Billy Beane

Because many teams believed he would attend Stanford and not sign with a professional team, Beane fell to the 23rd pick, where he was taken by the Mets, who had two other first-round picks that year, allowing them to risk Beane not signing.

After visiting the Mets clubhouse, Beane decided to sign with the Mets for a US$125000 1980 signing bonus.

Beane called his decision to sign with the Mets instead of going to Stanford as the "only decision he would ever make in his life about money."

Believing Beane to be a more refined player than their top first-round pick, Darryl Strawberry, the Mets assigned Strawberry to play rookie ball with other high school draftees while Beane was assigned to the Little Falls Mets of the Class A New York–Penn League, with players drafted out of college.

Beane struggled in his first season, batting .210.

He was unable to make the adjustments necessary when playing tougher competition.

William Lamar Beane III (born March 29, 1962) is an American former professional baseball player and current front office executive.

He is currently senior advisor to owner John Fisher and minority owner of the Oakland Athletics of Major League Baseball (MLB) and formerly the executive vice president of baseball operations.

He is also minority owner of soccer clubs Barnsley of the EFL League One in England and AZ Alkmaar of the Eredivisie in the Netherlands.

The New York Mets, who had the first overall selection of the 1980 Major League Baseball Draft, liked Beane's talent and considered choosing him with the first pick.

The Mets promoted Beane to the Lynchburg Mets of the Class A-Advanced Carolina League in 1981.

After a solid season, he was promoted to the Jackson Mets of the Class AA Texas League in 1982.

While Strawberry was the league's most valuable player, Beane batted .220.

Beane began questioning himself, while his new roommate, Lenny Dykstra, succeeded with unwavering confidence and superior mental focus.

From 1984 to 1989 he played in MLB as an outfielder for the New York Mets, Minnesota Twins, Detroit Tigers, and Oakland Athletics.

Beane remained in Jackson until 1984, when he received his first promotion to MLB, appearing in five games for the 1984 New York Mets.

In 1985, Beane spent most of the season with the Tidewater Tides of the Class AAA International League, getting called up to the 1985 Mets for eight games.

He batted .284 for the Tides in 1985, leading the team with 19 home runs and 77 runs batted in.

Following the season, the Mets traded Beane with Joe Klink and Bill Latham to the Minnesota Twins for Tim Teufel and Pat Crosby, a minor league player.

The Twins entered spring training prepared to give Beane the job as their starting left fielder over incumbent Mickey Hatcher, but he dealt with injuries and ineffectiveness.

Beane appeared in 80 games for the 1986 Minnesota Twins, batting .216.

He also appeared in 32 games for the Toledo Mud Hens of the International League.

The Twins sent Beane to their new Class-AAA affiliate, the Portland Beavers of the Pacific Coast League (PCL), after spring training in 1987.

After batting .285 for Portland, Beane received a call-up to the Twins after the September 1 roster expansion.

He appeared in 12 games for the 1987 Minnesota Twins.

The Twins traded Beane to the Detroit Tigers for Balvino Gálvez during spring training in 1988.

He made the Tigers' opening-day roster that season as an injury fill-in, and was optioned in late April to Toledo, now serving as Detroit's Class-AAA affiliate, where he spent most of the season.

He joined the Athletics' front office as a scout in 1990, was named general manager after the 1997 season, and was promoted to executive vice president after the 2015 season.

A first-round pick in the MLB draft by the Mets, Beane failed to meet the expectations of scouts, who projected him as a star.

In his front-office career, Beane has applied statistical analysis (known as sabermetrics) to baseball, which has led teams to reconsider how they evaluate players.

He is the subject of Michael Lewis's 2003 book on baseball economics, Moneyball, which was made into a 2011 film starring Brad Pitt as Beane.

Beane grew up in Mayport, Florida, and San Diego, California, the child of a career military family.

His father, a naval officer, taught him how to pitch.

Beane attended Mt. Carmel High School in San Diego, where he excelled at baseball, football, and basketball.

The high school coach added Beane to the varsity baseball team for the last game of his freshman season.

Beane batted .501 during his sophomore and junior years of high school.

In his senior season, his batting average dropped to .300.

Despite the decrease in batting average, scouts were enamored with Beane's talent.

Beane gave up football to avoid an injury that could prematurely end his baseball career.

Despite this, Stanford University tried to recruit Beane on a joint baseball–football scholarship as the quarterback who would succeed then-sophomore John Elway for the Stanford Cardinal football team.