Billy Beane
Billy Beane
William Lamar "Billy" Beane IIIis an American former professional baseball player and current front office executive. He is the Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations and minority owner of the Oakland Athletics of Major League Baseball. Prior to his front office career, he played in MLB as an outfielder between 1984 and 1989 for the New York Mets, Minnesota Twins, Detroit Tigers, and Oakland Athletics. He joined the Athletics front office as a scout in 1990. He was named general...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionBaseball Player
Date of Birth29 March 1962
CityOrlando, FL
CountryUnited States of America
Frank Thomas is a presence. Not only would he be our type of offensive player, he would be everybody's type of offensive player. ... If Frank is healthy, he's been good against everybody.
This guy probably represents nirvana for us from an offensive standpoint. We see him as an incredible acquisition.
He is one of the greatest offensive players of his generation. He is nirvana for us as far as what we look for in an offensive player.
There was a real sense of determination in talking to him. You could get carried away with superlatives with Frank Thomas. Arguably, he is one of the greatest offensive players of his generation.
You could probably get carried away with superlatives when it comes to Frank Thomas. He's arguably one of the greatest offensive players of his generation.
It would be malpractice not to do research. Of course, it would also be malpractice to make a foolish trade.
It was an emotional time for the family, a life decision for them. The fact that we didn't agree right away wasn't unusual, given the magnitude of the decision.
Essentially this has been a business that's been around for over a hundred years and it really hasn't changed much so any time someone's doing something differently, its probably going to create some friction.
Even at this time his career, people stop to watch him come to the plate. I know I have.
Both (Williams and Thomas) are highly competitive, highly successful people. It's temporary noise.
Assuming we're healthy, Kenny's not going to have his hands tied very often.
At this point, both sides have agreed to pursue other options. We were just too far apart. I don't think we were ever going to be able to bridge the gap. ... When you're so far apart, there's no sense going through the exercise.
We've made a proposal to Kenny. We talked to him for the last couple weeks. We've expressed a desire to have Kenny back. Given his status as an up-and-coming manager, he has options and we are respectful of that. We'll see how it goes. I wouldn't expect it would be a long process. It would be one that should come to some sort of resolution relatively quickly.
Who knows how the rest of baseball views you? ... I can go home and sleep and know that we used tremendous character to get through this season.