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Billy Beane: Hall of Famer?

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by NDJournalist, Oct 11, 2013.

  1. NDJournalist

    NDJournalist Active Member

    Why not? He continually wins division titles with a $60 million payroll and was one of the driving forces behind the sabermetric movement in baseball, at least the heavy emphasis of it.
     
  2. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    Terry Ryan's Twins had as much or more success with the same kind of payroll limitations.
     
  3. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    The Rays have had even more.

    The question would be, in this total hypothetical, what influence the A's have had on how the rest of the organizations run themselves. Was this where things were headed anyway, and the A's were just first? I've heard historians discount the importance, for example, of a Lincoln or a founding father because abolition and independence were inevitabilities.
     
  4. Brian

    Brian Well-Known Member

    To consider him a Hall of famer, you'd have to view Beane as a Bill Veeck-like figure in the game, wouldn't you? I just don't think he's up to that standard.
     
  5. da man

    da man Well-Known Member


    Yeah, Lincoln's WAR was good but his OPS-plus wasn't all that great.
     
  6. dooley_womack1

    dooley_womack1 Well-Known Member

    Beane has not built a league champion, let alone a world champion. And he gets fired pretty quick without having three aces. Without Lewis, he's Terry Ryan, at best.
     
  7. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    The idea of Beane in the HOF right now is ludicrous, but no less so than downgrading him because he hypothetically would have been fired if hypothetically he had had a worse team than he actually had.
     
  8. buckweaver

    buckweaver Active Member

    Here's the list of people voted into the Hall of Fame as Executives/Pioneers, with bold for the folks who at least partially served in the role of modern-day GM/presidents so we're at least comparing oranges to clementines:

    And from the post-World War II era, you're basically only looking at George Weiss, Lee MacPhail, Branch Rickey, Bill Veeck, Walter O'Malley and Pat Gillick.

    That's an extremely short list — and Billy Beane, for all his innovations and success, is nowhere near it, IMO.

    Who else will get voted in as an executive? I think George Steinbrenner probably gets in, at least in the Tom Yawkey Lucky Sperm Club wing.

    John Schuerholz has the best chance of any recent GM types, I think. Walt Jocketty, one day? Umm, maybe Buzzie Bavasi? Now we're starting to scrape the barrel here. I don't think any of the other old-time GMs are getting in anymore (Gabe Paul, Bob Howsam, Harry Dalton, Bing Devine, et al.) Roland Hemond just received the Buck O'Neil Award, and while he's highly deserving of that, it leads me to strongly believe he's not ever getting in as an executive.

    Jerry Reinsdorf, perhaps, as an owner. I think there's a case to be made for him. Gussie Busch, maybe?

    This is also the category where Bud Selig will get elected. And make no mistake, he's an absolute lock to get elected — look at all those commissioners and league presidents on that list. Just a matter of when and how, and if some iteration of the veterans' committee can do it in time for him to enjoy it before he dies.

    Anyway, no on Beane until he wins a World Series, maybe two. And even then ...
     
  9. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    No Reinsdorf. '94.
     
  10. Versatile

    Versatile Active Member

    You're going to ban him for signing Michael Jordan?

    Fair.
     
  11. Joe Williams

    Joe Williams Well-Known Member

    Cooperstown needn't bother with Reinsdorf. Springfield, Mass., is holding a place for him in the next year or two.

    Great breakdown by buck, with which I agree wholeheartedly.

    Personally, I'm pulling for the three-generations-of-MacPhail card to be played, especially if Andy spends some time as commissioner in the post-Selig era.
     
  12. cyclingwriter

    cyclingwriter Active Member

    How many HOFers had a star of Brad Pitt's magnitude play them in a movie?
     
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