SageAgainstTheMachine Posted September 29, 2011 Share Posted September 29, 2011 And a shameless plug for the new entertainment website that my friend Jared and I have started. It's called Entertainment Bureau and it just launched yesterday. Right now it's pretty bare-bones with only 10 articles, but more content is coming very soon. Here's a review/meditation I wrote for the new Brad Pitt vehicle Moneyball. I want to eventually break into professional writing, so please let me know what you think of the article (you can leave a reply on the site) and explore the website a little too. Our mission statement is essentially to create an entertainment website where readers can submit content and collaborate to produce intelligent and thoughtful content. http://www.entertainment-bureau.com/walking-the-line-how-moneyball-succeeded/ We're also looking for writers. Please PM me for more info if you're at all interested in writing articles. This can be a regular weekly feature or a one-time shot at any opinion you'd like to express. Thanks for your time, guys. I realize LAMPs can be annoying, but I'm committed to getting this thing off the ground. Any support you can offer (leaving a comment on the site, reposting the link to other boards, etc. will really really help. I appreciate it. -Sage Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HopsGuy Posted September 29, 2011 Share Posted September 29, 2011 Nice write-up. I left a comment for you over there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SageAgainstTheMachine Posted September 29, 2011 Author Share Posted September 29, 2011 Nice write-up. I left a comment for you over there. Thanks, HopsGuy. I appreciate it. That's our first comment that doesn't appear to be from an Eastern European spambot (you gotta start somewhere). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dante Posted September 29, 2011 Share Posted September 29, 2011 Nice job. Looks like your not to far from a professional gig. Left a comment as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SageAgainstTheMachine Posted September 30, 2011 Author Share Posted September 30, 2011 Nice job. Looks like your not to far from a professional gig. Left a comment as well. I really appreciate the compliment, Dante. My biggest problem is being excessively verbose, but I was proud of the review. I'll probably end up linking to future articles in this thread if you're interested. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SageAgainstTheMachine Posted September 30, 2011 Author Share Posted September 30, 2011 Agreed. Nice job. One tip on the writing--you can probably stand to be a little less formal when writing things of this nature (e.g., drop "it should be noted," "aforementioned"). But you'll probably find your "review voice" as you write more of these! By the way, do you (or does anyone) watch Parks and Recreation? I couldn't help thinking that "Entertainment Bureau" sounds a lot like Jean-Ralphio's "Entertainment 720." Thanks for the tip. It's definitely best to write in such a way as to not build a barrier between yourself and the audience, so I see where you're coming from with the formality. I do watch Parks and Rec (better than it's sister show The Office, in my opinion). However, I invented the name Entertainment Bureau about 2 weeks before the Entertainment 720 episode, as I recall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HopsGuy Posted September 30, 2011 Share Posted September 30, 2011 By the way, do you (or does anyone) watch Parks and Recreation? I couldn't help thinking that "Entertainment Bureau" sounds a lot like Jean-Ralphio's "Entertainment 720." Here, have an iPad2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miyagi-Do Karate Posted October 1, 2011 Share Posted October 1, 2011 Here, have an iPad2. nice one, j-shot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apuszczalowski Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 Saying that Parks and Rec is better then The Office isn't saying much. The Office keeps getting worse and worse ever season now, and parks and Rec is horrible. I used to tune in because I work for a municipality so we all were a buzz for the show when it first came out. i just don't think Amy Poeller is all that great (same with Tina Fey, think that she is overrated) My only problem with Money Ball is that I don't get all the buzz around Billy Beane. The A's haven't been that great of a team in a weak division (AL West). Its an interesting theory and concept that he has created, but it doesn't work well when you let everyone else know about it and they can all do the same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Adams Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 (edited) Saying that Parks and Rec is better then The Office isn't saying much. The Office keeps getting worse and worse ever season now, and parks and Rec is horrible. I used to tune in because I work for a municipality so we all were a buzz for the show when it first came out. i just don't think Amy Poeller is all that great (same with Tina Fey, think that she is overrated) My only problem with Money Ball is that I don't get all the buzz around Billy Beane. The A's haven't been that great of a team in a weak division (AL West). Its an interesting theory and concept that he has created, but it doesn't work well when you let everyone else know about it and they can all do the same. Isn't the point that the As changed baseball that year. Once they looked at players as numbers, more than this "compact swing" and "graceful" BS, the way teams looked at players changed. Now, a good numbers player is still going to cost you, and so he's going to NY. Boston, Philly, Atlanta, etc. Beane couldn't keep his system a secret--it's just that he was the GM credited with testing it out, and it worked. Now that everyone is using some variant of it, he's back to being a team that has 1/3 the budget of the Yankees and no shot at winning. My favorite scene, by the way, is when Beane goes against the numbers and realizes that good numbers or not, Jeremy Giambi is a tool and trades him to Philly. I hoep to god it played out just like they showed in the movie though it probably did not. Edited October 3, 2011 by John Adams Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apuszczalowski Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 I just don't view Beane as really a good GM. He still doesn't have a WS winning club as a GM, and all he did was create something that once he made it public how it was done (writing the book "Money Ball") and other GMs caught on, it just made things worse for him. I would be impressed if he could still keep the team competitive while everyone else started doing it, then it might be movie worthy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C.Biscuit97 Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 I just don't view Beane as really a good GM. He still doesn't have a WS winning club as a GM, and all he did was create something that once he made it public how it was done (writing the book "Money Ball") and other GMs caught on, it just made things worse for him. I would be impressed if he could still keep the team competitive while everyone else started doing it, then it might be movie worthy Plus, the MVP of the league, Tejada, was filled with all kinds of beef hormones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Adams Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 I just don't view Beane as really a good GM. He still doesn't have a WS winning club as a GM, and all he did was create something that once he made it public how it was done (writing the book "Money Ball") and other GMs caught on, it just made things worse for him. I would be impressed if he could still keep the team competitive while everyone else started doing it, then it might be movie worthy The point is--he did beat them all. He came up with the system and using it, put together a top team for 1/3 the price. What he can't do is compete within the new system because he can't buy the players. When everyone is using the same system, the money wins. Moneyball. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CosmicBills Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 I just don't view Beane as really a good GM. He still doesn't have a WS winning club as a GM, and all he did was create something that once he made it public how it was done (writing the book "Money Ball") and other GMs caught on, it just made things worse for him. I would be impressed if he could still keep the team competitive while everyone else started doing it, then it might be movie worthy He didn't write the book ... but he did change the game. More so than any non player since Branch Rickey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SageAgainstTheMachine Posted October 3, 2011 Author Share Posted October 3, 2011 The point is--he did beat them all. He came up with the system and using it, put together a top team for 1/3 the price. What he can't do is compete within the new system because he can't buy the players. When everyone is using the same system, the money wins. Moneyball. I agree. To paraphrase from the movie, Beane was the man to break down the wall. Almost a decade later, every team in the Major Leagues has their own advanced analytics department so the advantage no longer exists. Interestingly enough, the current low budget team having the most success is Tampa Bay and their offense is actually pretty shoddy by sabermetrics standards. Their highest OPS is Longoria at .850 which is solid but unspectacular for the superstar he's presumed to be. They do, however, have excellent pitching and defense by any standard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HopsGuy Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 I just don't view Beane as really a good GM. He still doesn't have a WS winning club as a GM, and all he did was create something that once he made it public how it was done (writing the book "Money Ball") and other GMs caught on, it just made things worse for him. I would be impressed if he could still keep the team competitive while everyone else started doing it, then it might be movie worthy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNydBMu1VfI Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SageAgainstTheMachine Posted October 10, 2011 Author Share Posted October 10, 2011 Here's a weekly chat feature...this week we talked about Moneyball, the upcoming Breaking Bad finale and more. Some nice aesthetic changes have been made to the site, so check it out. http://www.entertainment-bureau.com/the-eb-chat-wrap/886 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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