Billy Beane

From SoSH

William Lamar Beane (born 29 March, 1962) was drafted by the New York Mets in 1980. After rising through the Mets system, Beane broke into the majors in 1984 with the Mets. Beane was traded in 1986 to the Minnesota Twins and in 1987 to the Detroit Tigers. Beane was undistingishuable as a player, but has made his biggest mark as the General manager of the Oakland Athletics and was featured in the book, Moneyball.

Contents 1 Overall Career 2 Beane's Moment in the Sun 3 Trivia 4 Transactions 5 External Links

Overall Career

William Lamar "Billy" Beane (born March 29, 1962 in Orlando, Florida) is a former Major League Baseball player and the current general manager of the Oakland Athletics.

Beane, who grew up in the San Diego area, was a first-round choice by the New York Mets in the 1980 MLB amateur draft, and played parts of six seasons as a reserve outfielder in the major leagues, with the Mets, the Minnesota Twins, the Detroit Tigers and the Athletics, from 1984 to 1989. He was on the bench for two World Series wins - with the Twins in 1987, and the Athletics in 1989. He completed his 148-game career with a .219 batting average and 3 home runs.

He then moved into the Athletics front office, becoming an advance scout, and eventually an assistant to then-Athletics GM Sandy Alderson in 1993. In 1997, Alderson stepped down as GM and Beane replaced him. Since then, Beane has crafted the Athletics into one of the most successful regular-season teams in baseball, primarily through the shrewd application of sabermetric principles. Despite this, the Athletics have been repeatedly thwarted in their bid to win in the playoffs.

Beane's Moment in the Sun

• In 2003, Beane, his team and his approach to running the organization were the subject of the book Moneyball by Michael Lewis.

Trivia

• Hopes to one day field a team of players cloned from the DNA of Eddie Yost.
• Not to be confused with Billy Bean (William Daro Bean), who became one of the first openly homosexual professional baseball players with his book, Going the Other Way.

Transactions

• June 3, 1980: Drafted by the New York Mets in the 1st round (23rd pick) of the 1980 amateur draft.
• January 16, 1986: Traded by the New York Mets with Joe Klink and Bill Latham to the Minnesota Twins for Tim Teuffel and Pat Crosby.
• March 24, 1988: Traded by the Minnesota Twins to the Detroit Tigers for Balvino Galvez.
• October 15, 1988: Granted Free Agency.
• November 30, 1988: Signed as a Free Agent with the Oakland Athletics.

External Links

• Baseball-Reference.com - Career Statistics and Analysis