Front Office Executive and Former American Professional Baseball Player

Billy Beane | Biography

Executive vice president of baseball operations for the Oakland Athletics

• By Ojasbi
• Update : November 28, 2021

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Billy Beane is the current front office executive and a former American professional baseball player.

Who Is Billy Beane?

Billy Beane, full name William Lamar Beane III, is a former professional baseball player who left the ground because of his underwhelming game performances. He has spent over three decades of his career with Oakland Athletics. 

Beane presently functions as a front office executive in the sporting industry. He initially started as a scout then, eventually elevating to the position of assistant GM to GM to the minor owner of the baseball team, and finally the executive vice president of baseball operations.

Early Life and Education

Billy Beane was born William Lamar Beane III on 29 March 1962, in Orlando, Florida, United States. However, he was raised in a military family in Mayport, Florida, and San Diego, California. 

Beane is an alumnus of Mt. Carmel High School in San Diego, where he excelled in varied sports, including baseball, football, and basketball. However, during his final high school year, he redirected his concentration towards baseball and received a lot of scouts’ interest because of his game performances. 

Career

Beane began his career in sports as a professional baseball player before playing a crucial part in the industry’s behind-the-scenes operations, specifically front office executive.

Furthermore, Beane was on the board of directors of cloud computing startup NetSuite from 2007 to 2016. The startup got acquired by Oracle for approximately $9.3 billion in 2016.

Baseball Career & Stats

Beane signed a $125,000 signing bonus with the New York Mets during the starting phase of his baseball career. He initially intended to attend Stanford University; however, he stood by his decision to play professional baseball because of the economic benefits it held. 

Beane was moved to the Minnesota Twins after a few professional games with the Mets. Unfortunately, his performance fell short of expectations; he was subsequently transferred to the Detroit Tigers in 1988. After six games with the Tigers, he became a free agent, meaning eligible to sign with other teams, and he joined hands with the Oakland Athletics after that. Later, he was demoted to the minor leagues at the end of the 1990 season.

Fed up with the setbacks in his career as a baseball player, he decided to become a scout instead.

Front Office Career

From 1990 through 1993, Beane worked as an advance scout for the Oakland Athletics (A’s) before being promoted to assistant general manager. Beane was in charge of scouting players in the minor leagues as an assistant GM. Eventually, he became the General Manager for the A’s on 17 October 1997, after demonstrating tremendous success in his tasks. 

Beane maintained the heritage of turning the Athletics into one of baseball’s most cost-effective clubs as a GM. Under his management, the Athletics were the first club in American League baseball history to win 20 games in a row in 2002. Following the 2002 season, The Boston Red Sox had offered Beane a sum of $12.5 million to become their general manager, but he outright denied the offer.

Meanwhile, on 15 April 2005, he was given a contract extension to stay with Athletics as their general manager through 2012, and the team’s then-owner, Lewis Wolff, even gave Beane a minor share of the team’s ownership. As a result, Beane’s contract with the Athletics was renewed until 2019 in February 2012. Eventually, on 5 October 2015, Beane was announced the executive vice president of baseball operations for the A’s, and David Forst was promoted to general manager.

‘Moneyball’

Beane was the centerpiece of author Michael Lewis’s best-selling book ‘Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game’ in 2003. The Oakland Athletics’ success inspired it despite their low payroll. Beane’s approach as GM of the Athletics was detailed in the book by the author, including how he and Harvard-educated statistician Paul DePodesta applied sabermetric principles to operate their club economically. 

In addition, Brad Pitt portrayed him in the 2011 sports drama Moneyball. The movie also starred actor Jonah Hill in the role of Peter Brand.

Wife & Daughter

Beane has been married two times. He was first married to his ex-wife, Cathy Sturdivant. He shares a daughter named Casey with Sturdivant. 

Beane is currently married to his wife, Tara Beane, with whom he shares the twin daughters, Brayden and Tinsley.

Net Worth & Salary

According to Celebrity Net Worth, fulfilling the role of an American baseball General Manager, Beane amassed a net worth of $20million and an annual salary of $3 million as of November 2021. He has amassed a sizeable net worth owing to his career as a professional baseball player and a manager.

Real Estate

Beane paid $1.735 million for a property in Danville, California, in 2002. He and his wife were said to be offering this house for $1.895 million in 2013.