Heavy Hitter

Heavy Hitter

He gives lectures to Deutsche Bank executives. He’s rubbed shoulders with billionaire investor Warren Buffett. And he’s been offered millions to ply his trade elsewhere. So, what the heck is Oakland A’s General Manager billy beane still doing in the East Bay?

By Ron Kroichick

Photograph by Thomas Broening

(page 4 of 5)

To this day, Beane seldom travels with the team and prefers to DVR road games and watch them after he knows the result. He figures that avoiding live action helps keep irrational emotion from influencing his decisions. He doesn’t always follow the formula—he’ll watch the home games live on television in the bowels of McAfee Coliseum, distracting himself by riding the stationary bike and Stairmaster—but he’s determined to separate emotion from fact.

“Billy’s not dependent just on his gut reaction—he can analyze subjective decisions in an objective way,” says Lewis Wolff, the Los Angeles real estate developer who bought the A’s in 2005. “He identifies the objective variables more than most people in baseball do.”

That was the essence of Michael Lewis’ Moneyball, the hugely influential 2003 book that changed Beane’s life. Moneyball chronicles Beane during the ’02 season as he relies on new, statistical methods in running the A’s, defying many of the traditional approaches espoused by the old-school baseball establishment. The book irritated some general managers and longtime scouts, sure, but the national exposure thrust Beane into another realm. He suddenly found himself meeting with überinvestor Warren Buffett, receiving a personal letter from former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Robert Rubin, and engaging Senator John McCain in earnest conversation when they crossed paths at the Los Angeles airport.

Five years after the book’s publication, Beane makes 25 to 30 speaking appearances annually on his business philosophy of using undervalued assets to gain a competitive edge. Among his recent gigs: a conference on English football (soccer to Americans) in London last November and another for Deutsche Bank in Paris in April. Beane also sits on the boards of directors of several companies, including NetSuite, a San Mateo business software company, and Easton-Bell Sports, a sporting goods company.

He finds the speaking circuit “empowering” and enjoys going beyond the customary baseball realm. Other opportunities to work beyond baseball came with Wolff’s purchase of an expansion Major League Soccer team in 2006, the reborn San Jose Earthquakes, and his ongoing effort to build new stadiums for the Earthquakes and the A’s. Beane is involved in both endeavors.

He also acquired equity in the A’s (roughly 4 percent) soon after Wolff took over. “He’s now a part owner, which I think is something he strived for, for a long time,” Wolff says. “He recognizes the value in that.”

In Beane’s perfect world, the plan to increase attendance at games by locating a new ballpark at Cisco Field in Fremont gains approval, the A’s move there within the next five years, and the team generates the money needed to keep some of the players acquired last winter.

For now, the A’s need not worry about keeping Beane. He’s in his comfort zone—reshuffling his roster, juggling countless projects, stretching into new frontiers, and annually creating a product on his own terms.
“I don’t ever see myself working for any other baseball franchise,” Beane says. “There’s a lot of room for growth for me here, a lot of opportunity to be stimulated.”
And, most likely, more chances to dance.

Ron Kroichick is a staff writer for the San Francisco Chronicle.