If you believe in karma -- or at least, care about baseball's sense of fairness -- then it's easy to make room in your heart for the A's. In an age where money is eclipsed only by bigger money, the Little Green Engine is chugging along, getting stronger despite a $32 million payroll, succeeding the old-fashioned way, through hard work.
This irresistible franchise draws its strength from Tim Hudson's fastballs and Jason Giambi's bat speed, at least on the field. But it's general manager Billy Beane who's made it possible for the A's, who won 87 games last year, to have grown large enough muscles to finally contend for the AL West title.
Beane likes to say competing against big-market clubs like the Yankees and Indians and Rangers is "like using bows and arrows against smart bombs." But the 38-year-old Beane isn't resentful of the uneven playing field. In fact, he enjoys the challenge.
|  | | Eric Chavez looks ready to blossom in his second year with the A's. |
"We have a junk-yard dog mentality around here -- we have to be meaner and tougher," said Beane, who despite his charisma and movie-star face has, in just three years, earned a reputation for devouring lesser-prepared GMs in trade talks.
Indeed, Beane calls his job, "my obsession as well as my profession." It shows, too. As a former major leaguer -- he was one of the Mets' three first-round draft picks in 1980, along with Darryl Strawberry, and played 148 games in the big leagues -- Beane understands the game at every level, which is why Yankees' GM Brian Cashman says, "If you're going to talk to Billy about a trade, you better know what you're talking about.
"Billy doesn't just know his own organization top to bottom, he knows yours as well," Cashman added. "That's the mark of a general manager who takes his job seriously. I consider him the best GM in this league."
Cashman admits he was boxed in 1998 by Beane, who agreed to be Kenny Rogers' caretaker. The only provision, Beane said, was that the Yankees continue to pay half of Rogers' $5 million salary. Beane eventually traded Rogers to the Mets in 1999 -- and kept the money in the A's coffers.
If it was any consolation, Beane bested the Mets, too, last summer, somehow getting GM Steve Phillips to accept the washed-up Billy Taylor for rapidly developing closer Jason Isringhausen. That was a major coup for Beane, almost as gratifying as Hudson's rookie season in 1999.
But Hudson wasn't about moving chess pieces, just good luck. The right-hander was a No. 6 draft choice out of Auburn in 1997. "The kind of player every team picks in every round, hoping for the best," Beane said. The A's won the lottery, as Hudson went 11-2, including a 6-2 win over Pedro Martinez at Fenway on August 19.
Successful gambles with Isringhausen and Hudson emboldened Beane to take more serious risks with the payroll over the winter -- fattening it by a whopping 50 percent over last season's Opening Day total -- in order to re-sign John Jaha, Omar Olivares and Randy Velarde.
Adding $10 million to the overhead would hardly dent the Yankees or Braves or Dodgers; Beane, however, did so with the knowledge that his cash-poor franchise is already stretched to its limit.
When Beane says, "We don't spend what we don't have," he means the money has to come from somewhere: either increasing the coverage areas of his scouts -- whom Beane confesses are already "terribly overloaded as is it."
Or maybe it means making one less trip to Latin America to scout a player, or less bonus money to offer a first-round draft pick. Forget about plucking big-name players from the free agent buffet table. Those luxuries don't exist for the A's.
"The players we have here are either 22 or 42," Beane said. "No one is in the prime of their careers, because that's the economic reality. And that's why it's the $64,000 question, whether a team with our payroll can actually win it all. We can compete, we proved that last year. But taking it to the next level is the challenge now."
Beane, of course, has his moments of weakness, wonders what's it likes to live in Cashman's universe, or Kevin Malone's in Los Angeles or to be John Schuerholz, ready to hand a check to Alex Rodriguez next winter for ... well, anything.
Oakland's reality is so barren in comparison, Beane says, "I can't even imagine what that's like -- to not have to worry about what something costs, or to know you have the best people working for you because you can afford to pay them. Here, our margin for error is zero. You make the wrong personnel decision, and it could set you back for three years."
But Beane wants this made clear: he's not complaining. Quite the contrary: he recently signed a three-year contract extension with the A's, which means he's not auditioning for a bigger, richer station in life.
For now, Beane will stick to the bows and arrows -- less expensive than the smart bombs, but, as the American League learned in 1999, just as deadly.
Bob Klapisch of the Bergen (N.J.) Record also writes "Baseball in the Big Apple" for ESPN.com. | |
ALSO SEE
Chat wrap: A's GM Billy Beane
AL: A's are for real
|
