October 23, 2006
Billy Beane, Insensitive Boss
Via Red Reporter, a Mercury News reporter remembers just how badly Billy Beane treated Ken Macha. Beane took over Macha's office for an interview, and a few minutes later Macha came in:
I started asking, but a few minutes later Macha and Curt Young came back, with plates of food and just in their underwear, obviously looking to eat, change clothes and relax.
They stared at us, I stared at them, Billy just kept eating and talking.
Macha tenatively sat down behind his desk for a few seconds. Very uncomfortable. Shot another glance at Beane. Glared at me. I shrugged, said to Beane, "Umm, maybe we should do this somewhere else."
Beane looked up like this was the first he'd noticed Macha was there-or cared that he was there-dropped his plate, then just waved at Macha, pointing him out the door. Remember, this was Macha's own office. After winning for something like the 33rd time in 40 games.
"Ken, you can let us do this, right?" Beane said as he waved.
Beane turned back to me and never looked at Macha again as Macha and Young sighed, got up, and moved out.
That was the relationship. Right there. Beane is the man. Macha always knew it, even when he was in his own office.
Posted by David Pinto at
08:54 AM
|
Management
|
TrackBack (0)
wow, what a d*ck...guess with all those rings Beane figured he had a right to act that way--oh wait a minute...
if he really did it, it's classless.
If Macha and Young prowled the stadium in their Y fronts, I'd say that's a fireable offense right there.
This is all spin to distract from the obvious: Macha blew it in the playoffs. His stubborn insistence on using Kotsay over Kielty, and letting both Kielty and Johnson rot on the bench, was criminal negligence.
I have always been a Macha agnostic (and also an adherent to the 'managers are overrated' school of thought), but he screwed the pooch against the Tigers.
Beane runs the As, Macha is there to corral the players and do what Beane tells him to do. If Macha ignores Beane's instructions on what players to use when and for what, then Macha is forgetting why he's the manager for this particular team and will be (was) fired in favor of somebody that shows appropriate strategic deference. Same reason Grady Little was fired in Boston (it wasn't just 2003 ALCS and Pedro), same reason DePodesta defenestrated Tracy in LA (only to follow him out the window shortly thereafter, proving the McCourts have no idea how to manage management).
