Billy Beane

  b. 1962 | American Baseball Executive

At The Bottom

— 1990

Billy Beane had been one of the least productive players on the best team in baseball.

When the 1989 regular season ended, Billy Beane had been one of the least productive players on the best team in baseball.  His Oakland Athletics would go on to win the World Series that year, but Beane had to watch it all on television, since he was left off the post-season roster.  A decade before, Beane was among the top young prospects in the nation.  He had a remarkable throwing arm, great speed, and an overall athleticism that made him a multi-sport star at his San Diego high school.  The quarterback of the football team and the high scorer on the basketball team, Beane was a standout pitcher who could knock the stuffing out of a baseball.  Everything came easy to Billy Beane, and major league scouts pegged him as one of the top picks in the 1980 draft.  Selected by the New York Mets in the first round, Beane fizzled as a major leaguer. After several seasons in the minor leagues, he bounced around between four teams from 1984-1989, batting a meager. 219 in only 148 games — not even a full season’s worth of work over the course of six years.  By the spring of 1990, it was clear that Billy Beane was finished as a major league player — just another fading prospect who never lived up to his potential on the field.