The American baseball film "Moneyball" from 2011 is on the programme of the event series "Scientists show their favourite film" on Tuesday, 4 February at 6 p.m. at Oldenburg's Cine k (Bahnhofsstraße 11). Oldenburg sports scientist Prof. Dr Jörg Schorer will introduce his "favourite film" and then discuss it with the audience.
The film, based on the book "Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game" by Michael Lewis, is based on a true story: director Bennett Miller tells the story of the Oakland Athletics and their manager Billy Beane - played by Brad Pitt. The Oakland Athletics were an unsuccessful and cash-strapped Major League Baseball team until Beane decided to put the new team together in an unconventional way. He relied on computer programmes and statistics - a method that was not yet commonplace in the sports world at the turn of the millennium and earned him criticism from the club, the fans and the media.
"In sports science - as in many other sciences - there are two fundamentally different approaches to making personnel decisions. An example from talent research illustrates this nicely: on the one hand, you can follow the gut decisions of coaches and thus screen talent, or you can try to find a 'talent formula' that makes talent screening completely rational. Both approaches are presented in 'Moneyball' and contrasted with current talent research," says Schorer, explaining the decision to show the film.
The series of events is part of the "40 Years of Oldenburg University" programme and is a co-operation between the university, Cine k and the Förderkreis für das Cine k. Chair of the Förderkreis Helga Wilhelmer will host the evening.