After being put on hold last summer due to the departure of director Steven Soderbergh and endless rewrites of the script, "Moneyball" is back on track to start filming as soon as this month.
The movie, an adaptation of Michael Lewis's book of the same name which told the story of Oakland A's General Manager Billy Beane and his unorthodox approach to assessing talent that helped the A's succeed on a shoestring budget, stars Brad Pitt as Beane.
But it might also have appearances from some local ballplayers, as folks turned out to the Rickey Henderson Field of Dreams at Oakland Tech high school to audition as ballplaying extras.
No word on whether they were looking for actors who were really good at drawing walks or have really high on-base-plus-slugging percentages.
The film also promises to feature plenty of familiar faces from the A's back at the turn of the century playing themselves as the story of Beane and his team of number-crunchers prepared for the 2002 draft, including former manager Art Howe in the role of Art Howe.
So when the movie is finally released, keep an eye out for the credits -- you might just recognize the name of "Outfielder No. 3" from the neighborhood.
Jackson West wishes someone had told him, he totally would have auditioned.
