(Courtesy of Sony Pictures)

On paper, “Moneyball” is a boring movie.

Essentially a movie about baseball statistics, Brad Pitt’s newest film follows the legendary 2002 Oakland Athletics as they try to reconstruct and revamp the previous season’s World Series losing team.

While it may seem boring on paper, on screen, “Moneyball,” is a compelling story that takes its audience behind the scenes of America’s most treasured pastime.

Brad Pitt plays the no –nonsense general manager Billy Beane.

Beane, a high school baseball star who failed to reach his potential in the major leagues, has taken his game savy knowledge behind the desk to manage one of baseball’s poorest teams.

While he was successful in the 2001 season, after Beane’s team is stripped of its three star players, the free-spirited manager finds himself between a rock and hard place. Does he try to compete with higher paying teams like the Yankees? Or adopt a new strategy to once again have a winning season?

After pulling strings with almost every contact in his Rolodex, Beane is forced to adopt a new strategy to construct a winning season.

Enter Peter Brand— a straight laced Yale graduate with a degree in economics, a relative stranger to the baseball diamond. Brand, played by Jonah Hill, is a slovenly genius with a knack for processing baseball statistics.

In true general manager fashion, Beane steals Brand away from the Cleveland Indians and promotes him to assistant manager of the Oakland Athletics.

Together, the two combine to approach baseball in a purely numeric fashion, picking players who consistently get on base, even if they have tendon injuries, criminal records or are past their prime.

At first, their system is a complete and absolute failure. Even though numbers may be on their side, the Oakland Athletics fail to make strides in any respect.

Mainly, the team’s problem stems from disagreements between Beane and the A’s head coach Art Howe, played by “Capote’s” Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

Howe never got on board with Beane’s statistically staggered game plan. He rebels from the GM by tweaking with the roster and ultimately dooming Oakland’s chances at winning at all.

However, in one of the movie’s more charismatic scenes, Beane makes a bold move and trades the A’s only star player, Carlos Pena.

By doing this, Beane essentially forces Howe to follow his game plan and just as Brand calculated, the wins start coming.

Historically, the 2002 Oakland Athletics will go down as the team with the most consecutive wins in all of baseball.

With this Cinderella story already in place, the film’s director, Bennet Miller, crafts a quickly paced montage that blends together fictional games with real time footage that perfectly captures the excitement and zeal that the city of Oakland had when the A’s went on their record-breaking winning streak.

Approaching 20 wins, the Oakland A’s are set to play the Kansas City Royals, a relatively easy opponent, almost ensuring their place in history.

“Moneyball” enters the monumental game during the third inning with the A’s ahead by a staggering eleven runs, a lead that is almost impossible to give up.

However, nerves get the best of Oakland’s team and as the game progresses, their lead diminishes and just like that, the score is tied 11 to 11.

With their last hope placed in the hands of pinch hitter and first baseman, Scott Hatteberg, the team and the rest of Oakland hold their breaths, hoping for a win.

After letting two pitches go by, Hatteberg takes a deep breath, steadies his shoulders and swings.

The ball floats into the air, gets lost in the stadium’s lights, and sails into the bleachers.

The Oakland A’s win.

With the perfect concoction of drama, humor and story, “Moneyball” proves that some of sport’s best stories don’t even involve a player.

With Brad Pitt at his best work in almost a decade, “Moneyball” is this year’s first real contender for major awards come Oscar night.

Anchored by a supporting cast as talented as Jonah Hill and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Pitt was a natural as Beane and proved once and for all, that he is more than just a famous face.

Aaron Sorkin delivers yet another stellar screenplay as he bring to the plate his trademark writing style that derives most of the film’s humor through the cutting of thick dramatic tension.

With a roster even the Yankees would envy, “Moneyball” is a cinematic grand slam.