Billy Beane is one of the most idolized general managers in sports because of what he did with his baseball team. At the start of the two thousand two season the Oakland Athletics were the poorest team in baseball and couldn’t afford valuable players that they needed. Because of this money problem, Billy Beane needed to do something and quickly. One day when Billy was discussing a trade with Mark Shapiro of the Cleveland Indians, he noticed something about a certain person by the name of Peter Brand. Peter Brand went to Yale and studied economics. Billy liked him so much that he bought him from the Indians. Then Peter was requested by Billy to do player analysis on certain players. He did forty-seven of them to perfection. This is where are story begins on how one poor team made history.

Oakland is in the American league west which contains the Mariners, Angels, Rangers, and Astros. All of whom have very expensive ballplayers. Except the Astros who are trying to use Billy’s method and they are actually doing pretty good. Also the Yankees are in the American league and they always have the highest payroll because of all there past championships. The Yankees always tend to be a plague upon the Athletics. The Oakland Athletics have won nine championships throughout their history but recently it’s been a struggle. They’re persistent and tend to make it to the playoffs every year. Billy Beane is trying to assemble a good team so that someday he can win a World Series ring. This team is very good and someday they will win it all for Billy.

Moneyball began in two thousand two when the short priced A’s managed to twenty straight games in a row, which is a record, and they also made it to the playoffs. It was because of Scott Hatterberg, a defected player; hit a walk-off homerun against the Royals to win the twentieth straight for the A’s. In the offseason the A’s in two thousand two went and got Scott Hatterberg, David Justice, Jeremy Giambi, and Chad Bradford. Nobody cared about these guys. Billy and Peter were on a mission and they signed them all and one of them who used to catch became the A’s first baseman, which was Scott Hatterberg. At first, Scott Hatterberg wasn’t very comfortable with first base but then he was able to get used to it. During the first half of the season the A’s were doing weren’t doing very good and were in last place, then Billy started to talk to his players and work with them. Then came the win streak. Then after that the trade deadline came and Billy traded Carlos Pena there very good first baseman to the Tigers. They also traded Jeremy Giambi for another slumping player and his replacement did very good. That year, the A’s got to the postseason but were sadly defeated by the Twins in the first round.

Peter Brand and Billy Beane during all of this were drawing a lot of critics for this unusual style of play. Billy and Peter changed the way general managers view their players and have forever changed the game of baseball. You really have to have a lot of guts to start this project, but sure enough it worked out in a very random way. Oakland, after this success, became more of a baseball town then a football one all thanks to Billy Beane and Peter Brand. A lot of other teams are now trying Billy’s invention. But it seems that they aren’t doing so well for some teams. So if you become a defected player, Billy might have some interest in you. That is a very good thing and it’s good to know that you may get a second chance.

Billy, through all of this had to go through a lot emotionally. Because no one agreed with his method and it was hard getting people to realize that this revolution would work. What strikes me the most about all of this is how successful he was. He won twenty straight games and that is no easy task my friends, but you have to give a lot of credit to Billy’s players. His players did everything in their power they could for Billy because he gave a lot of them a second chance. Baseball is a game of statistics and when you look closely at those stats you will probably find something that shocks you it’s mostly in one specific category. Billy looked at one real closely and that was on base-percentages. That was very smart. Billy also rejected an offer from the Red Sox which would have made him the highest paid general manager in history. Instead he decided to stay in Oakland. I bet A’s fans were really happy about that. It is truly a miracle what these two guys did to a slumping franchise. They made Oakland into a ballplayers paradise and have changed sports forever.