When Brad Pitt, as Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane in the 2011 modern classic “Moneyball,” rhetorically asked, “How can you not be romantic about baseball,” he wasn’t talking about the inevitability of love and sports colliding.
“Bull Durham” this was not.
What Billy was referring to (via Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillian’s script) was the sentimental wish-fulfillment America’s pasttime so often and so easily lends itself to realizing.
He may as well have asked, “How can you not dream?” For even when those dreams are dashed, as Billy’s were time and time again, the sport known for guaranteeing three tries per at-bat is thus the one most encouraging of idealism, of myth-making, of hope.Prime Video’s series, “A League of Their Own,” despite being inspired by Penny Marshall’s iconic 1992 film of the same name, may share more in common with Billy’s encouraging
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