Moneyball

by

Michael Lewis

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Billy Beane Character Analysis

The general manager of the Oakland A’s, a Major League Baseball franchise, during the period that Moneyball covers (he remained the general manager beyond the scope of the book, as well). As a younger man, Billy was a promising baseball player in his own right, but he made the mistake of signing a contract to play with the Mets directly out of high school, and then failed to live up to his potential as a professional athlete. As a general manager, Billy tries to use a scientific, statistics-heavy approach to drafting and acquiring ballplayers—in other words, an opposite approach to the talent scouts who assured him that he’d definitely be a great ballplayer. As the most prominent, fleshed-out character in the book, Billy is a mess of contradictions. As general manager, he makes an effort to be cool and rational, but he’s also prone to uncontrollable rages. He insists that coaching and managing can’t change athletes’ identities, and yet he expends millions of dollars and thousands of hours trying to do just that. Most perplexingly, Billy is responsible for initiating a revolution in baseball management, monetizing and economizing the business in ways never before seen—and yet, he seems oddly indifferent to money: when offered a record-breaking contract managing the Red Sox, he turns it down.

Billy Beane Quotes in Moneyball

The Moneyball quotes below are all either spoken by Billy Beane or refer to Billy Beane. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Statistics and Rationality Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

When things did not go well for Billy on the playing field, a wall came down between him and his talent, and he didn’t know any other way to get through the wall than to try to smash a hole in it. It wasn't merely that he didn’t like to fail; it was as if he didn’t know how to fail.
The scouts never considered this. By the end of Billy’s senior year the only question they had about Billy was: Can I get him?

Related Characters: Billy Beane
Page Number: 9
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3 Quotes

"Baseball organizations don't understand that with a certain kind of highly talented player who has trouble with failure, they need to suck it up and let the kid develop," Dorfman said. "You don’t push him along too fast. Take it slow, so his failure is not public exposure and humiliation. Teach him perspective—that baseball matters but it doesn't matter too much. Teach him that what matters isn't whether I just struck out. What matters is that I behave impeccably when I compete. The guy believes in his talent. What he doesn't believe in is himself. He sees himself exclusively in his statistics. If his stats are bad, he has zero self-worth. He's never developed a coping mechanism because he's never had anything to cope with."

Related Characters: Harvey Dorfman (speaker), Billy Beane
Page Number: 53-54
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

The A’s front office realized right away, of course, that they couldn't replace Jason Giambi with another first baseman just like him. There wasn't another first baseman just like him and if there were they couldn't have afforded him and in any case that’s not how they thought about the holes they had to fill. The important thing is not to recreate the individual," Billy Beane would later say. "The important thing is to recreate the aggregate.”

Related Characters: Billy Beane (speaker), Jason Giambi
Page Number: 141
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

Billy Beane wanted him to hit. Hatteberg told his agent to cut a deal with Oakland: one year with a club option for a second with a base salary of $950,000 plus a few incentive clauses. The moment he signed it, a few days after Christmas, he had a call from Billy Beane, who said how pleased he was to have him in the lineup.
And, oh yes, he'd be playing first base.

Related Characters: Billy Beane, Scott Hatteberg
Page Number: 163
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

The moment he hangs up he calls Mark Shapiro, current owner of Ricardo Rincon, and tells him that he has the impression that the market for Rincon is softening. Whoever the other bidder is, he says, Shapiro ought to make sure his offer is firm.

Related Characters: Billy Beane, Mark Shapiro
Page Number: 195
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

This was the character whose behavior was consistent with the way he said he wanted to run his baseball team: rationally. Scientifically. This was the "objective" Billy Beane, the general manager who was certain that "you don't change guys; they are who they are." Who will describe his job as "a soap box derby. You build the car in the beginning of the year and after that all you do is push it down the hill." To this Billy Beane's way of thinking there was no point in meddling with the science experiment … But there is another, less objective Billy Beane … And he allows me to see that the science experiment is messier than the chief scientist usually is willing to admit.

Related Characters: Billy Beane (speaker)
Page Number: 249
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

Coaches, players, reporters: everyone at once starts to worry that the Oakland A’s don't bunt or run. Especially run. Billy Beane's total lack of interest in the stolen base—which has served the team so well for the previous 162 games—is regarded, in the postseason, as sheer folly. Even people who don't run very fast start saying that "you need to make things happen" in the postseason. Take the action to your opponent. "The atavistic need to run," Billy Beane calls it.

Related Characters: Billy Beane (speaker)
Page Number: 269-270
Explanation and Analysis:

"I made one decision based on money in my life—when I signed with the Mets rather than go to Stanford—and I promised I'd never do it again." After that, Billy confined himself to the usual blather about personal reasons. None of what he said was terribly rational or "objective"—but then, neither was he. Within a week, he was back to scheming how to get the Oakland A’s back to the playoffs, and Paul DePodesta was back to being on his side.

Related Characters: Billy Beane (speaker), Paul DePodesta
Related Symbols: The 2002 Playoffs
Page Number: 280
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Moneyball LitChart as a printable PDF.
Moneyball PDF

Billy Beane Quotes in Moneyball

The Moneyball quotes below are all either spoken by Billy Beane or refer to Billy Beane. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Statistics and Rationality Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

When things did not go well for Billy on the playing field, a wall came down between him and his talent, and he didn’t know any other way to get through the wall than to try to smash a hole in it. It wasn't merely that he didn’t like to fail; it was as if he didn’t know how to fail.
The scouts never considered this. By the end of Billy’s senior year the only question they had about Billy was: Can I get him?

Related Characters: Billy Beane
Page Number: 9
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3 Quotes

"Baseball organizations don't understand that with a certain kind of highly talented player who has trouble with failure, they need to suck it up and let the kid develop," Dorfman said. "You don’t push him along too fast. Take it slow, so his failure is not public exposure and humiliation. Teach him perspective—that baseball matters but it doesn't matter too much. Teach him that what matters isn't whether I just struck out. What matters is that I behave impeccably when I compete. The guy believes in his talent. What he doesn't believe in is himself. He sees himself exclusively in his statistics. If his stats are bad, he has zero self-worth. He's never developed a coping mechanism because he's never had anything to cope with."

Related Characters: Harvey Dorfman (speaker), Billy Beane
Page Number: 53-54
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

The A’s front office realized right away, of course, that they couldn't replace Jason Giambi with another first baseman just like him. There wasn't another first baseman just like him and if there were they couldn't have afforded him and in any case that’s not how they thought about the holes they had to fill. The important thing is not to recreate the individual," Billy Beane would later say. "The important thing is to recreate the aggregate.”

Related Characters: Billy Beane (speaker), Jason Giambi
Page Number: 141
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

Billy Beane wanted him to hit. Hatteberg told his agent to cut a deal with Oakland: one year with a club option for a second with a base salary of $950,000 plus a few incentive clauses. The moment he signed it, a few days after Christmas, he had a call from Billy Beane, who said how pleased he was to have him in the lineup.
And, oh yes, he'd be playing first base.

Related Characters: Billy Beane, Scott Hatteberg
Page Number: 163
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

The moment he hangs up he calls Mark Shapiro, current owner of Ricardo Rincon, and tells him that he has the impression that the market for Rincon is softening. Whoever the other bidder is, he says, Shapiro ought to make sure his offer is firm.

Related Characters: Billy Beane, Mark Shapiro
Page Number: 195
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

This was the character whose behavior was consistent with the way he said he wanted to run his baseball team: rationally. Scientifically. This was the "objective" Billy Beane, the general manager who was certain that "you don't change guys; they are who they are." Who will describe his job as "a soap box derby. You build the car in the beginning of the year and after that all you do is push it down the hill." To this Billy Beane's way of thinking there was no point in meddling with the science experiment … But there is another, less objective Billy Beane … And he allows me to see that the science experiment is messier than the chief scientist usually is willing to admit.

Related Characters: Billy Beane (speaker)
Page Number: 249
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

Coaches, players, reporters: everyone at once starts to worry that the Oakland A’s don't bunt or run. Especially run. Billy Beane's total lack of interest in the stolen base—which has served the team so well for the previous 162 games—is regarded, in the postseason, as sheer folly. Even people who don't run very fast start saying that "you need to make things happen" in the postseason. Take the action to your opponent. "The atavistic need to run," Billy Beane calls it.

Related Characters: Billy Beane (speaker)
Page Number: 269-270
Explanation and Analysis:

"I made one decision based on money in my life—when I signed with the Mets rather than go to Stanford—and I promised I'd never do it again." After that, Billy confined himself to the usual blather about personal reasons. None of what he said was terribly rational or "objective"—but then, neither was he. Within a week, he was back to scheming how to get the Oakland A’s back to the playoffs, and Paul DePodesta was back to being on his side.

Related Characters: Billy Beane (speaker), Paul DePodesta
Related Symbols: The 2002 Playoffs
Page Number: 280
Explanation and Analysis: