Billy Beane Character Analysis

If the only path to leadership is emergence, no one will remember Billy Beane. When he was a first round draft pick for the New York Mets, it seemed he was fated to leave his mark on the MLB. And that is exactly what he is doing - although not as a player (a lifetime batting average of .219 made sure of that). For Billy Beane to become a successful leader in the MLB, he needed to be appointed. In fact, he literally had to walk from the dugout to the Oakland A’s front office and beg for a scouting position. While Billy Beane does not fit the mold of the traditional MLB star, there have been very few people in baseball history who have changed the game as he has. Billy Beane is the quintessential ‘transformational leader’. While it is easy

When the A’s came into town, the GM of baseball’s richest team, the New York Yankees, stated, “It’s like Coke and their secret formula – you don’t let the secret formula out” . Sabermetrics have become such a normal part of the baseball scouting process that now ex-Phillies GM Ruben Amaro was fired in part because of his refusal to adapt to this new reality. Michael Lewis himself has admitted, “the book probably cost the A’s an opportunity or two” . While this poses as a problem, Billy Beane continues to demonstrate another leadership skill he has up his sleeve: addressing change. Despite the fact that the A’s have lost those two MVPs, and many other All-Star quality players; despite the fact that everyone around the league is doing what the Athletics have been doing somehow Oakland finds a way to succeed with their relatively empty wallets. Oakland has catapulted itself back into the playoffs each of the last three years. Understandably, Billy Beane has kept his cards closer to his chest, and exactly what he has done to promote this new era of success is less transparent. One could point to the hiring of Bob Melvin, who won the 2012 AL Manager of the Year with the A’s, as Billy Beane once again brilliantly noticing a diamond in the rough. However if you take a closer look, you

With the acquisitions of now baseball legends David Ortiz and Curt Schilling, Epstein did something arguably more substantial then even Beane has done: he broke the ‘Curse of the Great Bambino’. Like Beane, Epstein shows great enthusiasm and industriousness and while one may argue that his willingness to jump teams to the Chicago Cubs in 2011 undermines his loyalty, this is not the case. Instead Epstein shows great loyalty to the game of baseball. He has already taken down baseball’s third largest World Series droughts, now he is trying to bring a title to fans who have been starved for well over 100 years. He resembles all three of these same blocks (and many more) that Beane himself does just in a different way. Just because he has been able to grab the Red Sox a couple of World Series titles does not change what Beane himself has done. Similarly, the way Beane exerts his leadership does not undermine Epstein’s