I have seen Moneyball, and I liked it. I liked it a lot.

I have never written a movie review before, so I’m not going to try here. Instead I’m just going to give my impressions on what I saw this afternoon as a chick in an Oakland A’s shirt surrounded by a bunch of retirees in a movie theater in Wisconsin.

The movie begins kind of slow. If you’re not a baseball fan and if you didn’t read the book, you’re going to think it’s just a bunch of guys talking about stuff you don’t get. But it picks up as soon as Billy Beane meets Peter Brand and brings him on as his right-hand man in Oakland.

Brad Pitt was great. His chemistry with Jonah Hill was even better. The scene in which the A’s traded for Ricardo Rincon is one of the best in the film. It doesn’t sound like it would work, but it really did!

I could nitpick about little things that were historically inaccurate, like when players arrived and when players were traded, whether a game was a day game or a night game, but it’s not important. The fact that my team was on the big screen was surreal and awesome. The game segments that were shown were things I remember watching. I remember John Mabry’s double against Detroit during The Streak as being a pivotal moment. I remember watching that in my living room apartment, jumping up and down screaming, “The streak is alive!” And that very game and that very hit were in the movie!

And how amazing was that 12-11 game against Kansas City for win #20? I’m talking about real life, because it was REAL. A’s fans remember that. Old people taking in a Friday afternoon matinee in Appleton, Wisconsin don’t, and probably think that was all made up for a Hollywood movie. But as I sat there watching that game unfold in the movie today, I thought about standing up and yelling, “That really happened! Just like that!” just so those people know.

So anyway, yeah, I’ll buy it when it comes out on DVD, and I’ll probably watch it many times in my lifetime. It’s not a perfect film, but it’s very enjoyable.