[Hendu Style]

January 4th, 1992


Billy Beane has just been named assistant general manager of the Oakland A’s. His last big league season as a player came in 1989, when he signed as a free agent with Oakland. The one-time “can’t miss” prospect whiffed mightily, appearing in just 37 games in the ‘89 season, batting .241 in 79 at-bats. The A’s would go on to win the World Series that season, sweeping the San Francisco Giants in the Bay Bridge Series. Beane, though, was left off the playoff roster and never appeared in a big league game again.

Reassigned to the minor leagues the following season, Beane was done with baseball. At least, as a player. The day after reassignment, Beane marched into Oakland General Manager Sandy Alderson’s office, and asked him for a job in the organization. Beane was offered a position as an advance scout. For two years, he would travel across the country, going ballpark to ballpark, just as he had since 1980 when he was a first round draft pick by the New York Mets. Only this time, he wasn’t a player. Now he was scouting Oakland’s upcoming opponents. Scrutinizing the likes of Jack McDowell, Chuck Knoblauch, and Jeff Montgomery, Beane was a voyeur, watching the very same people he had played against just a couple of years earlier.

Where Beane failed as a player, he thrived as a scout. His acumen for the game and the players was without equal. He had keen instincts, shrewdly exposing strengths and weaknesses of each opponent. Where others saw a menacing homerun threat in Detroit slugger Cecil Fielder, Beane saw a gaping hole in his swing that could be exposed with a well-placed slider.

Alderson, the man who took a chance on this hot-headed kid, knew he had found his protégé. In 1992, Beane was promoted to assistant general manager. He would follow in the footsteps of Alderson, regarded as one of the top minds in Major League Baseball.

Billy Beane was being groomed to one day become a general manager himself.