Billy Beane's success as a GM earned him a place on a software company board:

NetSuite says it's changing traditions in the way software is being sold and likes the philosophical link.

"Billy's outrageously successful approach in changing the game of baseball by using facts to supplement instinct is very similar to the transformation our customers undergo when they move their business to NetSuite," said Evan Goldberg, chairman, co-founder and chief technology officer of NetSuite. "We are all excited about the insight Billy will bring to NetSuite and our customers."

But picking Beane isn't all about star power. The company already has some of that. It's majority-owned by software mogul Larry Ellison, the chief and co-founder of Redwood Shores-based Oracle Corp.

Beane said he was attracted to NetSuite because of Ellison, as well as the company's nonconforming approach of selling software as a service delivered via the Web instead of on software disks installed on company computers.

I understand Python is undervalued in the market place today, so expect NetSuite programmers to start writing in that language! :-)