April 01, 2005
Billy's Ballclub
Staying in Oakland has turned out to be very rewarding for Billy Beane as he will be a part owner of the Athletics with Lewis Wolff.
Lewis Wolff was introduced as the new managing partner of the A's at a small ceremony in the Coliseum and then announced that Beane and Crowley will have small ownership stakes in the club. It was a reward for the two men who have built the small-market team into a perennial playoff contender and a profitable business.
Beane also received a lucrative contract extension through 2012, while Crowley's deal was extended through 2008, although their salaries weren't disclosed.
"I'm excited about the future, and one of the great things now is the stability it brings," said Beane, who has led the club to four playoff appearances and the AL's second-best record during his seven years as GM. "(Ownership) is something I always hoped would become a possibility. ... We're partners, so Lew has said that when it comes to operating the franchise, he's going to give us a free hand."
The exciting thing here is that the A's have the third richest ownership group in baseball. That doesn't mean they'll spend lots of money, but it looks like they will be more flexible. And it also appears they have the means to build a new stadium.
Posted by David Pinto at
07:25 PM
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I think that was a great reward for the amazing Billy Beane!
Now the question arises will Billy be as good with more money? Some people just feed off being the underdog and no matter how it was stated in "Moneyball", maybe Billy had a little bit of fear of that when he turned down the Boston job. And yes I agree with steck, this is a very nice reward for what Billy has done for this team.
Somehow, I think the A's will be rather better with a larger payroll. The only real problem I think Beane would have with more money is that he could not longer play out the "we can't afford to keep him" routine for players he really actually prefers to get rid of. This offseason, for example, he was able to say about his Mulder and Hudson trades that "hey, we're going to lose them after this season 'cause we can't pay them, so we should get as much as we can for them now." This worked for their fan base because they believe him. But really, Beane probably wanted to trade these guys. He got a LOAD of young talent for two players who have been in steady decline for the past three seasons. Both of them enjoyed the tremendous defense Beane built around them, both enjoyed the pitcher's park in Oakland, and both of them saw their K/9 and K/BB drop precipitously over the the years. Beane got what he wanted, and didn't alienate his fans, because he could play the poverty card. I wonder if in the future, he'll be more forced to keep players he might happily trade or let walk, because he doesn't have his old excuse. All that said, the prospect of Beane being able to lock up those players he really wants to is pretty scary for the rest of the league.
