Major leaguers making cameos in baseball movies is nothing new. Former Pirates Bobby Bonilla and Barry Bonds whiffed in “Rookie of the Year.” Hall of Famers Randy Johnson and Ken Griffey Jr. helped the Mariners squash the Twins’ playoff hopes in “Little Big League.” Even former Pirates pitching coach Pete Vuckovich (literally) played a part, portraying Clu Haywood in “Major League.”
But for James Marvel, the Pirates’ minor league pitcher of the year in 2019, the story of how he appeared in “Moneyball” is a little different. It involves an all-nighter spent at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, a little ingenuity and a lot of luck. The result, though, is pretty neat, with a 16-year-old Marvel shown reacting in dismay, as the Athletics blew an 11-run lead before ultimately stretching their winning streak to 20 games.
“It’ll be a Thursday night at 9 o’clock or something, and I’ll get a text from someone I haven’t spoken to in three years,” Marvel said. “The movie will be on FX or TNT, I pop up, and they’re like, ‘Hey, were you in Moneyball?’”
Marvel, a 26-year-old right-handed starter who went 16-5 with a 2.94 ERA and 136 strikeouts in 162 1/3 innings in 2019, appears for only a couple seconds after Kansas City’s Luis Alicea singles to left off Billy Koch, scoring Kit Pellow and forcing an 11-11 tie.
The A’s had led 11-0 after three innings and would win the game on Scott Hatteberg’s pinch-hit, walkoff homer in the bottom of the ninth, stretching their winning streak to what was a record at the time.
After the scoreboard adjusts and A’s Hall of Fame play-by-play man Bill King drops his trademark “Holy Toledo!” phrase, there’s Marvel, standing up while wearing a way-too-small A’s jacket and hat, looking like his dog just died.
“Being a baseball player and a baseball fan, I just tried to act how I thought a really intense fan would,” Marvel said. “I guess they liked what they saw.”
It started with James and his mother, Julie, reading the newspaper one Saturday morning in the summer of 2010, before James’ junior year of high school, and the two noticing an ad for extras in the Brad Pitt movie.
It’s a shame that @cotuck didn’t reference my Oscar-worthy acting performance in Moneyball pic.twitter.com/SI4vNw4s6f
— James Marvel (@jamesmarvel12) March 30, 2020
The Marvels live less than 30 minutes from the Coliseum, so Julie agreed to James’ request to go — so long as she went, too.
Next came the costume. To get in Moneyball, James knew he couldn’t just wear a T-shirt and jeans; he had to give those shooting the movie something to focus on. So he borrowed his grandma’s jacket, as well as a hat and T-shirt from a friend. He also bought a piece of posterboard, on which he drew the A’s logo in green and gold marker.
“Just tried to deck myself out and give myself the best opportunity to get on the screen,” Marvel said. “I knew they probably wouldn’t just put a kid in random street clothes in the movie. Tried to be a little strategic with it.”
It worked. As they shot different scenes in the middle of the night, those in charge of filming would direct the 4,000 extras to different areas of the ballpark, describing the situation to allow for proper reaction. During the shot that was used, James said Julie — who was sitting next to him the entire night — was edited out of the film.
“I give her a hard time about it and say, ‘You know, my acting skills, you just couldn’t cut it,’ ” said James, who cites Dennis Quaid’s “The Rookie” as perhaps his favorite baseball movie.
James Marvel did not receive a credit for his work, nor was he paid. The timing wasn’t great, either, as Marvel had a game the next morning, which required some fast sleeping. But he did get noticed after the movie premiered, when a fellow student at Campolindo High, someone Marvel did not know, approached him in the hallway.
“He said, ‘Were you in Moneyball?’ I went to the premier last night, and I think I saw you,’ ” Marvel recalled. “I said, ‘I don’t know. I guess so.’ ”
The next week, James went with his parents, Julie and John, to see the movie. After repeatedly scanning crowd shots and coming up empty, the three worried it might’ve been a ruse. Then, after the Royals tied the score, there was James, holding a green-and-gold sign. In a packed theater, John screamed, “Holy [crap].” Julie grabbed James. The three of them celebrated.
“It’s cool to look back on now,” James Marvel said. “I’ll always exaggerate the part I played to people I don’t know. If someone finds out or says, ‘Hey, do you know he was in Moneyball?’ I’ll exaggerate my role a little bit and talk about my acting or hanging with Brad Pitt.
“It’s all in good fun. It ended up a cool memory and a lasting part of a baseball movie for me, which is pretty special now.”
Marvel still has the sign — for good reason. As he and Julie were awaiting instructions the night of filming, James spotted Philip Seymour Hoffman (who played A’s manager Art Howe) leaving through the stands, and Hoffman stopped to autograph the sign.
All of it was a dream come true for Marvel, who grew up wanting to go to film school at UCLA — and still does. An English minor at Duke, Marvel has actually written screenplays of his own and wants to learn about cameras, angles and lenses — the behind-the-scenes part of making movies.
But Marvel also isn’t about to act like an expert. Similar to his own journey as a baseball player — where he had an 8.31 ERA in his first four MLB starts last season and will have to work his way up from Triple-A whenever 2020 starts — Marvel knows it’s all a process.
“To sit here and say I’d try acting and directing, I wouldn’t want to take away from what those people have done with their lives,” Marvel said. “I know how hard I’ve worked to get where I am in my profession. Those people do the same for theirs.
“As of now I’m focused on getting back to the big leagues, helping the Pittsburgh Pirates win ballgames whenever those ballgames are played. Until then, I’ll just continue to watch good movies, good TV shows and read good books.”
Jason Mackey: jmackey@post-gazette.com and Twitter @JMackeyPG.
First Published: April 6, 2020, 3:34 p.m.
