Former Houston Astros' shortstop and team manager Art Howe is not a happy camper.  Howe says he hates the way he's portrayed in the new Brad Pitt movie "Moneyball".  He says he feels betrayed by the movie makers.

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Every movie needs a villain, and for one of the current crop of movies, the villain resides among us. At least that’s how the movie seems to portray it at times, but Art Howe, played by Philip Seymour Hoffman in the blockbuster baseball film Moneyball, tells a very different story of the events interpreted by Hollywood.

Howe played for the Astros from 1976-82, and managed t he team from 1989-93.  From 1996 to 2002, he was the manager of the Oakland Athletics club on which the movie was based.

In the movie, he was shown as always at odds with general manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) and more concerned about his own financial future than with his players and the team..

That's not the way Howe remembers it.  His recollection is quite different.  Howe says he feels betrayed by the movie, which is based on a 2003 Michael Lewis book for which Howe says he was consulted for only about 10 minutes.

For openers, slobby actor Hoffman looks nothing like the fit and trim Art Howe. And Howe says Hoffman's portrayal of his personality and managing style is 180 degrees from what he really is.

Howe says the movie portrays him saying and doing things he never said or did.  What bothers him most, he says, is that people will come away from this movie thinking that's the kind of person he is.  That's not him, Howe says.

The truth is that Art Howe was one of the most popular and best liked Houston Astros EVER -- as a player and later the team manager.

It's a shame that Hollywood can feel so free to slander one of baseball's really nice guys this way.  Why can't Hollywood portray real people truthfully?  Why can't Hollywood handle the truth?

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