Prior to The Social Network, Aaron Sorkin was pegged for lots of folks as the guy with the walking trope. His characters, from shows like The West Wing and Sports Night, pitch dialogue back and forth rapid fire while walking from office to office. They were both shows about busy, witty people.

When The Social Network was released, the reputation of his that got solidified was that of being a writer of ideas, of tackling larger notions within the culture. That came to mind while I was watching Moneyball.

I know he’s listed as one of two screen writers on this movie, and I’m not sure how much of that is Sorkin and how much credit should be given to Steven Zaillan. But the script feels like a Sorkin script simply because it is about the idea of Sabernomics.

But like The Social Network and like The West Wing, Moneyball is so effective in showing everything involved with this approach because Sorkin makes sure to write honest characters. The best way to communicate approaches to an idea like this, at least as far as he’s concerned, is to populate the film with real people with clear opinions that make sense for their characters. Then, those people interact with each other and the idea, and something like Sabernomics winds up getting expressed well.