Have you ever stopped to think what it would be like to see yourself played on the big screen by a major star like Brad Pitt?
I can’t even imagine (if I work at it, I could picture, say, Steve Buscemi wincing his way through a portrayal of me), except that I can imagine since that’s exactly what happened to a friend of mine.
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Back in the 1990s, as a San Francisco Chronicle baseball reporter, I loved talking to the young assistant general manager of the Oakland A’s, a bright up-and-comer named Billy Beane. Along the way, Billy became a friend, someone I talked to about books, politics, life — so it was a trip, needless to say, to watch Brad Pitt play Billy so memorably in the movie version of the Michael Lewis mega-bestseller Moneyball.
I don’t know if Billy and I are still friends, we don’t talk much anymore, but I still want to see him happy. Published accounts by some very credible sportswriters have speculated that the New York Mets might want to hire Billy to head up their baseball operations, so here’s my take: Go for it, Billy!
Asked about reports that had him as one of the three main targets of the Mets this offseason, Beane this week did his best to dismiss them by calling the speculation “just press reports.” As my friend Pedro Gomez of ESPN would say to that, “I didn’t hear a ‘no.’”
I can confirm, based on my own reporting, that the Beane-to-New-York scenario is much more than just press reports. In fact, I expect it to happen. (And that expectation only deepened when news broke that Theo Epstein, who won the World Series with both the Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs, will not be a “fit” for the Mets job.)
As San Francisco Chronicle columnist Ann Killion, who has as sharp an eye as anyone in the business, put it this week: “There is annual speculation about when Beane finally will weary of working for the cheapest owner in baseball. It might be now. There’s an end-of-the-rope, last-straw feeling about so much surrounding the A’s.”
It’s been 12 years since I called up Beane for a San Francisco Magazine article about the A’s desperate need — even then — for a new ballpark, and it happened to be a stormy day when we talked. “When I go to the Coliseum to work out today and it’s pouring, the toilets will all be overflowing in the clubhouse, and the clubhouse guy, Mikey — if we can get Mikey in there — will be going in to get buckets to capture the rain,” Beane told me. “It’s a great venue for us, as far as history goes. But it’s just time.” That was 12 years ago.
I wrote a whole book about Billy’s mentor, former A’s general manager Sandy Anderson, who is now president of the Mets — and in that book, Baseball Maverick told many stories about the Alderson-Beane relationship.
My take is: Billy Beane has been established as one of the top front-office executives in the history of baseball over his more than 30 years in Oakland, and the timing would be great for him to take on the fresh challenge of leading his former team, the Mets, back to the World Series. (Like me, Billy turns 60 next year — he’s got plenty of time to make a mark in a new role.)
With engaged owner Steve Cohen (who, did I mention, has the deepest pockets of any owner in baseball) fired up to build a winner, I absolutely think Beane could produce a Mets team that would win a World Series ring.
Once before, leading up to the 2003 season, Beane came very close to leaving California, his home state going back to a San Diego childhood — and almost accepted a reported $12.5 million offer to take over as Boston Red Sox GM. Billy balked in part because as a father he worried about being there for his daughter, Casey, a choice I can certainly respect.
Again, Billy has family considerations to weigh; he and his wife Tara have young twins. Fair enough. But I for one would love to see him go for it and swing for the fences by trying to take over in New York. Yes, he’d deal with a much different style of media coverage than here in Northern California, where our idea of a grump is lovable Ray Ratto, and it would in many ways be an uncomfortable adjustment for him. Life here in Northern California does have a lot to recommend it.
But Billy is brilliant — no one who knows him well has ever questioned that. If he threw himself into the fresh intellectual challenge of bringing all he’s learned over the years in Oakland — about people, about being both a visionary and a person flexible enough to make some adjustments — he could make a huge mark with the Mets.
Also, Billy is a sought-after public speaker because of his insights into business, as much as baseball, and I have to think he and Steve Cohen would hit it off in a major way. I’m no fan of hedge funds, but that’s Cohen’s business, and if Billy went to work with Cohen, here’s one guess he’d come out on the other side with some major hedge-fund assets, one way or another.
As for the A’s, look, I grew up an A’s fan — my dad took me to a World Series game in 1972 — and I want good things for A’s fans. It’s been painful to watch all that has unfolded in recent years under current ownership.
Maybe if Beane moves on, Major League Baseball will finally start to take the team’s plight more seriously. At any rate, Billy has given the Bay more than 30 years. It’s time for him to do what’s best for him, and a job in New York would be a great fit.
