Billy Beane

Lore & Background

A first round pick in the MLB draft by the Mets, Beane failed to meet the expectations of scouts, who projected him as a star. In his front office career, Beane has applied statistical analysis (known as sabermetrics) to baseball, which has led teams to reconsider how they evaluate players. He is the subject of Michael Lewis's 2003 book on baseball economics, Moneyball, which was made into a 2011 film starring Brad Pitt as Beane.

In Their Own Story

The lights at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum hummed their low amber glow over the empty outfield grass. Beane sat in his office on the upper deck, a half-empty coffee cooling beside a stack of box scores and a laptop screen still glowing with a spreadsheet of on-base percentages. Below him, the diamond was a dark green rectangle framed by the distant hills of the East Bay, the chain-link fence catching the last of the evening sun. He had just made the call to trade a player the whole front office thought was the future, and the silence in the room felt like the held breath before a pitch. He didn't look at the phone. He looked at the number on his screen—the .412 OBP, the 187 walks, the 71 strikeouts—and he nodded once, as if confirming what he already knew. Outside, the scoreboard ticked over to a new hour. The A's had a game to play tomorrow, and the spreadsheet said they were ready.

Reader's Guide

Beane grew up in Mayport, Florida, and San Diego, California, the child of a career military family. His father, a naval officer, taught him how to pitch. He attended Mt. Carmel High School in San Diego, where he excelled at baseball, football, and basketball. The high school coach added Beane to the varsity baseball team for the last game of his freshman season. Beane batted .501 during his sophomore and junior years of high school. In his senior season, his batting average dropped to .300. Despite the decrease in batting average, scouts were enamored with Beane's talent. Beane gave up football to avoid an injury that could prematurely end his baseball career. Despite this, Stanford University tried to recruit Beane on a joint baseball–football scholarship as the quarterback to succeed then-sophomore John Elway for the Stanford Cardinal football team. The New York Mets selected Beane with the 23rd pick of the 1980 MLB draft. After visiting the Mets clubhouse, Beane decided to sign with the team for a US$125,000 signing bonus. He played in MLB for the Mets (1984–1985), Twins (1986–1987), Tigers (1988), and Athletics (1989). After the 1989 season, he re-signed with the Athletics for 1990 but was sent to the minors at the end of spring training. Weary of the minor league lifestyle, Beane approached Athletics GM Sandy Alderson a day after he was reassigned to minor league camp in April 1990 for a job as an advance scout. He held that position through 1993, when he was promoted to assistant GM. He succeeded Alderson as general manager on October 17, 1997. Under Beane, the Athletics reached the playoffs in four consecutive years from 2000 through 2003, losing in the AL Division Series each year. In 2002, the Athletics became the first team in AL history to win 20 consecutive games. After the 2002 season, the Boston Red Sox made Beane an offer of $12.5 million to become their general manager, but he declined. On April 15, 2005, Beane received a contract extension to remain with the Athletics as general manager through 2012, and new team owner Lewis Wolff awarded Beane a small portion of the team's ownership. They won their first playoff series under Beane in 2006 when they swept the Minnesota Twins in the AL Division Series, but were swept by the Detroit Tigers in the AL Championship Series. From their 2006 playoff appearance until 2012, the Athletics did not make

Did You Know?

• Beane was a first-round pick of the New York Mets in the 1980 MLB draft, taken 23rd overall.
• He is the subject of Michael Lewis's 2003 book Moneyball, which was adapted into a 2011 film starring Brad Pitt.
• Beane is a minority owner of soccer clubs Barnsley (England) and AZ Alkmaar (Netherlands).
• In 2002, the Oakland Athletics won 20 consecutive games under Beane's leadership, a first in American League history.