the pitching staff actually consistently gets hitters out and the team competes, will the err possibly be relevant.

Wisconsin Badgers Nearly Perfect, Still Can't Win

Bo Ryan's ballclub has never defeated a top four-seed in the NCAA tournament.
Wisconsin played to a level higher than K2, making 14 3-pointers, including a stretch of six in a row in the second half, yet still fell short to the top-seeded Syracuse Orange 64-63 Thursday night.
Credit Ryan and his players for bringing their best to Boston in a tough Sweet 16 matchup.
Nonetheless, the result highlights yet again the Achilles heel of Badger basketball: the team cannot defeat the league's elite, unless just about everything goes in its favor.
Sometimes, like Thursday night, even near perfection isn't enough.
Certainly the long-ball was working for Wisconsin in the game, but akin to underperforming Duke teams of recent past (with the exception of 2010), becoming too reliant on it can be lethal.
Statistics show the father a player is from the basket, the greater the odds are of a miss.
Syracuse weathered Wisconsin's thunderstorm by continuing to drive the basket and creating open looks off the dribble.
The Badgers kept hucking them up from beyond the arc.
Bucky still had an opportunity to win following a missed one-and-one by Syracuse. Senior Jordan Taylor, however, settled for a off-balance deep 3 that barely grazed iron.
Ben Brust tracked down the loose ball and launched a rainbow from the baseline that sailed wide just before the buzzer sounded.
The Orange advance to the Elite Eight to play the winner of Cincinnati and Ohio State.

Hugo: A Movie Review

The movie "Hugo" stars young actors, is family friendly and teaches good values, but it is not intended for kids.
The film lacked the whimsy, adventure and imagination typically lining a flick for preteen audiences.
In fact, there was very little action other than a scene where Hugo and new friend Isabella steal away into a movie theater, and the hero's constant effort to sidestep the station inspector.
Instead, the film focused its lens on itself.
The story follows an orphan clock winder in Paris who steals parts from a train station toymaker in an effort to rebuild an automaton, left to him by his deceased father.
After fixing the mechanical man with the help of the toymaker's goddaughter, Hugo learns that the man who caught him taking parts from his shop used to be a filmmaker.
From there, "Hugo" spends more than an hour investigating and reliving old films.
While romantic to a degree in its original story line and interesting to see old feature films successfully intertwined inside of a modern-day one, "Hugo" is slow-paced propaganda.
Watch the penultimate scene of the movie to understand.
It's almost as though the filmmakers used a child's quest to find closure with his father and a new family to applaud and commemorate the founding fathers of the moving picture.
For history buffs, Wikipedia would have been a faster way to learn about fictitious old-school moviemakers.

2012 Miss Tootsie Pageant

2012 Miss Tootsie Contestants

The city of Wadena, Minn., got a good laugh and helped a good cause Friday night during the third annual Miss Tootsie Pageant. 
Five area men dressed up as women and strutted their stuff in front of a crowded Wadena Memorial Auditorium. 
Organizer Bonnie Kingsley said the pageant was a success and raised about $2,000 for the Miss Wadena Scholarship Fund. 
“I’m very happy that there are gentlemen that will take this on,” Kingsley said. “To come up and put it out there on the stage (and) have fun with it. Really, without them raising the funds for Miss Wadena, we would struggle to keep the scholarship at the same level.”
Horizon Painting and Restoration owner Tom Anderson, known by his stage name as “Anita Moregano,” took home the crown. 
“This is such a great show and we had fun with it,” Anderson said. “Once you get up there, you really have fun. I didn’t do too bad for a homely looking Italian with a good wardrobe, I guess.” 

Tom Anderson with daughter Haley

Anderson joins his daughter Haley Anderson as Wadena royalty. Haley Anderson is the reigning Miss Wadena. 
Tom Anderson says his experience doing the pageant was memorable and a way to say thank you for what the scholarship fund offered his daughter.
“Well I think it just comes around full circle,” Anderson said. “The pageant has given to my daughter and given her a great experience, so I think I wanted to make sure we gave back.” 
In addition to winning Miss Tootsie, Anderson took home the awards for formal wear, onstage question and talent. 
The other men competing in the Gaga Goo-themed pageant were Erik Osberg as “Penny Wise,” George Behl as “Shelita Buffet,” Kevin Ford as “Alicia P. Supright” and Gary Carsten as “Barbie Buttercup.” Carsten won people’s choice and casual wear.
Kingsley says she is already planning next year’s Ms. Tootsie Pageant and has decided it will have a gypsy theme.

Wisconsin Basketball: Better Than Average, Nothing More

Photo Courtesy of thebuckeyebattlecry.com

Commuters in Minneapolis rush hour can get to work in less time than it takes the Wisconsin Badgers to score. 

Wisconsin (22-8) finds itself consistently looking like the focal point of a wake. 

While the chemistry and work ethic are there, the team's ability to create (other than Jordan Taylor) and find a steady stream of offense are not. 

The Badgers beat teams with discipline and a sloth's pace. 

They frustrate with aggressive, fluid defense and a patient, pass-heavy offense. 

It works.

The team has reached the NCAA Tournament in all 11 seasons Bo Ryan has coached. 

But it only goes so far. 

No matter how many wins the Badgers collect during the regular season, they cannot get past the more athletic foes. 

Not consistently, anyway. 

Once has UW made it deeper than the Sweet Sixteen, and that was largely due to the fact it played three straight teams seeded 10th or lower.  

During Ryan's tenure, the Badgers have not defeated a top four seed. 

That trend may not soon change. 

The Badgers are 19-2 this season against unranked teams, compared to 3-6 against the best competition. 

Ryan gets the most out of his players and runs a good system. 

But it seems as though there should be a point where finishing 25th in a race becomes unacceptable. 

Jeremy Lin: Ability Without Care

Photo Courtesy of the AP

Jeremy Lin mania has rocked the NBA like Ozzy Osbourne has shaken up the stage.
He is a marketable monolith both domestically and abroad and has rejuvenated a star-lusted league with unassuming dominance.
As great as his start has been, Lin is mistake prone like an AA member.
For every one-and-a-half flashy passes turned buckets and nearly each made field goal, Lin loses the ball.
Since snatching a starting role in the Knicks' backcourt Feb. 6, Lin has recorded just two games with fewer than four turnovers.
Overall, Lin has scored 246 points, collected 94 assists and produced 67 turnovers in 12 games.
The 20.5 points per game is fantastic. So is the nearly eight assists per tilt.
The 1.4 assist-to-turnover ratio is bad for a point guard.
And his 5.6 flubs each time out is downright atrocious.
His play-making abilities have certainly helped the Knicks, which are 9-3 since Lin became a starter.
But the decision-making needs to ameliorate before the value of the player matches the attention he receives.

Moneyball: A Fact-Based Review

Reality is a matter of perception that can vary from individual to individual.

The movie “Moneyball” is a transcription of a new-age idea brought to life by the mind of Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane.

The story is compelling and romantic in the way the game of baseball is, with characters — most notably Beane himself, played by Brad Pitt — learning to accept themselves for who they are while overcoming past demons.

“Moneyball,” teaches — nay — preaches to “be true to thyself and thyself be true.”

The film showed there is anguish and uncertainty in defeat and confidence and triumph in victory.

Nonetheless, “Moneyball” is not without its flaws.

Some crack the very foundation upon which the flick sits.

“Moneyball” is a story about numbers. Numbers are facts. And facts, although sometimes misconstrued, tell the truth.

Ostensibly the Athletics were in a bind prior to the 2002 season because Jason Giambi, Johnny Damon and Jason Ishringhausen walked for more money. That’s what the movie conveys anyway.

What the movie producers failed to reveal is that the Oakland organization had found, groomed and developed arguably the best front-end starters in baseball.

Barry Zito won the American League’s CY Young Award in 2002. Behind Zito stood Mark Mulder and Tim Hudson.

Miguel Tejada, whose name was only mentioned in passing throughout the film, won AL MVP.

Tejada and Eric Chavez, two players already in the Athletics system before Moneyball techniques were instilled, formed a formidable left side of the infield.

The film isn’t focused on the big picture, though.

Its end aim is to proscribe baseball’s traditions and praise sabermetrics (numbers).

Any other storyline, even if it was a major player behind Oakland’s 103 win season, was omitted from the script.  

Peter Brand (played by Jonah Hill) is brought on to “recreate” (as the movie puts it) the void left by the departure of Giambi and company.

Whom the team acquired, though, is not historically accurate.

In the movie, Jeremy Giambi is said to have been coming from the Yankees, swapping places with his brother.

Chad Bradford, another key 2002 off-season sign in “Moneyball,” is described as a nobody, coming from essentially nowhere.

There’s a scene where he personally thanks Beane for being given a chance to prove himself.

In reality, Giambi and Bradford had already been with the team.

Concerning Bradford, he pitched in 35 games for Oakland the season prior.  

Never mind Beane’s daughter in the movie was singing a Lenka song that released in 2008, when the film was set in 2002.

Other parts of "Moneyball" were just odd.

For some reason, the movie seemed to climax during the game between the Kansas City Royals in which Oakland blew an 11-run lead before winning it courtesy of a walk-off home run from Scott Hatteberg.

During this time, Beane thought back to his failure as a “sure thing” player, which flayed his peace of mind and challenged his resolve.

Sure, the A’s were trying to make history by winning for the 20^th consecutive time.

There’s drama in that.

Had Oakland lost, though, the course of the season would not have changed.  

The real climactic point in the movie seemed to be an afterthought.

The movie scarcely seemed to play up final game of the year, a loss to the Twins in Game 5 of the ALDS after holding a 2-0 series lead.

Oh well.

Overall, “Moneyball” entertained.

Despite its glimpses of magnificence, however, the movie, like the A’s teams under Beane, doesn’t win its last game.