Essay On Moneyball

When people typically view professional athletes they see the lavish lifestyle, they see the big contracts, and figure that they must be set up financially for the rest of their life. This is not the case though as becoming a professional athlete is similar to hitting the lottery just genetically. Being an athlete creates a large amount of income early in life, but that income decreases to zero once retirement comes around. The documentary Broke is a compilation of interviews and incidents that occurred which showcase the poor money management done by professional athletes. Whether the athlete played basketball, baseball, football, or was a boxer it did not matter there were multiple instances where an athlete that made millions in

The new approach helped the Oakland A’s succeed because it was ethical. Billy Beane used numbers to evaluate the players. Numbers matter but can be misleading. By looking closely and understanding what he was doing Billy made good decisions based on numbers. The old approach was unethical because it misjudged the players. In the “old fashion statistics of the players some key important factors were left out. For instance the old statistics did not mention the number of walks a batter earned. This left out information misleads coach’s judgments and resulted in scouts undervaluing players.

Baseball statistics are meant to be a representation of a player’s talent. Since baseball’s inception around the mid-19th century, statistics have been used to interpret the talent level of any given player, however, the statistics that have been traditionally used to define talent are often times misleading. At a fundamental level, baseball, like any game, is about winning. To win games, teams have to score runs; to score runs, players have to get on base any way they can. All the while, the pitcher and the defense are supposed to prevent runs from scoring. As simplistic as this view sounds, the statistics being used to evaluate individual players were extremely flawed. In an attempt to develop more

Imagine a business that was bringing in millions of dollars every year in revenue solely off the employees, and the individuals who are working to bring in the money, do not see a cent of it. This is essentially how college athletes feel at their respective universities. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is seeing $11 billion dollars in revenue come through their doors annually, and not one penny goes back to the student athletes who, in reality, create that money. The money is passed down through the executives, directors and coaches, but none is given to the players. With putting in an average to 43 hours per week, which is more than the average work week, student athletes can be compared to

To pay or not to pay, that is the question. This question, one of disparity, confronts the NCAA all the time today. Football and basketball players generate billions of dollars in revenue for their schools but do not receive any. College athletes cannot be paid because of the “no pay” rules and the “Principle of Amateurism.” The NCAA will not have to deal with as many rule violations and scandals. Plus, the NCAA could still label an amateurism principle without actually crossing the line with professionalism. Because athletes are focusing solely on sports and have no time to do anything else, athletes need money to support themselves. Not only does the school acquire revenue from ticket sales, apparel and sponsorships, but it becomes more

Billy Bean was a young athletic kid that came from a military family. He grew to be six foot four inches at the age of eighteen. Billy was tested for his arm strength, speed, hitting, and fielding in front of major league scouts. Billy was not the suitable runner to the major leagues scouts. They looked at him and thought he too tall and lengthy for an outfielder. “He’s probably real slow,” they would say. Billy did not listen to them, he did not have a care in the world besides performing perfectly in front of the scouts and fans. He was then set to run the 60 yard dash. “Gillick drops his hand. Five born athletes lift up and push off. They’re at full tilt after just a few steps. It’s all over inside of seven seconds. Billy Beane has made all the others look slow,” (Lewis 5). Things are not always what they seem to be. Billy was a tall white kid that is not suppose to beat a sprinter who was already signed to UCLA on a football scholarship as a wide receiver. Scouts ask for a re-run, and yet again Billy kills them. Billy was undervalued as a runner and he proved them wrong by killing everyone in the

Twenty-five million dollars made per year. Over one hundred fifty-four thousand dollars made per game. Over forty-seven thousand dollars earned per at bat. Sounds a little ridiculous, does it not? That is what current Texas Ranger shortstop Alex Rodriguez earns to play the game of baseball (azcentral.com). Baseball is a game that children have been playing in schoolyards and fields for the past one hundred years. It may not be a game anymore. On the Major League level it has become a business. This is where the problem starts.

The memories shared through generations of baseball can be pictured by many, the pickup game of all the neighborhood boys in the vacant lot down the street, the miraculous foul ball landing right in your lap, the classic summer day spent at the ballpark eating hotdogs and singing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” and “Sweet Caroline.” But more recently, these classic memories are being replaced by those of overbearing Little League coaches who need to take a chill pill, boring games that go on for nine extra innings, and overpriced hotdogs that just don’t taste right.

58 percent of people believe that college athletes should get paid to play compared to the 42 percent who think they should not get paid to play (Debate.org). This clashing of whether or not college athletes should get paid to play has been a hot topic throughout the nation for quite some time. Many believe that paying players will not help the players, but will cause more negative energy than positive. Of course all college athletes believe they should be paid because they are looking to make some type of profit for bringing in so much money into the school. Not only are they bringing in money for the school they are also creating a good image for the school and getting the schools name out there. Maybe even interest other young athletes

John Smoltz, a Cy Young Award winner and World Series title holder writes the book starting and closing describing the struggles, “career ending” injuries and hard work that it took over his 14 years in the Major leagues to earn the title of being one of the greatest pitchers to ever step foot on the mound. At 7 years old Smoltz decided that he was going to play baseball in the Major leagues for the Detroit Tigers. In 1985 Smoltz was drafted by his dream team only to be traded to the Atlanta Braves in 1987. In Chapter One Smoltz talks about the kind of person he is and what he had to do to further his career as a major league baseball player after many injuries that should have destroyed his career. The reader of Starting and

Salaries in Baseball are skyrocketing every year. Why would a salary cap be needed? It would be needed to help keep ticket prices down, and help make for a more even level of competition for all of the teams. A salary cap is needed to keep baseball thriving in the future, to keep the game exciting and enjoyable to watch for every fan.

1. Based on the “Billy Beane: Changing the Game” case, explain how and why the Oakland A’s economic situation after 1995 shaped its:

“3 Nights in August Strategy”, by Buzz Bissinger is a story of strategy, heartbreak, and joy inside the mind of a manager. Baseball does not seem as complex as it really is, at first glance it just seems like people hitting a ball and then throwing the ball to any base. Bissinger though, describes the baseball as “complex and layered”. Every inning, score, number of outs, and base runners will determine what play you should make. Many people are unaware of the intensity of strategy used in baseball, so much that Bissinger says that he is still learning despite how long he has been in the scene coaching. The book is split into three sections each describing a game of the Cubs versus Cardinals series.

The A's recent success is attributed to the innovative approach taken by Billy Beane in assembling a baseball team with a very limited amount of financial resources. Billy Beane has built a successful ball club because he has found an efficient and cost effective way of measuring baseball talent thus essentially creating a loophole in this unfair game because winning percentage is a result of talent not

George et al.,(2007) provide the importance of an authentic leadership. A key focus of the article is that the leader should not only understand his values, but practice them as well. One of the most interesting values described by Billy Beane is his value of education. Major League Baseball would recognize him as one of the top high school talents in the country during his youth. He valued education so much, that he informed all Major League Baseball teams that he would not sign any professional contract so that he could attend Stanford. Even upon being convinced to sign with the New York Mets, he made his intentions of taking classes in the off season quite clear. This may have been his undoing as a player, as he did not value where his natural talents could take him in baseball. This would lead him to develop values regarding life decisions. He swore after that sequence of events he would never make a decision based on money ever again. This is a value he has stayed true to, as he turned down the opportunity to be the highest paid