Billy Beane

William Lamar Beane III (born March 29, 1962) is an American former professional baseball player and current front office executive. He is currently senior advisor to owner John Fisher and minority owner of the Athletics of Major League Baseball (MLB) and formerly the executive vice president of baseball operations. He is also a minority owner of soccer clubs Barnsley of the EFL League One in England and AZ Alkmaar of the Eredivisie in the Netherlands. From 1984 to 1989 he played in MLB as an outfielder for the New York Mets, Minnesota Twins, Detroit Tigers, and Oakland Athletics. He joined the Athletics' front office as a scout in 1990, was named general manager after the 1997 season, and was promoted to executive vice president after the 2015 season.

A first round pick in the MLB draft by the Mets, Beane failed to meet the expectations of scouts, who projected him as a star. In his front office career, Beane has applied statistical analysis (known as sabermetrics) to baseball, which has led teams to reconsider how they evaluate players. He is the subject of Michael Lewis's 2003 book on baseball economics, Moneyball, which was made into a 2011 film starring Brad Pitt as Beane.

Beane grew up in Mayport, Florida, and San Diego, California, the child of a career military family. His father, a naval officer, taught him how to pitch.

Beane attended Mt. Carmel High School in San Diego, where he excelled at baseball, football, and basketball. The high school coach added Beane to the varsity baseball team for the last game of his freshman season. Beane batted .501 during his sophomore and junior years of high school. In his senior season, his batting average dropped to .300.

Despite the decrease in batting average, scouts were enamored with Beane's talent. Beane gave up football to avoid an injury that could prematurely end his baseball career. Despite this, Stanford University tried to recruit Beane on a joint baseball–football scholarship as the quarterback to succeed then-sophomore John Elway for the Stanford Cardinal football team.

The New York Mets, who had the first overall selection of the 1980 Major League Baseball draft, liked Beane's talent and considered choosing him with the first pick. Because many teams believed he would attend Stanford and not sign with a professional team, Beane fell to the 23rd pick, where he was taken by the Mets, who had two other first-round picks that year, allowing them to risk Beane not signing. After visiting the Mets clubhouse, Beane decided to sign with the team for a US$125,000 (equivalent to $488,439 in 2025) signing bonus. Beane called his decision to sign with the Mets instead of going to Stanford as the "only decision he would ever make in his life about money."

Believing Beane to be a more refined player than their top first-round pick, Darryl Strawberry, the Mets assigned Strawberry to play rookie ball with other high school draftees while Beane was assigned to the Little Falls Mets of the Class A New York–Penn League, with players drafted out of college. Beane struggled in his first season, batting .210. He was unable to make the adjustments necessary when playing tougher competition. The Mets promoted Beane to the Lynchburg Mets of the Class A-Advanced Carolina League in 1981. After a solid season, he was promoted to the Jackson Mets of the Class AA Texas League in 1982. While Strawberry was the league's most valuable player, Beane batted .220. Beane began questioning himself, while his new roommate, Lenny Dykstra, succeeded with unwavering confidence and superior mental focus.

Beane remained in Jackson until 1984, when he received his first promotion to MLB, appearing in five games for the 1984 New York Mets. In 1985, Beane spent most of the season with the Tidewater Tides of the Class AAA International League, getting called up to the 1985 Mets for eight games. He batted .284 for the Tides in 1985, leading the team with 19 home runs and 77 runs batted in.

Following the season, the Mets traded Beane with Joe Klink and Bill Latham to the Minnesota Twins for Tim Teufel and Pat Crosby, a minor league player.

The Twins entered spring training prepared to give Beane the job as their starting left fielder over incumbent Mickey Hatcher, but he dealt with injuries and ineffectiveness. Beane appeared in 80 games for the 1986 Minnesota Twins, batting .216. He also appeared in 32 games for the Toledo Mud Hens of the International League. The Twins sent Beane to their new Class-AAA affiliate, the Portland Beavers of the Pacific Coast League (PCL), after spring training in 1987. After batting .285 for Portland, Beane received a call-up to the Twins after the September 1 roster expansion. He appeared in 12 games for the 1987 Minnesota Twins.

Weary of the lifestyle of a minor league player, Beane approached Athletics GM Sandy Alderson a day after he was reassigned to minor league camp in April 1990 for a job as an advance scout.

Beane held the position of advance scout through 1993, when he was promoted to assistant GM of the Athletics, tasked with scouting minor-league players.

Under the ownership of Walter A. Haas Jr., the Athletics appeared in three consecutive World Series from 1988 through 1990, and had the highest payroll in baseball in 1991. Haas died in 1995, and new owners Stephen Schott and Ken Hofmann ordered Alderson to slash payroll. To field a competitive roster on a limited budget, Alderson began focusing on sabermetric principles to obtain undervalued players. He valued on-base percentage among hitters. Alderson taught Beane to find value that other teams did not see using sabermetrics.

Beane succeeded Alderson as general manager on October 17, 1997. He continued Alderson's crafting of the Athletics into one of the most cost-effective teams in baseball. For example, in the 2006 MLB season, the Athletics ranked 24th of 30 major league teams in player salaries but had the 5th-best regular-season record.

The Athletics reached the playoffs in four consecutive years from 2000 through 2003, losing in the American League Division Series each year. In 2002, the Athletics became the first team in the 100+ years of American League (AL) baseball to win 20 consecutive games. After the 2002 season, the Boston Red Sox made Beane an offer of $12.5 million to become their general manager, but he declined. On April 15, 2005, Beane received a contract extension to remain with the Athletics as the team's general manager through 2012, and new team owner Lewis Wolff awarded Beane a small portion of the team's ownership. They won their first playoff series under Beane in 2006 when they swept the Minnesota Twins in the American League Division Series, but were swept by the Detroit Tigers in the American League Championship Series.

When the Athletics ownership group agreed to purchase the reincarnation of the San Jose Earthquakes of Major League Soccer, Beane, who has expressed a passion for soccer, began developing a system for objectively analyzing soccer players. He has agreed to help the Earthquakes front office develop a method for building a cost-effective team, as the salary cap in MLS is even more restrictive than the Athletics status as a small-market team in Major League Baseball. However, a system has yet to be implemented.

Beane has regarded Arsenal's former manager Arsène Wenger as a personal idol. Beane has held discussions with Wenger, former Manchester United F.C. manager Alex Ferguson, and Liverpool F.C. owner John W. Henry. His friendship with ex-Arsenal scout Damien Comolli and Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke allowed him to delve deep into the world of English soccer.

In March 2015, the Dutch soccer club AZ Alkmaar, under general director Robert Eenhoorn, a former major leaguer, hired Beane as an advisor. He became a shareholder of the club five years later. acquiring a 5% stake in 2020. On December 19, 2017, Beane became part of a consortium led by Chien Lee to purchase Barnsley Football Club, which plays in the EFL League One, the third tier of the English football league system.

On January 4, 2007, the software company NetSuite named Beane to its board of directors; NetSuite co-founder Evan Goldberg cited Beane's ability to combine facts with instinct. Beane also served as a consultant for, and appears in, the video game MLB Front Office Manager.

Author Michael Lewis' 2003 best-selling book Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game explores Beane's methods as the general manager of the Athletics and how he, along with Paul DePodesta, used sabermetric principles to field a winning team despite an exceptionally low payroll. The book and Beane's methods influenced the way many teams and players think about the game of baseball.

Beane's first marriage was to Cathy Sturdivant. The couple has a daughter, Casey Beane.

Beane is married to Tara Beane. The couple have one son, Edward, and twins, Brayden and Tinsley Beane.