THE ancient Romans knew about stadium sport as a pubic spectacle.  But contests between lions and Christians were usually government-funded political acts with predetermined winners and losers.

In “Moneyball”, Brad Pitt plays Billy who as a 20-year-old had the choice between playing ball or a scholarship to Stanford University.

Now 40, as club CEO, he is looking for a magic bullet to rescue the self-esteem of a team that, despite rising to play in the season’s final game, never won it.  It may be the hiring of Yale economics graduate Peter (Jonah Hill) who has novel ideas about selecting players.

Baseball has a specialised culture that few Australians yet understand.  The screen gets a special energy whenever Billy and Peter are conferring or examining player data.

But imagine how shots of pages from a cricket score-book or statistical year-book would confuse American audiences.

“Moneyball” is the mirror image of such a film, confusing on this side of the Pacific Ocean, showing modern stadium sport as a business as much as a game.

Big dollars, nine-digits to the left of the decimal point. Players are traded like commodities. Lives are blighted by unexpected firings.

The changes since ancient Roman times are of style than substance. Blood stains the club office carpet rather than sand in the arena (the Latin word for sand) but the analogy is strong.

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