Author

The math works. Over the course of a season, there's some predictability to baseball. When you play 162 games, you eliminate a lot of random outcomes. There's so much data that you can predict: individual players' performances and also the odds that certain strategies will pay off.

From Billy Beane

I love what I do. That's one of the reasons I've stayed. I love the community; I love driving to work.

From Billy Beane

When I first came into baseball, people didn't want to hear that a team was a business. But it is. And the better the business is run, the healthier the team on the field is going to be.

From Billy Beane

The bottom line is that any business should be a meritocracy. The best and brightest. Period.

From Billy Beane

We try to create a situation where we're the casino. It's like how an actuary would set insurance rates. Predictability, predictability, predictability. What's the path to least risk? What's the greater chance of getting some return on this asset?

From Billy Beane

The idea that you can create a template that will work forever doesn't happen in any business. There's some really, really bright people in this business. You can't do the same thing the same way and be successful for a long period of time.

From Billy Beane

We've got to use every piece of data and piece of information, and hopefully that will help us be accurate with our player evaluation. For us, that's our life blood.

From Billy Beane

Smaller markets teams, when you hit bottom, you hit with a thud.

From Billy Beane

In baseball, you can do something poorly and still get credit. A pitcher could throw a bad ball, the batter hit a screaming line drive, and an outfielder make a fantastic diving catch. Yet, when you look at historical databases, 80% of the time when a ball is struck with that trajectory and velocity, it is a hit.

From Billy Beane

I've always been intellectually restless, but it is the building part of it that most interests me. It is the constructing of the team that is my favorite part. Anyone who is familiar with the history of the A's franchise, even dating back to Philadelphia, knows that every five or 10 years, you have to tear it apart and rebuild it.

From Billy Beane

Billy Beane

Notable Quotes

Authors with Similar Views

Christine Quinn

Claudio Reyna

David Cone

Ernie Harwell

Greg Brenneman

Authors with Opposing Views

Austin Seferian-Jenkins

Barry Ritholtz

Eileen Brennan

Ernie Harwell

George Steinbrenner